vines

Vines are plants that grow stems so long that they either ‘crawl’ along the ground or use a method of climbing using twining, tendrils, leaf-stems that wrap, hold-fasts, aerial rootlets, or hooked thorns. Many a wall, fence or planting patch cries out for the fabulous color, texture, shading, ground-covering, screening, bird habitat and fragrance opportunities offered by vines.

Here are some of the versatile vines we have in stock:

Chocolate Vine – Akebia quinata: With attractive delicate-looking, palmate, gray-green, evergreen foliage on slender stems, Chocolate vine is so named for the spicy-chocolate fragrance of its small dark purple to maroon. A vigorous, hardy twining vine to use on posts, arbors and trellises, or as mounding specimens on the ground. Zones 4-9, can reach 30’, somewhat drought-tolerant, great with part-shade or a north or east exposure.

Honeysuckle Vines: Honeysuckle vines are hummingbird favorites! They are not invasive here. Some have very cool peltate leaves (look it up!). Many are very colorful, many are very fragrant, and some are both! They are long-blooming, grow well in part shade or sun, and are great on
trellises, fences, arbors. We carry Dropmore Scarlet (the most cold-hardy), Major Wheeler (really red), Hall’s (buff/white, fabulously fragrant), Heckrottii (fragrant purple-pink w/ yellow), Kintzley’s Ghost (with striking silvery coin-line foliage), as well as Mandarin (orange), John
Clayton (yellow) and Magnifica (red/yellow), Graham Thomas (cream)

Wisteria macrostachya ‘Aunt Dee’ – Aunt Dee Kentucky Wisteria – Long-lived, reliable bloomer, with 9”-long pendulous clusters of fragrant purple flowers on a strong, long-lived woody twining vine to 15’. Much hardier than the Asian varieties. Requires strong support, great for arbors, pergolas, fences. Almost as romantic as a climbing rose!

Also:

Clematis – many choice varieties, including our native Virgin’s Bower!  Purple-leaf Winter-creeper (evergreen, low-H2O, can grow under Blue Spruce! and can also climb), Euonymus kewensis (a small, little-leafed creeper),

Trumpet Vine – (Campsis radicans) – a hummingbird magnet, slow to establish but long-lived and low-water, brilliant orange or red waxy, tropical-looking blooms for many weeks in summer.

Golden Hops & Beer Hops – very low water, hardy, very fast-growing shade, good sleep herb, and beer!

Silver Lace Vine – Very low water, great summer pollinator plant, frothy masses of tiny white flowers, very fast growing, great on fences, garden walls, arbors.

Baltic Ivy – can creep or climb on fences, hardy evergreen, classic, not invasive here. Engelmann Ivy, A western version of Virginia Creeper, great fall color, fast-growing screen, fruit for birds, very cold-hardy and drought-tolerant.