Rubber Vine Cryptostegia grandiflora 20 Seeds USA Company

The Rubber Vine is a woody climbing shrub with glossy, dark green leaves and lavender-pink, bell-shaped flowers. It is cultivated in warm regions for its abundant flowers and for its evergreen leaves. It is a scrambling, many-stemmed vine that grows to 6 feet tall with long trailing stems. Flowers are large and showy, with five white to light purple petals in a funnel shape. The flowers resemble those of the purple Allamanda (Allamanda violacea). The Rubber Vine originates from Madagascar and was formerly grown there and later in India to produce a rubber latex. Leaves are dark green and glossy, 6-10 cm long, 3-5 cm wide and in opposite pairs, oblong-ovate to elliptic-ovate. The growth form of rubber vine differs depending on the surrounding conditions. It can grow as a free-standing shrub up to 6 feet tall in the open and it can grow as a large vine with long stems on other vegetation. The stems can be up to 100 feet long. Each flower produces a pair of pods which contain a number of brown seeds which have a tuft of white, silky hairs. The Rubber Vine is poisonous. It is not shipped to Australia. Zones 9-11.

Growing Instructions

The seeds can be sown on the ground in the spring or summer or they can be grown in pots at any time of the year.

1. The seeds like moist, well-drained soil. Prepare a mixture of half potting soil and half sand, perlite or vermiculite. Put the soil in a pot. Water the mixture so that it is moist but not wet.
2. Put the seeds on the soil.
3. Cover the seeds with a thin layer of soil.
4. Water the seeds.
5. Place the pots in an area with warm temperatures in full sun or part shade.
6. When the seedlings are a few inches tall, they can be transplanted.