A Beginner’s Guide to Growing Vines

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vines, flowers, garden

Some landscapers refer to the lawn and ground covers in your garden as the floor of your landscape. They call your trees and shrubs the walls and ceilings. I like to think of vines as the drapes.

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And like their fabric counterparts, these sometimes overlooked elements can provide the finishing touch that transforms an attractive setting into something quite extraordinary.

Their climbing habit allows vines to add an interesting dimension to most spaces. Depending on your intent, the versatile vine can enhance a unique or attractive architectural feature or, alternatively, disguise some aspect of your landscape that is less than desirable. They can be used to create an intimate space or to visually extend a limited space.

Vines are available with a multitude of foliage textures, flower colors, fascinating fruits and growing requirements. There are annual vines and perennial ones – even some with evergreen foliage providing year-round interest.

As you plan your landscape for 2006, don’t forget to consider incorporating a vine. They can be effective in containers, topiaries, window boxes, trellises and hanging baskets. Of course, you can also plant them in the ground for climbing on arbors, pergolas, walls or trees.

I recommend planting annual and perennial vines together. Most perennial vines don’t flower all season, so choose an annual vine that will bloom as the perennial blossoms fade.

Read on for some of my personal favorites, evaluated in the University of Tennessee Gardens in Knoxville. Most will perform well anywhere in the state.

Annuals
Moon Vine (Ipomoea alba) is a perfect plant for gardeners who don’t get to enjoy their gardens during the day. A member of the morning glory family, moon vine unfurls its buds just before dusk to reveal huge, 6-inch, pure-white flowers. The fragrant blossoms remain open all night, attracting insects such as the hawk moth.Moon vine will grow 10 to 15 feet on a trellis or fence, and can also cascade over retaining walls or from large containers. It will grow in almost any soil in full sun or partial shade.

Hyacinth Bean (Lablab purpurea) is an easy vine for the beginning gardener.

A fast-growing cousin of the sweet pea, it produces loads of bright lilac flowers all summer. Its purple-green leaves complement the flowers and the striking lilac seed pods produced from midsummer until frost. Hyacinth bean prefers full sun and will climb 10 to 12 feet on almost any garden structure even in average garden soil. Directly sow it in late spring.

Butterfly Pea (Clitoria ternata) produces the most striking blue flowers I’ve ever seen. The 2-inch blossoms have an interesting white and gold throat that leads to a downy bean pod. The pod can be picked and saved for seed the next year. It blooms from midsummer until frost and performs best in full sun.

Cross Vine (Bignonia capreolata) is also known as trumpet flower. This native can grow 30 to 50 feet. Its evergreen foliage is showy all year, turning a unique purplish color in the winter. Pinkish-orange flowers are abundant in late spring and very attractive to hummingbirds. This vine thrives in sun to light shade and works great on an arbor, fence or trellis.

Carolina Jasmine (Gelsemium sempervirens) produces loads of fragrant yellow flowers. Its evergreen foliage turns bronze in winter. It thrives in full sun to partial shade and likes moist, well-drained soil.

Perennials
Evergreen Clematis or Armand Clematis (Clematis Armandii) is one of my favorites because of its glossy evergreen foliage and abundance of fragrant white flowers.

It blooms for several weeks each spring, and sometimes a second flowering is produced in August. The long, tapered leaves add a touch of elegance wherever you use it. Loves full sun to partial shade.

Chinese Trumpet Creeper (Campsis grandiflora) is a vigorous grower, but this vine is not as aggressive or invasive as the native American trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans). Its large, deep orange to red flowers cover the plant from mid-June to frost and attract hummingbirds. The cultivar ‘Morning Calm’ is one of my favorites for its large apricot flowers. Deciduous, it typically grows 20 to 30 feet long and can be grown on the ground to cover tree stumps or rock piles.

Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) is a native vine that produces exotic flowers. The beautiful 3-inch white to lavender flowers have lavender markings. It blooms from midsummer through frost and produces edible, melon-like green fruits that pop when squashed. Thrives in full sun to partial shade in most soils. Good larval food for a number of butterflies.

11 Comments

  1. Nora Matthews says:

    I have come to your website to enter the contest for the book by Chris Chanberlain, The Southern Foodie’s Guide to the Pig. Please enter my name and email address for the book as I would really love to have it. Thank you very much!

  2. Freda Satterfield says:

    Love to win ‘The Southern Foodie’s Guide to the Pig’. Nothing better than a big slice of pork roast or chop and esp southern BBQ.

  3. Teresa Hodges says:

    Please enter my name for the chance to win the Southern Foodies Guide to the Pig book.

  4. Sara Nepam says:

    I live in Nashville, TN. Where could I get some Carolina Jasmine? We just bought a house, with chicken wire and a dead vine all over it, and I ripped it out today and my husband was really upset because he liked the look of it! Oops…but I know he has always wanted jasmine…

  5. Ellen Smith says:

    Can I buy crossfire at UT plant sale on April 9, 2016?

  6. Ellen Smith says:

    What I want is crossvine. My computer likes to do its thing!

    • Rachel Bertone says:

      Hi Ellen,

      Thanks for your comment. I’m not sure if you’ll be able to buy crossvine at the plant sale. We suggest contacting UT Gardens directly at utgardens@utk.edu or (865) 974-8265. They should be able to help. Thanks!

      Rachel Bertone
      editor, TN Home and Farm

  7. Ellen J Kastner says:

    WHERE’S THE PICTURES so that I know what you’re talking about!

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