Rangoon Vine Creeper - success!!

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I bought my Rangoon Vine Creeper because I thought I could use it to twine about the balcony’s railing, and it would give flowers with scent (soon, I thought). But alas! The vine didn’t seem to like the sun and I soon had to put it in the shady part of the balcony, far from the railing. I was even more dissppointed when I finally looked it up and read it took 5 years to flower. FIVE years!! I didn’t even know if in five years I would still be in Houston!! Over the past 2 years or so, there it has remained, remarkably hardy for what I assume is a tropical plant, it drops its leaves in the cold and shoots them off again as soon as it warms up. All you have to do is water it to keep it alive, even when it looks like its dead.

Last year, however, a colleague told me on Facebook that if I fed it regularly and a lot, it should bloom sooner than 5 years. I decided to try it and voila! Yesterday evening I was amzed to see that it had buds!!

And this morning the first flower opened:

When I first saw it it was white, and I was a bit puzzled – the description of the plant in my books said it was pink. I headed off to exercise in the park and when I came back, I was surprised and pleased to see that it was slowly turning pink! No way! So here it is, the Rangoon Vine Creeper, winner of the 2011 award for toughest tropical plant!: