How a vining plant will attach itself to a vertical structure matters when planning a garden space growing these climbers. Gardeners may use the wall of a building, build a permanent structure exactly for this purpose or simply allow a vine to hang down from a basket. Whichever plan is used, how the plant will interact with its environment will determine success or failure in the garden.
Learning how each vining plant will twine, cling or wind itself allows gardeners to provide a suitable way for the climber to pull itself up. Proper siting of the plant is a step towards having a beautiful garden.
Twining Vines Covering Vertical Space
Climbing plants with twining vines like the five-leaf Akebia quinata, Arctic beauty kiwi and trumpet vine use vertical space by surrounding a pole, wire or lattice type structure. Gardeners can train the long stems by pushing the plant’s vines in the correct direction.
Annual vines, like hyacinth bean or scarlet runner bean, have supple stems all year, while perennials like Wisteria sinensis and Lonicera x heckrottii, a type of honeysuckle, develop thick woody stems over time.
Clinging Vines with Rootlets
Clinging vines use tiny rootlets and adhesive disks to grasp whatever is nearby, whether it is cement or bark. The Boston ivy, Parthenocissus tricuspidata, often seen covering old brick buildings is an iconic example. The beautiful Hydrangea anomala ssp. petiolaris is the climbing form of the popular garden shrub. Also in this group is the English ivy, Hedera helix, grown outside and indoors, where it is a houseplant left freely to hang down from a pot.
Except where part of a houseplant collection, these perennial vines are very strong growers requiring equally solid structures to allow the stems to climb upward. Trellises and arbors made of weather resistant materials and securely installed in the ground are required for these climbers to thrive.
Winding Plants with Tendrils
Winding vines are plants that have leafless stems but attach themselves by slim but very strong tendrils. When hanging free, the tendril reminds one of a tiny coiled metal spring, but green.
Classic examples of winding vines are Vitis, from which grapes are harvested and Cissus, the grape ivy houseplant. Ampelopsis brevipedunculata, porcelain vine, and Bignonia capreolata are perennial vines with grasping tendrils. These deceptively sturdy tendrils, when attached to another plant’s foliage, can eventually kill the other if allowed.
In the vegetable garden, vines from Cucurbita, think squash, zucchini, or cucumbers, have tendrils that can form excellent vertical growth. Gardeners with large planting beds, more often will allow the winding plants to scramble along the ground. Vegetable gardeners with balconies or patios take advantage of vegetable vining characteristics to utilize space above planters and pots.
Vining Plants Using Vertical Space
Vining plants take full advantage of vertical space above a garden bed. A healthy symbiotic relationship between two climbing plants, one holding the other up without killing it, can be seen by growing clematis vines in a rose garden. Climbing roses require mechanical training such as tying the branches up or guiding them through trellis openings, while clematis vines will scramble up or through the branches of a rose bush.
An historic climber, to use as a living trellis, is Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea.’ Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’ is a thornless rose. In full flower, it has so many small double blooms clustered together that the shrub’s green foliage looks like it is stuffed with small bouquets. Lady Banks’ rose, as it is commonly called, grows 15’ – 20’ tall and tolerates desert heat, as well as salt spray from a coastal location.
Vining plants will effectively use vertical space if given something to climb up. The structure gardeners provide will be a healthy choice for the plant if how they climb is understood.
Permission received for all photos used in this article.
Chris Eirschele - Chris writes on plants grown and gardens explored; she is a member of the Garden Writers Association.
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