@ninnymary , yes they can get quite big but mine has taken some severe pruning without harm. My main one is still growing on the fence intertwined with English ivy.
I was on a garden tour many years ago when I saw it for the first time. We entered this one particular garden, the front was a mass of candelabra primulas in full bloom, I must have stood there for a good 10 minutes just drinking it in, I heard my daughter calling to me, mom, mom, come quick, I grudgingly trudged along along the side of the house, stopping a couple of times to take a last look at the beautiful sight I had just seen.
Well, what can I say I was gob smacked, here almost covering the side of a two story house was this beautiful pink/white/green leaved vine, had no idea what it was and there was no-one there who could tell me
. To top it all off turning around there was a little cottage on the back of the property covered in a climbing hydrangea, it was spellbinding.
On the way home we stopped in at Dinter's, my favorite nursery here on the island. "Mr. Dinter, (I explained this pink leafed vine to him) can you tell me what this vine is and can you get me one", he told me what it was and yes he would bring one in for me, he also brought the female version in for me too, of course I had to have one of those too once he told me about it and they had edible fruit. This was 25-30 years ago, my vine is old but still hanging in, I have taken many cutting from it to share with others and I have started another for myself hoping it will cover one of the lattice walls of my little garden room. One more thing, they do need some kind of support, they don't cling. The female vine took years before it produced fruit for us, when it finally did the birds beat us to it. For some reason they've been leaving the fruit alone these last few years so we finally get to eat it ourselves.
Annette
