Vines are remarkable plants that can serve for many useful landscaping purposes. It does not matter how big or small your garden is. Including vines can only help improve your garden and add another layer of interest.
Vines can offer unique vertical accents to the garden and become focal points or draw attention to a feature. They can also help smooth out less pleasant architectural lines, as well as soften the roughness of hardscaping.
Cold Resisitant – Wisteria
As scented as it is colorful, wisteria is an excellent choice for large trees, pergolas or balconies. This classic beauty can also be trained in a tree shape, where its abundant harvest of white, purple, or lilac flowers can be easily enjoyed.
The key to success with wisteria is to plant it right. New, cold-resistant varieties are now available that will flourish safely to the north of Zone 5. Like the trumpet, wisteria is a heavy, woody vine that need supersonic supports to keep the vine from falling; plants can grow 30 meters in height. Avoid fertilizing the vines to ensure flowering and prevent them from growing out of control.
The Classic – Roses climbing
The acrobats of the world of roses, varieties of climbing, develop long reeds well adapted to training on pillars, fences, mandrels, and gazebos. Most climbing roses are mutations or variations of shrub-like varieties. Climbers can blossom once a season or continuously, depending on the variety.
Regular deadheading of flowers can help encourage the solid flowers in your climbing roses. If you decide to prune your plants in the winter before the initial flowering, you can increase the number of flowers that you receive later.
Love The Hot – Passion Vine
Befriend of the butterflies, including the passion vine in your garden. Species of butterflies such as the Gulf fritillaria and Zebra’s longwing use this incredible plant as host and food plant, while other species feed on the nectar-rich flowers.
The passion vine is a joy to the gardeners as well. The fast-growing vines develop white flowers with a purple crown and yellow center. Passion vine loves hot weather and thrives in the sun or partial shade. These beauties can grow from 6 to 8 feet in height and are ideal for large pots and planters. Just be sure to provide some kind of support for the shuffling plants. Perennial in nature, the passion vine is best treated as annuals in the far north.
The passion vine should receive deep watering immediately after planting. Passionflowers thrive with one or two deep watering per week throughout the growing season, providing about 1 to 1 1/2 inches of water each week without rain. The flower of passion benefits from occasional light watering in dry climates.
Edible – Nasturtium climbing
These sun-worshiping yearbooks have large, easy-to-handle seeds that children can easily pound on the floor. Small seedlings turn into showy plants with showy round leaves and edible yellow, orange, peach-colored or red edible flowers (they taste spicy!).
The climbing capuchin, Tropaeolum majus, grows from 4 to 6 feet high and grabs quickly on a low or trellis fence. You may have to help them get tying them with string, but eventually, you will be rewarded with a jewel-tone flower wall. Climbing sores are not picky on the soil type and will bloom non-stop until the first frost.
Grows Quickly – Morning Glory
Morning Glories are annual mountaineers with thin stems, heart-shaped leaves, and pink, purple-blue, magenta, or white trumpet flowers. They have beautiful flowers that open in the sun and romantic tentacles that lend charm to the old fashioned way.
Train morning glories over a pergola or bow, or use as a dense ground cover. The vine quickly grows up to 15 feet in one season and can self-fertilize easily as well. So choose where you place this plant wisely!
Apply a balanced liquid fertilizer after planting. Do not overfertilize, or the vine may grow more foliage than flowers.
Support mountaineers and trawlers with structures such as trellises, pergolas, or arches. Morning glories are low maintenance; just make sure to water during periods of drought. If you do not want the plant to grow again, be sure to cut old flowers before they turn into seeds.
Pop Art Vibe – Black-Eyed Susan Vine
The Black-eyed Susan (Thunbergia alata) vine is a frequent sight in hanging baskets in the garden center. This vine is as easy to care for as it is lovely. The flowers have an almost pop-art appearance, with a solid center surrounded by a ring of light-colored petals. The flowers look like a daisy in the distance, but they are tubular.
Five overlapping petals surround a central purple-brown tube, disguised as a central disk. Look at the flower aside, and you will see how the center tapers down. The medium green leaves are somewhat coarse and grow opposite each other.
They can be heart-shaped or a kind of arrow-headed shape. This plant rises intertwining supporting structures instead of clinging to tendrils. Although vines do not like sitting on damp soil, they also do not like to stay warm and dry.
Try to keep them moderately moist. The covering around the base of the plants will keep the roots fresh and moist without fear of rotting. Black-eyed Susan vines grow quickly and repeatedly bloom during the summer. That means they will be hungry and will need a light feed every four to six weeks with a complete fertilizer to keep them stronger.
Discipline One – Clematis
Available in a spectacular variety of colors and shapes (double and single flowers), clematis will quickly climb and go over a fence, mailbox or arbor. What is good about clematis is that they do not grow out of control, with a refined growth habit of 6 to 10 feet in length; There is also dwarf clematis that grows only 3 feet high and is fantastic for containers.
Clematis are easy to grow if you can meet your needs. There is an old saying that clematis as their “heads in the sun and their feet in the shade.” This means that you should plant them in full sun, but apply a thick layer of covering around them to keep your roots fresh and shaded.
Some clematis bloom on new wood, so it is better to prune them in the spring after new growth has begun; That way, you do not accidentally remove flower buds, no matter what kind of clematis you have. Once established, the care of clematis vines is minimal, except watering. They should be watered about an inch or more a week, and more deeply during periods of drought. Straw should be replenished every spring. Also, be aware of common problems that affect these plants.
