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Index : Landscape Plants
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- 9. Vibrant Vines Provide Landscape Color - Top
- A great way to add color to your home landscape is with the planting of flowering vines. We certainly have lots of places to grow them with so many of our properties surrounded by bare, unattractive walls just begging to be covered with luxuriant vines. Fences, trellises, arbors and mailboxes also provide vertical spaces to grow and show flowering vines. Here are some fine, vine choices for your home landscape: Coral Vine (Antigonon leptopus) is one of the showiest of all the flowering vines. Electric coral pink flower sprays begin spilling out over it’s dense canopy of foliage in late August. Blooming continues profusely until the first frost in late November. Coral vine is deciduous and dies back to the ground during the winter, but once established it will grow back rapidly from the roots in the spring. Not for the faint of heart, Coral Vine is so vigorous that a single plant can cover a 40 foot section of wall or rocket to the top of a Mesquite tree in a single season. Climbing by means of twining vines, Coral Vine needs the support of open weave fencing, lattice, or trellising placed against flat wall surfaces. The only drawback to this vine is that stems and dead leaves must be removed after the vine dies back in late fall.
Hyacinth Bean (Lablab purpureus)is another flowering vine for fall color. Purple, sweet pea-shaped flowers bloom from late summer to mid-fall and are followed by large magenta purple bean-like pods. Hyacinth bean is an annual vine, easy to grow from seeds collected from the pods in late fall and planted in garden soil in the spring. Twining vines grow rapidly to 10 feet, producing large blue-green leaves in sets of three. As with all twining vines, Hyacinth Bean needs the support of a trellis, arbor or open fencing to grow over. No fertilization is required for this legume, just grow it in full sun and give it ample water to thrive.
Bougainvillea (Bougainvillea spectabilis)is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular of all flowering vines. Modified leaves at the branch ends turn flourescent red, pink, or purple. Bougainvilleas have so many flowers that the leaves can hardly be seen. A heat-lover, this plant grows well with the support of a trellis, arbor, or leaning against a fence or wall. It can also be trained into a free-standing shrub. Native to Brazil, bougainvillea needs the warmth and protection of a south facing wall for winter
protection here in Tucson. The red blooming variety ‘Barbara Karst’is the most cold hardy. When planting bougainvillea, roots are delicate and should be disturbed as little as possible. Water moderately to establish, but don’t overdue! Leaves yellow when over-watered. Once established apply rose food, once or twice a year to keep plants blooming nearly non-stop!
Pink Trumpet Vine (Podranea ricasoliana),is adorned with spectacular, large trumpet-shaped pink flowers with red veins set against glossy dark-green leaves. Flowers appear in clusters in summer and again in fall. It’s small size (10 to
15 feet), lends itself to confined garden spots. Pink trumpet vine should be planted in warmer locations. Tops will freeze back at around
25 degrees, but the plant recovers quickly form the roots in the spring.
Once established, trumpet vine is moderately drought tolerant. Good drainage is a must.
Other vibrant vines to consider include; Pink Trumpet Vine (Podranea ricasoliana,) Purple
Hardenbergia (Hardenbergia violacea, Yellow Carolina Jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens) and Orange-Red Trumpet Vine (Campsis radicans).
- Updated: November 19, 2006
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