Mandevilla sanderi Diamantina Jade XXL Red

Dipladenia or Mandevilla Diamantina Jade XXL Red is a very compact, bushy climbing plant that does not exceed 50 cm high, but willingly wraps its voluble stems. As its name suggests, this variety has larger flowers than those of the Jade series, measuring 7 to 9 cm in diameter instead of 5 cm, and a superb red colour. They bloom on dark foliage from May until the first frost. This plant is generous but sensitive to cold and will easily survive the winter behind a bay window, in a bright conservatory, or in a lightly heated greenhouse.

Mandevilla, named in honour of the diplomat and gardener Henry Mandeville, are fast-growing climbing plants, mostly native to the tropical forests of the Serra de Orgaos, near Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. These tropical plants grow at high altitudes and thrive 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 have resulted in particularly floriferous, more compact varieties, with a variety of colours, easy to grow for amateur gardeners.

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

Diamantina Jade XXL Red stands out for its particularly large flowers, but has the same bushy and compact habit that characterises plants in this series. Its short, woody, twining stems easily wrap around a small support provided, but can also do without support. It will rapidly reach an average size of 40 cm in all directions. Its beautiful, large, 7 to 9 cm in diameter flowers, are composed of 5 large blood-red lobes that overlap like the blades of a propeller. They are grouped in small clusters and bloom continuously from May to frost. The evergreen and leathery foliage consists of small, entire, dark green leaves, arranged oppositely. The thick and leathery, oval to elliptical leaf, has a shiny upper surface. This plant has fine roots and large tuberous roots, true 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, alone or combined with other colours. The Diamantina Jade XXL Red variety stands out for its heat resistance and will ideally be planted in large flower pots, which its impressive flowers illuminate, as a centrepiece or in troughs, even in the direct sun on a terrace or balcony. It can be paired with Ceratostigma plumbaginoides, or Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost' with white flowers or a foliage plant like Dichondra 'Silver Falls'. Planting in the ground is only recommended in frost-protected areas like the south of the Atlantic coast or in regions where orange trees grow, along the Mediterranean coast.