HOME DESIGN
Vines THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY By Janice F. Booth
Perhaps you’ve watched those charming BBC murder mysteries where all the victims live in sweet, vine-covered cottages with picket fences and mullioned windows. Or you’ve toured England’s Cotswold or York districts and wandered beneath trellises overflowing with vining roses and dined at a picturesque pub with trumpet vines and English ivy screening the parking lot. How do the English coax those rambling roses, wisteria, and ivy to behave so well, dripping blossoms, and weaving gracefully above windows and porticos? There’s a wonderful, old book by Roy E. Biles entitled The Complete Book of Garden Magic, copyright 1935. First, I love the arrogance; Roy is certain he’s covered it all! Everything one needs for a memorable garden can be found within the covers of his book. (If only!) But I digress. In the section of Biles’s book dealing with vines, he says, “Vines have a place in garden decoration that cannot be taken by any other plant. They have the ability to produce a large quantity of flowers in the minimum of space and to hide or soften ugly materials or outlines.” That pretty well sums it up. But, the idea of planting vines in our gardens has 64
tended to be received with dread, or at least hesitancy. Visions come to mind of kudzu choking out vast tracks of woodland or fat and fuzzy poison ivy slithering up trees. But Roy and I are here to tell you, “Never fear!” A lush wisteria can be trained to drape and float across the arbor near your deck. Disguise your neighbor’s unsightly chain-link fence with trumpet vines; their shiny, dark green leaves will cover the rusty metal quickly, and you’ll be delighted with the four-inch long, red, orange, and yellow trumpet-shaped blossoms from June to September. As one element of your garden, vines are useful and relatively carefree. Wherever you need a bit of softening or filling-in, there’s probably a vine that will work. If there’s an unattractive architectural feature that can’t be removed, disguise it with trellised vines. While most vines wind their way into your heart slowly, growing three or four feet every year, some annual vines, like morning glories, gourds, and even pumpkin vines can provide a quick rescue. You can pop them in behind the spindly, young lantana you’ve just planted. The morning glories will bloom and vine around that section of the garden, providing color and interest while the spindly lantana settles into its new home. At season’s end, the morning glory vines can be removed easily and the area cleared so that in the spring the maturing lantana can take over its area unencumbered. How much more interesting to have had a summer of blossoms greeting the morning than an awkward, young plant sitting forlornly in the garden.
What’s Up? West County | March/April 2020 | whatsupmag.com
