Terry L. Ettinger Horticulture Consulting Services
Meeting The Needs Of Today With A Vision For The Future
Recommended Vines
There are
few landscape and garden applications of vining plants more classic than June-blooming clematis cascading over a mailbox, at right.
They can also soften vast expanses of solid walls, below left, provide shade when sprawling over pergolas, and add splashes of color and interesting texture in tight spaces when trained onto a vertical surface.
They can
serve as a foil for
"secret" doors, such as the one at an entrance to a
backyard garden featured during a past
GardenWalk in Buffalo, New
York, below right. And, of course, they can be left to ramble over
other plants in the landscape - just like they do in nature, below
left - though that option tends to make me a bit nervous!
Regardless of their application, keep in mind that most vines including wisteria, Virgina and Boston creeper, trumpetvine,
English ivy, and most clematis are really rampant growers. So, either stand back and give them plenty of room to grow,
or think at least
twice before adding them to your landscape or garden!