Re: Summer color for shade,and other challenges

Although I tolerate one-time only blooming plants, including vines, a criteria for me is that the leaves have to be attractive in their own right the rest of the year.  This is one reason why I continue to grow Wonga-Wonga vine (Pandorea pandorana); it has leaves of a lovely shade of green that glisten and glow in the sunlight and move gracefully in the slightest wind.  Conversely I find that Hardenbergia has stiff leaves in a not-attractive shade of green that just sort of hang there in a stiff mass.  

The down side of the W-W is that it grows so rampantly that I am always at it with the long handled pruner to keep it within bounds.  Of course, its superb crop of creamy blossoms that cover the whole vine mass early spring are a decided plus, too. It does require moderate water but its roots are in a bed of x Amarcrinum bulbs that don't get a whole lot -- near the eaves of the north side of our home in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Carol


On Jul 7, 2011, at 10:42 AM, Nan Sterman wrote:

  Personally, I think they're hardly worth the trouble as they only bloom for a few weeks a year and the rest of the time remain as a small non-descript climber.  


That pretty much echoes my thoughts about them, too, Liz

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