This year my several years old double blue pea vine really took a winter beating. There was some life in the stem but I had oddles of seedlings popping up so I decided to pull the old woody stem and start with a fresh new plant. Big mistake! Those new seedlings are so tender and tasty to a mystery critter(s). I've surrounded the seedlings with eggshells and a protective tube of hardware cloth. One 10" stem began to twine into the hardware cloth so I removed it. This AM I did my walk-about and found that all I now have is a stem...no leaves! “ARRRGH”

So it's the beginning of August and there is no vine even close to wrapping a lowly tendril onto a trellis rung. There are more seedlings emerging so I'll keep trying. However I also plan to keep an eye open at the garden centers for some type of more mature vine, hoping it might be too "tough" for little teeth (or whatever) to gnaw.

On the bright side, this does give me a reason to try a different vine (although I was rather fond of the pea vine as the original seeds came from a fellow gardener in Taiwan).

June