Vines at Chickadee Gardens

 Gardening in my head sounds a little like this: "Ooh, that vine looks sparkly right now. Trachelospermum jasminoides 'Variegata' - how many of these do I have? One, no - three? Oh, that's a lovely evergreen vine that goes with everything. I need six more. Must take cuttings. But when? Oh, yes, my original thought: how many evergreen vines do I have? Let me think, four, maybe five? (pull up spread sheet on my phone to discover twelve). Oooh, including deciduous vines, I wonder how many I have? Maybe I should count them. Yes, definitely a thing to do right now." Then I proceed to search around the garden, over and over (it helps with my 10,000 steps a day goal) to count, inevitably missing one or four. I'm often astonished as to how many of any one group of plants I actually have, hence, the spreadsheet. In any event, that's how I come to this week's post, an inventory of vines in the garden. Plus I love to count things.

Vines are cool - they don't really take up horizontal space unless you want them to, and even so they really allow for plants to grow between them if grown as a groundcover. It's the verticality of the vine that is the appeal - gardening upwards making more layers to any garden. I love vines, but the trouble is I tend to want to grow them on trees which is a root competition stand-off and I'm often unsuccessful. Even working for Joy Creek Nursery for years, the home of everything Clematis, said genus has been largely a flop in my garden. Still, I garden on. These then are the vines that have become sturdy regulars in my cast of characters here at Chickadee Gardens.

 

Trachelospermum jasminoides 'Variegatum' is in this case a small-scale groundcover. I have it in two other locations, one as a climber at the base of my deck and the other also a groundcover. Its evergreen leaves really shine especially in winter and its variegation shows up well with the many greens in my shade garden. Sun to a good amount of shade, they are actually very forgiving once established. Not as vigorous as the all green types, they are none the less gorgeous.

Another Trachelospermum, this is T. asiaticum 'Theta'. Its obvious differences are the leaf shape and color. It is more aggressive than the former but in all honesty took many years to take hold in my garden. A great textural element and a good screening vine with proper support. The leaves turn bronze and red in winter then green up again once the weather warms. This is in pretty much full sun and is very happy.

Trachelospermum jasminoides, just the species with ovate glossy green leaves and fragrant white flowers. If it's happy it is a great screening vine, too, or a groundcover. Here at the base of a Japanese maple it has been slow to get going. Root competition is my guess. I have a couple others that are much more vigorous as they are used as groundcovers and do not have tree root competition.

Clematis 'Romantika' is quite lovely and has been fairly forgiving of my lack of clematis care. This is climbing through Berberis jamesiana.

Clematis cirrhosa ‘Wisley Cream’ is a mostly evergreen clematis, blooming in winter. It goes sort of dormant at the end of summer and looks really crummy - especially if it's front and center and everyone can see it, but it's lovely. I mean, how could one resist those sweet flowers?

Here it is rambling over my deck. I had to cut it back really hard this summer as FM needed access to the deck to do some repairs. I was uncertain if it would survive the severe haircut (down to just a couple feet tall) but it's actively growing once more. I may not have flowers this year but it's alive and well. Tough ol' thing.

Clematis 'Minuet', a viticella clematis, climbing through a very uninteresting ornamental cherry tree which is why I chose this tree as a companion. At least there is some interest for a few more weeks out of the year. Now this particular clematis gives me dozens and dozens of seedlings that I remove. They take several years before they are robust enough to bloom and I'm not interested in clematis growing so . . . out they go.

The flowers are sweet and simple and quite abundant when in bloom.

Seed heads of Clematis 'Sundance' - a tangutica cross and a very vigorous vine. Its seed heads are silvery poofs of goodness and I have witnessed hummingbirds gathering them more than once for nest building.

Sweet yellow flowers are small and kind of waxy.

Really great seedheads once more. This is on the southern edge of our property on the deer fence. It gets no care from me, sadly as it's kind of out of sight out of mind but it's a survivor. And vigorous especially if given proper feed and compost and pruning.

I have killed many clematis over the years. Here are a few (not including ones my friend and former Joy Creek Nursery owner Maurice gave me...I hang my head in shame):

Clematis x durandii (twice)

Clematis 'Inspiration'

Clematis montana 'Pink Perfection'

Clematis ladakhiana

Clematis tibetana var. vernayi 'Orange Peel'

Oh, the honeysuckles. I have about four of these Lonicera periclymenum forms, all of which were unlabeled throw aways from Joy Creek Nursery years ago. This is either 'Graham Thomas' or 'Late Dutch', that's my guess. They are all vigorous, deciduous vines that have a dormant stage in summer. Right now they have long since dropped all their leaves but are rapidly refoliating for the season, though they won't flower until spring. The flowers have that delicious memory-invoking sort of fragrance, reminding me of summers on the Oregon coast. This is not the invasive Lonicera japonica kind, mind you.

A more butter yellow form, unknown cultivar, growing up a dying Frangula purshiana (syn. Rhamnus purshiana, our native cascara tree). Again, growing upwards for vertical gardening adds another layer to what would otherwise be bare branches.

Really great color on this one.

I also used to have Lonicera 'Blanche Sandman' but sadly it did not make it. It is a gorgeous shade of red orange and I wish it were still around.

One more lonicera, this is Lonicera crassifolia. It is evergreen and can be used in a variety of applications. Here it is spilling out of an old trunk that had rotted away. It could easily be grown on a fence or as a groundcover and is very forgiving of sun, shade, rich or poor soil.

