In the Garden Articles

Flowering Vines

by Joan S. Bolton

Talk about versatility.

Flowering vines are true utility players in the garden. They grow fast, quickly blocking unsightly views. They bear bodacious blooms as they exuberantly scale walls and structures. Their toes touch only a tiny patch of earth, yet they grow tall, filling vast vertical space. In smaller gardens, they're especially invaluable for providing height and color in narrow planting beds.

Vines are also a plus in water-conserving gardens. Many bloom during the warm days of summer, while natives or other drought-tolerant plants are taking a rest. Provided their roots are kept cool with a thick layer of mulch, mature flowering vines, such as cat's claw and California wild grape, require no irrigation at all.

Choose a Style

With dozens of vines commonly available, it's easy to find one to create or match just about any mood or style of garden.

For a tropical feel, look for vibrant colors, super-sized flowers and giant foliage.

Alice du Pont mandevilla is tops, bearing pink, funnel-shaped flowers above long, dark-green crinkly leaves. Cup of gold vine and passion flower both bear large, unusual-shaped flowers nearly year-round. Splashy purple wings and bougainvillea bloom most intensely with summer heat.

Other climbers, such as blood-red trumpet vine and violet trumpet vine, attract hummingbirds with their brightly colored, tubular-shaped flowers.

For a romantic theme, choose dainty vines that bear smaller flowers in whites and pastels.

Evergreen clematis blooms in snowy white flowers in spring. Carolina jessamine spills forth a filmy cascade of sweet-smelling yellow flowers. Purple lilac vine produces pendulous strings of pea-like blossoms. Bower vine bears smallish white trumpet flowers with a pink throat. A hybrid bower vine, Southern Belle, produces darker pink flowers twice the size, while a variegated version has green leaves edged in pale yellow.

Delicate, ever-blooming potato vine offers a bonus: its tissue-paper flowers dangle. So you can weave the vine's flexible branches through an overhead lattice or arbor and the nodding flower heads will shelter you from sun and light rain. A close relative that's worth the hunt is climbing nightshade (Solanum 'Jalisco Navidad'), which bears similar, nodding clusters, but in dark purple.

For fragrance, it's tough to beat pink jasmine. The slender buds are pink, while the flowers are flat, white, five-petal stars. But know that one person's sweet perfume can be another's nightmare. Don't plant pink jasmine next to a bedroom window if anyone inside is allergic to the scent.

For fall color, look for Roger's Red California grape and Virginia creeper. While neither bears showy flowers, they'll more than make up for it with their vivid reds in fall and winter.

Providing Support

Regardless of your garden style, flowering vines lend a relaxed, natural feel to the landscape because they have no structure or shape of their own.

They all need some means of support. What you provide depends on how your particular vines grow.

o Tendril-climbing vines produce little growths that emerge from their leaves or stems, then twist around whatever they touch. That may be a support you install, a neighboring plant or the vine's own stems. Leave plenty of room around these vines if you don't want them to travel into trees or overtake nearby shrubs. They include passion vine and most trumpet vines.

o Clinging vines, such as creeping fig and ivy, bear sticky, aerial rootlets that search out the nearest flat surface. They may leave marks on fences and stucco walls or weaken masonry.

o Twining vines, including honeysuckle and pink jasmine, climb by twisting their stems around a skinny support, such as a pole, lattice or wire. Their spiral pattern can be quite tight, so the support should be sturdy, but not too thick.

o A few plants that we think of as vines, such as bougainvillea, can not climb on their own. They often take on shrubby proportions unless you tie them to something. (Though not quite vines, climbing roses, such as Lady Bank's rose, are sometimes listed in this category.)

For obvious reasons, install your post, trellis or arbor before you plant your vine. When you do put your vine in the ground, keep its roots at least several inches out from the base of the support to allow for air flow. Against a solid wall, leave at least 6 inches.

