Re: climbing vines
- To:
- Subject: Re: climbing vines
- From: M* T*
- Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 23:32:54 -0400
Barb,
You can certainly train just about any vine to go in the direction you want
it to, with persistence. You have to keep an eye on them to keep them
going where you want them - they grow fast once the season gets going.
If you simply provide one spot for it to climb and then leave it to its own
devices, you may end up with a large tangled clump because it will reach
the top of the fence and then start twining (if it's a twiner) around
itself - or, if not a twiner, it will double back and head back down.
I found, quite by accident, last year that Sweet Autumn Clematis (C.
paniculata) will space itself quite nicely if given a mesh fence to climb.
I had some heavy diamond mesh plastic fencing around an Azalea - trying to
protect it from bambi - and a self-sown Clematis found it and had a ball
covering it while my back was turned.
AAMOF, I have plans to dig up two largish clumps who want to smother a
hedge and move them to our back deck where I intend to take some of that
self-same green plastic fence and attach it to the deck rail for them to
climb.
Vines that climb by hold fasts - climbing hydrangea (H. anomala subsp.
petiolaris), ivy (Hedera helix spp.), trumpet creeper(Campsis radicans) -
would be a bit more of a challenge to train, I should think, because they
have basically one main stem, whereas something like S.A. Clematis will put
up several stems after a couple of years, if it's cut down hard in late
winter - early spring. You'd probably have to tie in the main stem along
the top rail of the fence until it got the message that it was to grow
horizontally, not vertically.
Vines that get very tall would either have to be trained horizontally once
they reached the top or continually pruned back, which might inhibit bloom
on some of them.
But, it can be done - witness the training of grape vines in vineyards.
Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@clark.net
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----------
>
> Hi all-
> This is a real novice gardener's question, but here goes...
>
> we're putting in a 3-rail, 4ft high fence. So many of the flowering
> vines discussed here grow to "x" height. Is there any reason why they
> can't be trained to grow "x" wide instead, or do you end up with a mass
> clump in one place on the fence that doesn't spread sideways? Sorry if
> this sounds silly, but I've been wondering!
> TIA
> Barb (Southeastern PA, zone 6/7 where yoshino cherries started blooming
> yesterday!)
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