Enthusiastic vines excellent additions for impatient gardeners

The principal value of a private garden is to teach patience and philosophy, and the higher virtues – hope deferred, and expectations blighted, leading directly to resignation, and sometimes, to alienation. – Charles Dudley Warner, 1888, “My Summer in the Garden”

Well, Mr. Warner did not have the help of gardening advice in the Bangor Daily News.

There is an old saying about woody vines: “The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year they leap.” Initially, planting vines could create in the gardener a sense of frustration, of “hopes deferred,” as they merely sit there, asleep, teaching patience. But the final results are worth the wait and, as gardens are shrinking in size, the use of vertical space for growing good woody plants is becoming increasingly popular.

The following three vines, while lending veracity to the above adage, do so with vigor. Even in their sleep they bloom (often even in the pot on the garden center bench) and their year of creeping is equivalent to the leaps of other, less enthusiastic plants. They are among the best answers to the common question of how to cover a fence or wall with foliage and flower as quickly as possible.

Horticulturists are undivided in declaring Golden Clematis (Clematis tangutica) the handsomest of yellow-flowered clematis. Its bright yellow, 3- to 4-inch flowers first appear on established plants in July and the flower show continues for the rest of summer and into autumn. As each solitary nodding flower fades, it is replaced by silky seed heads which persist into winter. This is one of the few species of Clematis which bear flowers and seed heads at the same time, creating a striking display of color and texture.

Golden Clematis is rated winter hardy to Zone 5 and thus will grow best in coastal Maine gardens and sheltered areas of inland gardens. It develops into a multi-stemmed and freely-branching vine which will easily reach 10 or more feet in length and several feet wide. Because it flowers on new growth, it seldom needs pruning, except to keep it from disturbing other plants in the garden. It should be given space to ramble.

I remember first seeing ‘Cedar Lane’ Trumpet Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens, Zone 4) at its birthplace, Cedar Lane Farms, in Georgia. Among the many selections of trumpet honeysuckle, this one is special. With blue foliage and deep vermilion red flowers, it creates a striking color display in June. Typical for the species, the flowers are followed by bright red fruit, which persist into winter. As multi-branched vines growing to 20 feet or higher, trumpet honeysuckles need space and support. Tied to bamboo stakes when planted, a two-year-old plant can grow over 6 feet in height the first year with multiple intertwining stems.

Among woody vines, none are as fast-growing as Fiveleaf Akebia (Akebia quinata, Zone 4).

Grow Fiveleaf Akebia for its dark, bluish-green, palmately-compound leaves holding glistening beads of water after a summer rain. Or for its fragrant purple flowers in spring, or its ability to thrive in either full sun or partial shade. Or simply for its enthusiasm.

Send queries to Gardening Questions, P.O. Box 418, Ellsworth 04605, or to reesermanley@shead.org. Include name, address and telephone number.