Mandevilla Diamantina Agate Mini Strawberry Red

The Dipladenia or Mandevilla Diamantina Agate Mini Strawberry Red is a compact climbing plant that requires support for its twining stems to wrap around. This variety has giant, 10 to 11 cm diameter flowers, in a strawberry red, slightly tinged with pink and with an orange centre blooming on dark foliage from May until the first frost. This plant is generous but cold-sensitive and will easily survive the winter behind a bay window, in a bright conservatory, or in a lightly heated greenhouse.

Mandevillas, named in honour of diplomat and gardener Henry Mandeville, are fast-growing climbing plants that are mostly native to the tropical forests of Serra de Orgaos, near Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. These tropical plants thrive at high altitudes and flourish in temperate, frost-free climates, in semi-shade or filtered light in summer. In the 1970s, Robert Lannes, a French horticulturist based in Tarn-et-Garonne, was the first to take an interest in hybridising these plants with immense potential. Years of research and selection led to the development of particularly floriferous, more compact varieties, with a variety of colours, easy to cultivate for amateur gardeners.

The Diamantina series, derived from Mandevilla sanderi, produces compact plants that are well-suited for pot cultivation and stand out with a wide range of colours, even offering some unprecedented shades such as the white with a yellow-orange centre of Jade White.

Mandevilla Agate Mini Strawberry Red stands out with particularly large flowers on a compact climbing plant. Its short, woody twining stems require support. It can rapidly reach up to 60 cm in all directions. Its beautiful, large flowers are 10 to 11 cm in diameter and consist of 5 large, pinkish-red lobes that overlap like the blades of a propeller. They are grouped in small clusters that bloom continuously from May until the frost. The evergreen and leathery foliage consists of small, entire, dark green leaves, arranged in an opposite pattern. The thick and leathery, oval to elliptical leaf has a shiny upper surface. This plant has fine roots and large tuberous roots, storage organs that contain starch and water, allowing the plant to withstand drought quite well.

Dipladenias or Mandevillas are prized for decorating terraces, balconies, patios, pergolas and trellises and lend themselves to a variety of settings, depending on their habit and compactness, planted alone or with other colours. The Agate Mini Strawberry Red variety develops its twining stems on a climbing support, stands out for its heat resistance, and ideally finds its place in large flower pots, which its impressive flowers illuminate, as a centrepiece or in troughs, even in the direct sun of a terrace or balcony. It harmonises perfectly in contrast with Ceratostigma plumbaginoides, or 'Diamond Frost' Euphorbia with white flowers or a foliage plant like 'Silver Falls' Dichondra. It is only recommended for cultivation in open ground in frost-protected areas, like the south of the Atlantic coast or regions where orange trees grow, along the Mediterranean coast.