Re: Thunbergias and other vines+ TANGENT
Hello William
What a great posting I really enjoyed reading it. Your climber policy seems
just about right to me. My mouth waters at the variety of plants you can
grow, but I think we may not be able to afford a home in both areas. On the
plus side maybe we can grow some climbers which you cannot. Thanks for the
info.
Tangent
We often think about the Carribean for holidays, but can never quite make up
our mind. Would it be a good destination for plant lovers and bird watchers
such as us. All the usual adverts seem to push 'all in' complexes which do
not appeal to us at all.
regards Janet
Richard & Janet Blenkinship
Crete
Zone 10/11(maybe)
janetble@otenet.gr
William wrote
> Janet Blenkinship asked for posts on vines and since it is much too wet
> to work outside this very rainy day here are some comments on creepers
> from the usually sunny Caribbean.
>
> There are several reasons why our one-storey house was largely demolished
> and rebuilt as a two-storey house a few years ago but a not
> inconsequential one was my predilection for vining plants. Though not
> primarily to furnish shade as the roof overhangs are substantial and the
> galleries (verandahs) are continuous around the house on both levels
> making it easy to be in a shaded area at any time of day.
>
> Most of the two dozen concrete columns holding up the second-storey have
> wooden 'ladders' affixed to them on which are growing such vines (usually
> two different kinds to each column) as Thunbergia grandiflora, T.
> mysorensis, Petrea volubilis, Luffa cylindrica, Bougainvillea, Allamanda
> cathartica, Calonycton aculeatum (= Ipomoea alba), Norantea guianensis,
> Dolichos lablab, Ipomoea horsfalliae, Strongylodon macrobotrys, several
> spp. of Philodendron and Monstera, Vanilla planifolia, and my present
> favorite, Quisqualis indica (Rangoon creeper).
>
> This latter plant is naturalized here and viewed with awe and alarm by
> most of the populace - visitors repeatedly warn me against it - as it is
> a rampant grower which can overwhelm a small house very quickly. My plant
> is but a year old and has already reached the top of the balustrade on
> the upper storey sixteen feet above the ground and has spread almost
> twenty feet along the balustrade. Blooming all year round, Q. indica
> flowers open white in the morning, turning first pink then red by
> afternoon and nocturnally fragrant.
>
> Thunbergia mysorenis and Strongylodon macrobotrys are also young plants,
> less than a year old, and are growing well though not rapidly and have
> yet to flower.
>
> The wooden 'ladders', by the way, were built of pressure-treated
> (Wolmanized) pine to keep the termites at bay and the chemical compounds
> in such treated lumber seems in no way detrimental to the vines growing
> on them.
>
> Growing on an arbor beside my shop/garage building are Stephanotis
> floribunda, Clitorea terneata, Thunbergia alata, Senecio confusus, and
> Clerodendrum thomsoniae. There are some other vines on the property,
> notably Hylocereus undatus (night-blooming cactus) along several hundred
> feet of stone walls and into several of the adjacent trees, Cryptostegia
> grandiflora (Malay rubber vine) along the fences, and a most unwelcome
> one that the wind blows in from time to time: Dodder or Strangle Weed
> (Cuscuta sp.), known locally as lop-lop.
>
> Last year a pool was built and to give the bathers some shade, but more
> importantly to give me more scope to plant additional vines, a pergola
> was erected at the far (western) end of the pool. But, alas, this past
> winter (or what passes for winter in the Caribbean) complaints were heard
> of the pool being too cold when the water temperature was 24C (75F) and
> the northeast trade winds were briskly blowing. So the top of the pergola
> is being sacrificed to solar heating mats to warm the pool during the
> cooler months and the vines to be planted will be of the less robust
> kinds that will not climb above the latticed back and sides of the
> pergola.
>
> Ours, of course, is not a Mediterranean climate, but a tropical one with
> a temperature range of 21-35C (70-95F), an average relative humidity of
> 75%, and an annual rainfall averaging 1250mm (50 inches). Nevis thus is a
> semi-arid island by tropical standards, in marked contrast to our near
> and larger neighbors as Dominica, Guadaloupe, and Martinique, parts of
> which receive more than 6 metres (20 feet) of rain a year.
>
> Those interested in vines will find a great deal of pleasure and much
> useful information in Edwin Menninger's 'Flowering Vines of the World'
> (Hearthside Press, New York, 1970).
>
> Warm regards,
>
> William Glover
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> **********************
>
> William Glover
> Mango Corners, Jones Estate
> NEVIS, West Indies (Antilles)
>
> wmglover@caribsurf.com
>
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