For those of you who grow this one how do you use it? As a vine or shrub? I was given one 2 years ago and I am embarrassed to say it is still in it's gallon sized pot so it hasn't grown much. At this point I am not sure where to put it so I would love some ideas on how you grow it.

We have it at the Botanical Garden as a vining shrub against a wall. I love it, you should give it some room to grow.

THanks Heetty, No walls or fences here and, in this buggy climate, I don't grow anything against the house. Do you think it would work on a trellis or maybe I can just let it ramble?

I would let it ramble, you can always keep it trimmed.

I hope it grows well enough so that I have to keep it in check; everyone said it would not be hardy here at the very top of 9a.

It might not be.... you need to probably plan to protect it in the winter.

It has been outside on its own for two of the coldest winters in history. Never even lost a leaf and we certainly lost of lot of plants that had been hardy here for years. It has not grown much though and whether that was due to the climate or my lack of TLC - who knows. I have been sort of ambivalent about it since I didn't know where to put it.

It was probably because it was still in a pot. Once in the ground you can always protect the rootzone with plenty of mulch in case of a chilly night.

B. galpinii is more of an arching shrub, and not really a vine. In the ground it will take off and actually become a fairly large multi-stemmed shrub or small tree. I was not really impressed with mine until I put it in the ground and let it go - then it went crazy and bloomed like mad! I'm in zone 9b, and it did fine for me, not sure how it'd do in zone 9a.

I am embarrassed to say I did plant the bauhinia but in a spot where it did not get enough water from irrigation. Today is the first day in almost a month we are getting rain to really give the soil a good soaking. The Bauhinia looks dead but I am hoping it will come back from the roots. They do well here in zone 9a for fellow gardeners who are better plant parents.

Never could get this to bloom for me in north Tx. (In a container in z 8). Beautiful foliage however. I also tried it in a pot for a couple of years in SoCal, but couldn't get it to bloom there either.