Color in Jericho, New York.

If you have this in a planter, and bring it inside for the winter, will it continue to grow and blossom? I live in zone 7. I am assuming this plant will not survive the winter outside. Am I correct? Jean F. Huntington NY

BEST ANSWER: This plant will not survive outdoors in the winter when temperatures in any zone north of zone 9. When night temperatures are consistently in the 50's, you should cut back your Mandevilla and bring it indoors. If you have a bright window with lots of sunshine, you can treat it as a houseplant and keep it going over the winter. It may go dormant anyway and lose its leaves, in which case you will need to cut back on watering to maybe once a month and do not fertilize it over winter. Alternately, you can place it in a cool, but not freezing place (basement, crawl space, garage - any place with temperatures between 55 and 60 degrees) and bring it out to start growing again when there is no more danger of frost and nights are in the 60's. It will probably lose any growth it made over the winter, but worry - just start watering and feeding it again and it will revive and grow to be even fuller than the year before.