Vines may help enforce deer fence

A few years back, while I was working at the Orono campus and living on Marsh Island, I was accosted as I entered the grocer’s by a local newspaper reporter who wanted to know what I thought about the deer problem on the island and what should be done about it. I suggested putting birth control chemicals in the drinking water. I was quoted in the paper later that week, but with a serious misunderstanding on the part of the reporter – he thought I meant the drinking water of the deer.

So now, those of you who keep asking me for advice on keeping deer away from the garden, you know how I feel about the matter. I suspect we top their list of invasive species.

I am more responsive to the question of what to plant that deer will likely leave alone. For example, we build fences to keep deer out of the garden and then search for a vine that will cover the fence and not be browsed from the other side. I have two recommendations, made with the assurance that I will hear from someone on how wrong I was.

Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquifolia) and American bittersweet (Celastrus scandens), both native to Maine, are found on lists of vines that are seldom severely damaged by deer. Of the two, Virginia creeper, also called woodbine in Maine, is more familiar and far more available at local nurseries.

Recommending woodbine are its fast growth rate and the brilliant red color of its palmately compound leaves in autumn. The berries, also ornamental, ripen in late summer and are quickly eaten by birds, mice, skunks, and chipmunks. I do recall snowy winters in Orono when clusters of the dried blue fruits hung like ornaments from leafless stems that traced the outer walls of campus halls – places where no bird or rodent dared to go.

Over the years I have accumulated a photographic portfolio of Virginia creeper growing into tree canopies and upon walls, trellises and high fences, always admiring its exuberance, a character some label as invasive. A native plant, however, cannot be invasive, only aggressive, fast-growing. Isn’t this what we want when it comes to covering a fence?

American bittersweet’s chief ornamental feature is its fruit display. The round, orange-yellow capsules open in autumn to surround scarlet-colored seed pods that remain on the plant well into winter and provide food for songbirds, game birds and squirrels.

For successful berry production, both male and female plants are required. One male will pollinate up to five females planted within 30 feet. Best fruit production occurs in full sun, although the vine itself will tolerate partial shade.

Few nurseries in the local area are likely to sell American bittersweet. If a grower or business owner who reads this column lets me know that they have it, I will pass it on. Meanwhile, a quick check of the Internet revealed several online sources.

A word of caution: American bittersweet is related to the non-native invasive Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus), a vine that is displacing the native bittersweet in New England as it strangles and smothers native shrubs and trees. It is important to make this distinction, to plant only the native species.

Send queries to Gardening Questions, P.O. Box 418, Ellsworth 04605, or to reesermanley@ptc-me.net. Include name, address and telephone number.