|
Using Flowering Vines
Take advantage of all that vertical space in your garden! Most
American gardens are too focused at ground level, with plants no
more than 3 or 4 feet high. Flowering vines are easy to grow and
can do so much for your landscape. Most require very little maintenance.
Most need only a little pruning now and then.
Have you got something to hide? Maybe you have a rusty metal garden
shed or an old stump you'd like to camouflage. Perhaps you'd like
more privacy around the jacuzzi or patio area. Let flowering vines
create the screening you need while adding walls of vertical show
stopping blooms! Many varieties have highly fragrant blooms too.
Just imagine a warm summer evening out on the patio with the scents
of Passion Flower and Honeysuckle drifting on the breeze. How romantic!
 Vines
can also create focal points and accents in your landscape. They
can scramble up nearly anything that will support them. Plant a
Honeysuckle where it can cling to the posts of the front porch or
stoop and enjoy heady fragrance every morning and evening. Plant
a Clematis under the mailbox and let the vine climb all over the
mailbox post for a burst of color at the end of the driveway. Place
a column support in the center of a flower bed and train a vine
to take center stage and add depth and height.
Another great use of flowering vines is to help define garden "rooms".
You can separate different areas of your yard into garden rooms
by color of bloom or type of plant. Arbors, arches, trellises and
pergolas add architectural elements to the garden. This creates
interest and the feeling of truly being enveloped in an environment.
Use archways and arbors to separate the flower beds from the vegetable
garden. Perhaps one garden room is filled entirely with roses. An
archway teeming with Black Eyed Susan Vine (Thunbergia alata) would
set them off beautifully.
Many flowering vines like Morning Glories (ipomoea) and Cup and
Saucer Vine (Cobaea scandens) are annuals easily grown from seeds
in the Spring. Others such as the Clematis, Honeysuckles (Lonicera
periclymenum)and Passion Flowers (Passiflora caerulea) are perennials
and will return year after year. Some vines get quite large and
require heavy-duty supports while others thrive in containers with
a small trellis to climb on. The possibilities are endless.
 When
choosing a vine, pay careful attention to its light requirements
and the strength of the support it will need. Be sure to note the
direction in which it twines. Some vines twine around their support
in a clockwise directions and others twine counterclockwise. This
will aid you in training the vine to its support.
The blossoms of flowering vines come in an infinite array of sizes,
colors, shapes and fragrances. There are certain to be some you'll
enjoy. Your local Southern States dealer can help you choose the
plants and seeds that are best suited to your area.
|
