July 23, 2006
A Variety of Vines for All Your Needs
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When we first moved into our current house, there was a huge viney plant growing on the eastern side of the fence. It was springtime, so we didn’t really know what it was. We did know that it was out of control, growing through the fence and in need of serious pruning.
A few months later the brilliant orange flowers started to appear and we realized we had a trumpet vine on our hands. These wonderful climbers produce beautiful flowers throughout the summer and are great additions to the sunny garden through most of the country. Unfortunately, our trumpet vine had been allowed to grow out of control and we had to severely cut it back when we replaced the fence.
This is a good lesson about vines: when you plant them, don’t just let them go. Vines get a bad reputation because they always seem to be places people don’t want them. Consider kudzu. If you’re not from the south you might not know that kudzu is this amazingly prolific vine that can’t be called anything but a weed. It’s an invasive species imported from Asia, and when it gets going in the summer it can swallow trees, signs, cars, barns, houses, or just about anything that’s sitting still long enough to be grown over. Even when you plant a vine on purpose, it’s pretty easy for it to get out of control.
That’s why it’s advised that you don’t plant ivy too close to your house. Ivy makes a great ground cover and is very pretty, but if it starts climbing the walls of your home you could be in trouble. If there is any wood on the outside of your home the ivy can damage it, and if you have bricks and ever decide you want to remove the ivy, it is possible you could damage the mortar between the bricks while pulling the tendrils out.
Vines In Your Landscape
Despite a few uncontrolled bad apples in the vine world, there are a lot of great reasons to use vines in your landscape. Vines are a wonderful way to add height that is quick growing, unlike trees, which can take decades to give you shade. An arbor planted with American wisteria or clematis can give you a nice shady spot without a lot of work, and you’ll also get pretty fragrant blooms to enjoy.
Morning glories are sweet little vines with adorable flowers that come in a range of colors, though blue is the classic. Plant a morning glory to trail up your mailbox pole, streetlight or anything else you want to make a little prettier. If you have a chain-link fence, a row of morning glories trained on the fence will make it a lot nicer looking.
That trumpet vine also would have been a good choice for a mailbox or light pole. I know from experience that they can grow quite tall and are prolific bloomers. If you have a wall or a fence that you don’t mind seeing swallowed up, trumpet vine is a fun, colorful choice.
Clematis comes in all sorts of colors and is another good climber. Use clematis in places where the roots can be shaded but the plant itself is in sun, such as under an arbor or trellis. Clematis can be a little tricky because some plants bloom on old growth while some bloom on new growth. It’s important to know which kind of plant you have so that you know when to prune.
Maintain Your Vines
Speaking of pruning, the most important maintenance job you can do for your vines is to prune them regularly. Pruning can seem like a waste because you are cutting off perfectly good growth, but it allows the plant to focus on what growth is already there and makes the plant stronger. Besides, if your plant is growing toward something you don’t want it to climb on, the only thing for it is to trim it away.
Pruning is necessary to get rid of dead growth, remove tangled stems, limit the growth of your plant and keep it healthy. It’s not really good for the vines to be allowed to ramble completely freely. You’ll be much happier with the vine, too, if you rein it in a little and only allow it to grow where you want it to grow. Vines are certainly worth that little bit of effort for all the easy beauty they provide.
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