Blog: Sausage Vine at Sherman Library & Gardens

If I told you to smell the flower of a plant named sausage vine you would probably give me a concerned glance.

Fortunately the plant gets its common name not from the flower, but from the fruit which ripens into a pink sausage-like fruit in summer. The flower which precedes this strange looking fruit blooms in late winter. Numerous clusters of small white buds open into delicate mauve flowers releasing a beautiful fragrance.

Sausage vine, Holboellia coriacea 'Cathedral Gem', is native to Asia but this particular cultivar 'Cathedral Gem' is grown by Monrovia. This vining evergreen plant thrive in full sun to part shade and grows well in consistently moist soil.

Our sausage vine grows amongst our Begonia collection on a trellis. It is in full bloom now. Come by and treat your senses to this fragrant flower. Check in again this summer to see the funky sausage fruit develop.