Care for and decorate your garden with climbing plants to bring fragrance and create security for your home.BaoHa

Climbing plants, also known as vines, grow naturally in tropical and temperate forests. Some use tendrils to anchor themselves to supports, while others — such as English ivy — use suckers to grip. Many climbers need to be trained to grow on trellises or wires, often with plant ties or twine to keep them heading in the right direction. As garden plants, climbers are useful for covering or disguising unattractive structures, but they’re also invaluable for linking tall buildings to the garden below and for softening architectural forms.

They’re also perfect for small gardens, balconies, urban courtyards and other places where vertical space is one of the best options for planting. Climbing plants are a versatile lot, grown for their flowers, foliage, scent or even fruit. And many can be trained to grow in other ways, as shrubs, standards or ground covers, just as an example. Read on for inspiring reasons to include these versatile verticals in your garden.

Eckersley Garden Architecture

Connect to the garden. Training plants over a pergola will soften the people-made materials, intensifying the connection between the structure and adjoining building and the garden. Plants are a cost-effective way to create shade, and the light quality beneath green plants has a delightful dappled appearance. If deciduous climbers are used, sunlight can still penetrate below the pergola during winter.
There are disadvantages when using plants though, including leaf, flower and berry drop, insect attraction, and the fact that they provide little protection from rain.

Tip: Pergolas also need to be strong enough to support the weight of climbers, which can be heavy when mature.

Jeff Herr Photography

Soften a wall. Who can resist the beauty of a stone wall covered with a beautiful flowering rose? There are hundreds of climbing roses to choose from, with some, such as this ‘Lady Banks’, more disease-resistant than others. Some have scent, and many will repeat-flower or bloom for long periods if planted in the right position.

Tip: Climbing roses need to be tied to their support structure (use flexible plant ties, soft string or even strips of pantyhose).

Arcadia Studio

Create romance. Wisteria is another traditional favorite for adorning pergolas and walls, adding a romantic softness to the garden. Prized for its spectacular scented purple, pink or white flowers, wisteria is deciduous, hardy to frost and very long-lived. It can become rampant in some gardens, though, so choose your species carefully. Chinese wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) is a very vigorous variety, while cultivars of Japanese wisteria (W. floribunda) are said to behave better.

Wisteria can also be trained as a standard, a good solution in small gardens.

Donna Lynn – Landscape Designer

Color up. For dazzling color over long periods, you can’t beat bougainvillea. The flamboyant South American native is another very robust vine, but if you have the space and a strong support to grow bougainvillea, you’ll be rewarded with masses of color for long periods — as well as regular visits from butterflies and other pollinators.

Bougainvillea needs plenty of sun, shelter from cold wind, and well-drained soil. It’s ideal for coastal gardens since it can tolerate salt-laden winds.

Tip: Some people even grow bougainvillea along walls for security purposes, as its spiny branches are quite the burglar deterrent. Vines can be cut back ruthlessly when necessary.

Secret Gardens

Grow in pots. Bougainvillea is one of those versatile climbing plants, like star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), that can be grown as a shrub and look superb in large containers on the deck or terrace.

Tip: Choose a compact variety like ‘Raspberry Ice’ for this.

Craig Bergmann Landscape Design

Bring tropical beauty. The bold, beautiful flowers of many climbing plants can add an exotic touch to the garden. Some of the most delightful are subtropical types such as passionflower (Passiflora), clematis (pictured), blood-red trumpet vine (Distictis buccinatoria) and Brazilian jasmine (Mandevilla splendens ‘Alice du Pont’).

8 Flowering Vines to Plant This Spring for Tropical Style

Laara Copley-Smith Garden & Landscape Design

Add perfume. Scent gives an extra sensory dimension to gardens, and there are plenty of climbers with exquisitely fragrant flowers to choose from. Used extensively in gardens for its perfumed white flowers and dark green foliage that looks good all year round, confederate jasmine — shown here — needs little introduction. And the trumpet-shaped white blooms of subtropical Madagascar jasmine (Stephanotis floribunda) are even more beautifully perfumed.

Many clematis produce scented flowers, as do yellow-flowered Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens), lemon-scented jasmine (Jasminum azoricum), snail flower (Vigna caracalla) and vanilla-scented chocolate vine (Akebia quinata), so named for its chocolate-purple flowers.

Scents and Sensibility: The Aromatherapy Garden

Art in Green

Go to ground. Besides covering walls and other structures, confederate jasmine is often used as a ground cover, as shown here, or a clipped shrub.

Lilac vine (Hardenbergia violacea) is another climber that scrambles happily over the ground, covering hillsides and banks with a profusion of purple flowers.

Connelly Construction, LLC

Make a pattern. Many climbers can be trained to grow around wires or other supports in patterns, creating a stunning focal point on a bare wall in the garden. Here, confederate jasmine has been trained to grow in a diamond pattern on the wall of this house in Melbourne, Australia.

Care and Training for a Vine-Covered Home

Normark Landscapes

Provide fall color. Many deciduous vines, such as the Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) used here, have foliage that turns a stunning color in autumn. Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) and ornamental grapes (Vitis vinifera ‘Purpurea’ or V. amurensis) are other options.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply