No other group of plants can quite duplicate what vines do for us in the landscape. Trellised vines can create a vertical display of foliage and flowers, a great way to save space in small gardens. A vine-covered arbor or pergola provides a shady retreat.
They are unique and indispensable for growing up a pillar, covering an unattractive fence, softening architectural features or creating screens.
Vines can be used to provide shade, privacy, flowers, ground cover, edible or attractive fruit, fragrance and food for wildlife. It would be hard to imagine a well-planted landscape without the use of vines somewhere.
What is it that makes a plant a vine?
Vines are a remarkably diverse group of plants. They include annuals and perennials and can be woody or herbaceous, evergreen or deciduous. They may be grown for their attractive foliage, colorful flowers or edible fruit.
What binds this varied group of plants together is their unique characteristic of weak, lax stems.
That's right; vines are lazy plants. It takes considerable resources for a plant to produce a strong stem to hold itself upright.
Vines don't do this. They use another plant, rock or structure to provide support.
Vines instead apply those resources to growth. As a result, they are among the fastest-growing plants in your landscape.
You must be prepared for the extraordinary rate of growth vines are capable of and be willing to train and control them.
In addition, you need to know how a particular vine climbs. This will influence how you use it and the type of support that must be provided.
Vines climb in several ways. Twining vines climb by wrapping their stems, leaves or tendrils around a support.
Vines that wrap their stems around or interweave their stems into the support are common. They can climb on poles, wire, string or a lattice. Vines such as morning glory, honeysuckle, hyacinth bean and cypress vine are good examples.
Twining vines that wrap leaves or tendrils around the support climb differently. The stem of the vine runs along the support, and tendrils that grow out from the stem or leaves reach out and wrap around the support.
These kinds of twining vines must have string, wire, lattice work, hurricane fences or similar structures they can twist their leaves or tendrils around. Examples are cucumbers, sweet peas and clematis.
Clinging vines can grow on flat surfaces by using roots along their stems or holdfasts that adhere to the surface. They are useful for covering sides of buildings or walls, without your having to build a support.
But you must use them cautiously. Once they get started, they are hard to control without frequent effort. Examples are English ivy, cat's-claw vine, trumpet creeper and creeping fig.
Some plants we call vines don't really climb well but tend to sprawl. These plants generally don't grab ahold of a support; they tend to grow through or over it and lie on it. Or, they may insinuate themselves into larger plants.
Typically, these vines need to be physically woven or tied onto the support as they are trained. Bougainvillea, Russian olive, nasturtium and climbing roses are representatives.
Interestingly, it is often easy to train this type of vine, with pruning, into a more shrubby plant.
Choosing a vine
When you decide that a vine is needed in your landscape, the selection process is the same as for any plant.
Decide the purpose of the vine, choose characteristics you would like it to have, determine the growing conditions in the area where it will be planted and then select the vine from those that most closely fit the desired characteristics.
Caring for vines mainly involves controlling them as well as, on occasion, watering, fertilizing and pest control.
Annual vines are great to play around with if you are not very familiar with vines and how to use them.
They last for only one season, so they have little chance of getting out of control, compared with perennial vines that live for many years (although reseeding can be an issue with some annual vines, notably the cypress vine, Ipomoea quamoclit).
There are few cool-season annual vines, but lots of warm-season annual vines.
Southeast Louisiana gardeners have many perennial vines from which to choose.
Hardy perennial vines live for many years and become fairly permanent parts of your landscape.
Evergreen perennial vines are the best for creating screens, hiding ugly hurricane fences and covering arches and trellises.
Deciduous perennial vines are good for covering arbors or pergolas where you want shade in summer but want to allow the warm sun to shine through in winter.
Hardy perennial vines are not bothered by typical winter freezes. There are also tropical tender perennial vines that are well worth planting but will not reliably survive the winter.
VINES FOR EVERY GARDEN
Vines add so much to our gardens that it would be hard to imagine doing without them. The following lists will introduce you to a few of the many vines that can provide much to our landscapes. Just remember that vines, bless their hearts, have no self-control. Be prepared to guide their enthusiasm when you invite them charming plants into your garden.
Cool-season: sweet pea (Lathyrus odorata), nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus, needs cool to mild weather, but will not tolerate a hard freeze)
Warm-season: morning glory (Ipomoea purpurea, Ipomoea tricolor), cypress vine (Ipomoea quamoclit), hyacinth bean (Dolichos lablab or Lablab purpureus), cardinal creeper (Ipomoea x multifida), moonflower (Ipomoea alba), Spanish flag (Ipomoea lobata), black-eyed Susan vine (Thunbergia alata), cup and saucer vine (Cobaea scandens)
Hardy evergreen: confederate jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), yellow jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens), coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), English ivy (Hedera helix), Algerian ivy (Hedera canariensis), akebia (Akebia quinata), kadsura (Kadsura japonica), fig vine (Ficus pumila), butterfly vine (Mascagnia macroptera), evergreen wisteria (Milletia reticulata), cross vine (Bignonia capreolata), passion vines (Passiflora species and hybrids; may be damaged by freezes or killed by severe freezes, depending on species)
Hardy deciduous: trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), native wisteria (Wisteria fruticosa), muscadine grape (Vitis rotundifolia), Chinese wisteria (Wisteria chinensis), Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), coral vine (Antigonon leptopus)
These may be more reliable on the south shore; may be killed by freezes in the mid- to low 20s or teens: mandevilla (Mandevilla hybrids), bougainvillea (Bougainvillea hybrids), Argentine trumpet vine (Clytostoma callistegioides), queen's wreath (Petrea volubilis), bleeding heart vine (Clerodendrum thomsoniae and Clerodendrum x speciosum), pandora (Pandora jasminoides), Rangoon creeper (Quisqualis indica)
DAN GILL'S MAILBOX
I'm seeing lots of dewberry brambles coming up in a garden of monkey grass. Is there any herbicide that will kill off the brambles and not hurt the monkey grass?
Sorry, but no, there are no selective herbicides I'm aware of that will kill the brambles but not kill the monkey grass. You can try cutting back the individual stems of brambles and then treating just the freshly cut surface with the herbicide triclopyr (Brush Killer, Brush B Gon and other brands). Apply the triclopyr only to the cut surface on the bramble stems, and do not get it on the monkey grass. This is tedious, but effective.
First, my wife would like to cut some of the poinsettia blooms for a vase; however, she said that they leak that white milky liquid and tend to not hold up well when cut. Is there any way she can cut some for a vase indoors?
Second, we plan on pruning our citrus trees. They have grown too tall to harvest. Is there any particularly good time to prune them?
Last, we would like to feed our azaleas. Are they dormant, and is this a good time?
Cut the poinsettia flower with a stem the desired length. As soon as the poinsettia flower is cut, sear the cut end with a small lighter. Do this to all of the flowers you cut. Then, put them in a deep container of warm water. The water should cover most of the length of the stems. Leave them that way and allow them to condition for about 8 hours. Any that collapse during conditioning should be discarded. Arrange the rest in vases of water.
Prune citrus in March. Prune back to horizontal-growing branches to encourage the tree to grow laterally rather than upright. Keep the pruning to a minimum, since pruning productive citrus trees reduces harvest.
No, this is not a good time to feed your azaleas. Do this in March or April after they finish flowering.
Regarding your column on the best cover to use for protecting plants from freezes: For years I have been using inexpensive table coverings to protect my plants. These are plastic table coverings that have a light layer of some type of "fabric" on the underside. They are sold all over, especially before Thanksgiving and Christmas, and afterward go on sale. They come in varied sizes to fit varied tables: round, square and rectangle. Naturally, I put the plastic side on the outside when I cover plants. Just thought I'd pass this on to you.
I use this type of material as well and always mention it when I lecture on cold protection. You can also sometimes find this material sold by the yard at fabric shops. I don't know why I didn't think to include it in my list of what to cover plants with. Thanks so much for reminding me.
Dan Gill is extension horticulturist with the LSU Ag Center.
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