I also grow two native forms, Lonicera hispidula and Lonicera ciliosa. Neither are thriving as much as I want them to so don't have great photos, but they are alive and growing a little more every year. The former has pink flowers and the latter orange. Both of these in my old garden in Portland were sited in a lot more sun and loved it, they did really well.

Holboellia coriacea is a twining, clinging evergreen vine with Asian origins. It does fine in shade but also fine with more sun. It wants consistent moisture and will reach 20' or so in length (height?) when allowed to ramble up a tree or on a fence. We had a huge specimen in the gardens of Joy Creek Nursery that I would often show customers if they were looking for something different and interesting. Seeing it in person always sold the plant.

This is climbing up a redbud tree and has some hefty root competition but has managed to grow nicely and reach for the stars with its curling tendrils. 

Same genus, different species: Holboellia angustifolia var. angustifolia is about the same in its cultural requirements and has white to pinkish flowers. With narrower leaves, it has a more delicate appearance. This one in the gardens of Joy Creek Nursery was always a little smaller than its cousin above, but what a gorgeous vine. This is planted at the base of an Acer macrophyllum in my shade garden and has been really slow to grow.

Here's a weird and wonderful vine, Ercilla spicata (syn. Ercilla volubilis). This is another evergreen vine, somewhat self-clinging with the oddest little pink flowers. Coming from Chile, it does well in sun to part shade and regular, even moisture.

The bloom show is short-lived, but its evergreen nature gives it reason alone to grow it. I adore these pink fuzzy blooms.

Here it is with tight little buds before its spring flower show. Full disclosure: My vine had a hard year. It started looking like its leaves were turning that tell-tale buff color which eventually morphed to black. I think with this summer's neglect of the garden, its watering requirements were overlooked. It's still alive but I had to cut it back hard. New growth is coming from the base so I have hopes it will recover.

Rosa 'KORwest' (Westerland) is a climbing rose, one of the only fancy hybrid roses I grow. It's of course not self-clinging, its long canes need securing on a support so although it's not really a vine, it is added here for its vertical nature when grown on a trellis. Plus the colors are so juicy on this one. Full sun and good soil makes it perform at its best.

Grapes are the drought-tolerant vine that could. I have I think five grape vines in our garden, only one of which can I identify. This one growing near our veggie garden was given to us by a friend and I have lost its name. The great thing about grapes, besides that they are drought tolerant, is that they often have fabulous autumn foliage color and of course fruit.

Same plant earlier in the year.

This is Vitis vinifera 'Purpurea' and let me tell you, while the foliage is a gorgeous red purple all season, its grapes are garbage. Leave them for the birds (they only seem to eat them when desperate). This is also a less vigorous grape than some of the edible varieties - this is grown for decorative purposes.

Parthenocissus henryana, silvervein creeper is a self-clinging deciduous vine. It's not as rampant as its cousin Parthenocissus quinquefolia, Virginia creeper. It can tolerate shade though the best autumn color comes with at least part sun. This was planted the first year we moved here and has really not taken over at all. It grows on its own up this support (obscured by foliage) and up onto the roof of our carport overhang.

It has lovely silver veining on the center of each leaflet.

Here it is just beginning to turn shades of red, pink and orange before dropping its leaves for the season. I highly recommend this plant, especially if you are needing a vine for a north-facing site.

Jasminum officinale 'Frojas' FIONA SUNRISE - while it's never been a super robust plant, it is lovely. A deciduous vine, it loses its leaves in winter but the stems persist. With a golden color, it brightens up green areas.

I also have Jasminum officinale 'Devon Cream' which has lovely cream colored flowers and a great fragrance. These lovely vines do well in sun to part shade and if happy need fairly regular pruning to keep them in check, though I have not had that problem.

I also have Jasminum × stephanense which is a naturally occurring cross between J. officinale and J. beesianum. It's in an out of the way, neglected location to fend for itself and I know it's alive, but I have never photographed it.

Closing out this post with a lovely Clematis montana var. grandiflora, a vine I planted which died, replaced with a pink flowering form which also died. I gave up then a couple of years ago its roots magically came to life and it grew into a fine vine that now lives intermingled with a second not very interesting ornamental cherry tree. The lesson here? Not sure but I sure feel fortunate it decided to grow. This is much prettier than a barren, boring cherry. So I say when you run out of room in your garden, grow up - look at that vertical space with garden potential.

While my garden is a challenging one for vines to thrive (lots of root competition due to my insistence for planting them at the base of trees), there are enough out there for me to do an inventory and get my wheels turning as far as thinking about adding more that are successful and creating a little more sparkle in my garden. I find that in time, if given enough care at the outset of planting, even with root competition, vines in my garden will get growing and be a valuable part of the entire tapestry of plants that stretches from groundcovers all the way to the tops of fences and trees. There are lots of creative ways to use vines in the garden, we'd love to hear some of your suggestions and ideas.

That's a wrap for this week at Chickadee Gardens. As always, thank you so much for reading and commenting, we do love hearing from you all! Happy gardening.

A few others in the garden but not pictured:
Trachelospermum asiaticum 'Ogon Nishiki'

Clematis 'Polish Spirit'

Aristolochia sempervirens

Other vines I have just flat out killed:

Bignonia 'Tangerine Beauty'

Billardiera longiflora