Keep It Green – Carolina Jessamine
With stems that can exceed 20 feet in length, Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens) climbs over anything that can twist its rod around. Plant it on trellises and mandrels, along fences or under trees with loose covers. The glossy leaves remain green all year round, providing dense cover for the support structure.
The Carolina jessamine vines are covered with bunches of yellow and fragrant flowers in late winter and spring. The flowers are followed by seed capsules that mature slowly during the rest of the season. If you want to collect some seeds to start new plants, choose the capsules in the fall after the seeds have turned brown.
Air dry them for three or four days and then remove the seeds. They are easy to start indoors in late winter or outdoors in late spring when the soil is completely warm.
Fertilize the vines annually in the spring. You can use a general-purpose commercial fertilizer, but the best fertilizer for Carolina jessamine plants is a 2 to 3-inch compound layer, foil mold or aged manure.
Smells Good – Madagascar Jasmine
Every spring, the rich fragrance of Madagascar jasmine perfumes the air throughout the deep south. This beautiful evergreen vine has dark green and leathery leaves that are covered with bunches of perfumed white flowers with a trumpet aroma.
Madagascar jasmine, Stephanotis floribunda, thrives in partial shade and easily wraps trellises, mandrels, and fences. In the north, you can often purchase this easily maintained vine as a patio plant that does not mind spending the winter indoors in a cool place. Madagascar jasmine prefers slightly moist soil, but on the other hand, is not very picky.
If you want these fragrant flowers, you will need to provide the Madagascar jasmine with plenty of indirect light. Outside, you will enjoy partial sunshade as long as it is not direct sunlight. Your leaves will turn yellow if they are not getting enough light. Prefer temperatures on the warmer side during spring and summer.
Temperatures between 65 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit are ideal. The lower temperatures in autumn and winter are also good. If it gets too cold, the flower buds will fall off.
Purple Mystery – Hyacinth Bean Vine
You will be amazed at how quickly this vine reaches the sun. Hyacinth bean vine, Lablab purpura, has beautiful green or purple foliage topped with bright heads of purplish-pink flowers in late summer and fall. As a bonus, after the flowers fade, the plants develop heads of large, showy, pea-like seeds that hang from the ends of each branch.
An annual hyacinth bean vine that adores the sun provides a quick, colorful canopy of mandrels and trellises.
Note: Raw hyacinth grains are poisonous unless well cooked, so it is best to use this plant as ornamental.
Because the vines are so vigorous, give them extra food every four or five weeks, all summer long. Start with rich soil and give them a monthly dose of your favorite balanced fertilizer, preferably somewhat low in nitrogen and high in phosphorus to stimulate flowering.
If the vines have few or no blooms, they may not be receiving enough sun or receiving too much nitrogen. Make sure the fertilizer you use has a low first number. (5-10-10) and avoid nitrogen supplements such as fish emulsion or soybean meal.
Rewarding – Blue Sky Vine
The blue sky vine, Thunbergia Grandiflora, is a striking primae of the black-eyed vine, producing crowds of large sky-blue flowers with golden throats. Also called Bengal clock vine, blue sky vine can grow 20 feet long in one season and is super easy to care for.
It thrives in sun or light shade and slightly moist soil. It is a perennial vine in mild climates but can be brought into the house as a houseplant during winter in the far north.
Hummingbird’s Love – Trumpet Vine
The composite sheets are large (up to 15 inches) and are bright dark green on the upper surface and more opaque green on the bottom. The foliage is pinnately composed: The leaves are divided into several leaflets, and the overall appearance is similar to feathers. Clusters of yellow, orange or red trumpet-shaped flowers, up to three inches long, spring from June to September. The leaves turn yellow in the fall. After the flowers, six-inch-long pods appear.
Trumpet vine requires little care once established. Water the plant only during dry periods and never fertilize them. The most important maintenance is to remove them, often and aggressively, to keep the vines under control. These strenuous producers need to be restrained if you do not want them to spread uncontrollably. Trumpet Vine also attract hummingbirds and some other kinds of birds.
Tropical Only – Cypress Vine
As its cousin near the morning glory, cypress, Ipomoea quamoclit, is an annual fast-growing vine that makes a wonderful addition to the summer garden. Growing 4-8 feet long, cypress vine is prized for its foliage of ferny, light green and proliferation of scarlet flowers, trumpet.
This easy vine is occasionally called a hummingbird for the simple reason that the hummingbirds migrate to the bright, nectar-rich red flowers. The cypress prefers the full sun and is often self-fertilized, so remove excess seedlings if they appear. The plants will die after the first frost.
Easy Fragrant – Mandevilla
Add a touch of the tropics to your balcony or patio with Mandevilla vine. This gorgeous vine comes in simple, white, red, pink, and red and white flowers. Mandevilla thrives in hot climates and produces a high-quality container plant, growing from 1.8 to 1.8 m high in a trellis or low pyramid.
Mandevilla is easy to care for, requiring only a sunny spot and water whenever the surface of the soil is dry to the touch. Use it to light your balcony, patio, deck, or balcony.
Highly Fragrant – Honeysuckle
The long, tubular flowers of the honeysuckle vine, Lonicera sp., May seem tropical, but in fact, this perennial, fast mountaineer loves life in a northern climate. Available in a variety of different species, all honeysuckle vines have several things in common: sweet fragrance, nectar-rich flowers that attract hummingbirds and easy care.
The honeysuckle vine prefers a sunny spot in the garden, where you can climb a sturdy pole, fence or trellis. The colors of the flowers include yellow, white, orange, and red. Most grow 12 to 14 meters high.