A note of caution: Wisteria is in a class of its own, gaining so much heft and weight that it will easily topple a standard trellis or wood fence in just a few years. Plan ahead by providing substantial support at the outset.

If you're training a vine against your house or onto your roof, be sure it doesn't touch any untreated wood siding or shingles. The leaves can hold moisture, which may cause the wood to rot.

Keep your vines out of your rain gutters as well, so they won't block your downspouts or prevent water from rolling off the roof.

# # #

Buyer Beware

Here's a quick quiz.

Are flowering vines dainty climbers that ascend arbors, trellises, fences and provide charming frames for other plants and views?

Or are they sprawling giants that hunger to strangle everything within reach?

Truth be told, flowering vines go both ways.

Take blue dawn morning glory, for instance. The ever-blooming vine is positively tenacious. Once it smothers that bare fence or wall, it just keeps going, rapidly consuming telephone poles, sheds and even small automobiles. Then there's the famed wisteria vine in Sierra Madre. It covers an acre, weighs more than 250 tons and is said by its promoters to be the largest blossoming plant on earth.

But also consider the dainty bleeding heart vine, which politely covers a 3 or 4-foot wide trellis, and obediently blooms in summer and fall. Or Alice du Pont mandevilla, which bears gorgeous, funnel-shaped flowers while gently minding its manners.

Whatever you choose, be sure that the vine's natural tendencies are compatible with the rest of your garden.

# # #

Seeds of Wisdom

During active growth, maintain control of your vines by pinching back the stems every month or so. Wait until the bloom has peaked or the vine goes dormant before embarking on any major pruning.

# # #

Flowering Vines for the Central Coast

Common Name; Botanic Name; Bloom Time; Bloom Color; How They Climb

Alice du Pont mandevilla; Mandevilla 'Alice Du Pont'; spring, summer, fall; pink; twining

Bleeding heart vine; Clerodendrum thomsoniae; summer, fall; white and red; tendrils

Blood-red trumpet vine; Distictis buccinatoria; all seasons; orange-red; tendrils

Blue dawn morning glory; Ipomoea acuminata; spring, summer, fall; blue, magenta, pink; twining

Bougainvillea; Bougainvillea; spring, summer, fall; many brights, pastels; must tie

Bower vine; Pandorea jasminoides; summer, fall; white, pink; twining

California wild grape; Vitis californica 'Roger's Red'; insignificant; grown for foliage; tendrils

Carolina jessamine; Gelsemium sempervirens; winter, spring; yellow; twining

Cat's claw, yellow trumpet vine; Macfadyena unguis-cati; early spring; yellow; tendrils

Climbing nightshade; Solanum 'Jalisco Navidad'; fall, winter; purple; twining

Creeping fig; Ficus pumila; insignificant; grown for foliage; clinging

Cup of gold vine; Solandra maxima; spring; white, yellow, orange; twining

Evergreen clematis; Clematis armandii; spring; white; twining

Giant Burmese honeysuckle; Lonicera hildebrandiana; summer; white, yellow, orange; twining

Guinea gold vine; Hibbertia scandens; spring, summer, fall; yellow; twining

Hall's honeysuckle; Lonicera japonica 'Halliana'; spring, summer; white, yellow; twining

Passion flower; Passiflora species; summer; white, pink, purple, red; tendrils

Pink jasmine; Jasminum polyanthum; spring, summer; rose-white; twining

Potato vine; Solanum jasminoides; all seasons; white; twining

Royal trumpet vine; Distictis 'Rivers'; summer, fall; purple; tendrils

Vanilla trumpet vine; Distictis laxiflora; spring, summer, fall; violet, lavender; tendrils

Violet trumpet vine; Clytostoma callistegioides; spring, summer, fall; lavender, violet; tendrils

Virginia creeper; Parthenocissus quinquefolia; significant; grown for foliage; clinging

White evergreen clematis; Clematis x cartmanii 'Avalanche'; spring; white; twining