Having looked in my 'library' the earliest reference is in one of grandad's books (1898) - A hardy evergreen creeper, with stalked, alternate, entire, sub-coriaceous leaves, adhering to walls etc, like ivy. It goes on to say that it is an excellent plant for covering walls.
Another reference to E volubilis is in a book I got from a remaindered book shop called Botanica (the book, not the shop) :-
"This vigorous species from the Andes grows to a height of 30 ft. With age, it bears numerous spikes of green to purple flowers in spring, followed by purple berries."
The other reference I have is in the RHS A-Z Encyclopaedia of Garden Plants.
In all articles the word 'vigorous' is used. I think you are going to have your work cut out to keep something 6 ft tall, that has the potential of growing to 30ft. Also the reference to 'with age' it bears ............ flowers. My interpretation of that would be that you would have to let it have 'free reign'. To keep it consigned to a small pot would mean that it would not put on adequate growth to produce flowers.
Sorry to be so negative, but I think it may be 'back to the drawing board'.
Having given it some serious thought, I can't come up with an alternative.
valmarg
It sounds a lovely plant, from the articles,
