Petrea Volubilis (Sandpaper vine).
This exotic tropical vine belongs to the family of VERBENACEAE and its real name is Petrea Volubilis. It is commonly known as a Sandpaper Vine, but also sometimes called Purple wreath or Queen’s wreath. The leaves of this plant produce a rough, crinkly sound when scratched. Also, the upper surface of the leaves is rough, dry, and coarse; This is the reason why this vine is named as sandpaper vine.
This vine is a perennial plant that yields violet, whitish purple, or sometimes even blue coloured flowers which resemble the shape of a star. The hanging violet flowers of this plant resemble a Japanese Wisteria Vine, so some people even consider it to be related to Wisteria. The flowers are not fragrant, yet if added to your garden, this vine will most definitely become the main attraction.
You can expect your vine to start to bloom from early summer and it will keep on rewarding you with abundant flowers until the arrival of the winters. During winters the plant tend to become dormant, but that won’t cause any internal harm to the plant. In fact, during winters, you’ll hardly notice any growth in the vine but that’s all for a short span of time. The vine will grow back fully and wonderfully as the spring season arrives. Petrea volubilis prefers a constant warm, tropical climate, and a sudden cold and hot spell can also make it to become temporary dormant with little to no growth. The same applies to recently replanted petrea. During the dormant period you could take the opportunity to remove dead, unsightly or damaged growth, but don’t prune the plant back.
Here are the growing conditions of this plant:
Sunlight:
Like any other flowering vine, the Petrea Volubilis vine requires full sunlight to bloom clusters of flowers. However, the plant can bear semi-shaded sunlight too, but you must not keep the plant in full shade. Overall, your vine will grow well if it receives direct sunlight from 5–6 hours.
Watering:
The plant needs water only when its soil becomes dry and hard. In fact, it can bear drought conditions to some extent, but that doesn’t mean that you’ll not water it for several days.
Feeding Requirements:
Compost and manure are the favourite diets of this vine. In summers, you must add organic compost and pelleted manure such as Eco Pellets to the soil of this plant and this should be done once a month. The plant could also benefit from a handful of bone meal. You can skip this in winters because then, the plant is in its resting state.
Pest and Disease:
This vine is highly pest resistant and you will barely need to make use of any pesticide or insecticide. Seems like the rough surface of the leaves do not fascinate the pests. However, honey bees, Hummingbirds and butterflies love the flowers of this vine and so they’ll often visit your garden in summers.
