Vines Create Artful Views In Yard

When Margaret Connor had to remove an old tulip poplar tree from her back yard about four years ago, she asked the tree service to leave about 6 feet of the trunk.

She wanted to use the trunk as a bird-seed platform.

Connor has the eye of an artist and the instincts of a gardener, and the more she looked at that dead trunk, the more she thought it needed a little dressing up.

So she planted a coral honeysuckle vine on one side and purple hyacinth beans on the other. Both are blooming profusely this summer, creating a two-tone piece of living garden art.

Vines can create one-of-a-kind artwork in any yard.

Train a vine to climb a piece of trellis to block an ugly view or give a little privacy.

Want to soften a wire fence, a garage-door opening or a concrete block wall? Vines are up to the task.

Judy Sackett has trained Heavenly Blue morning glories along a backyard wire fence. And they are heavenly, easily distracting your eye from the wire.

Andy Moore, a Lexington, Ky., landscape architect specializing in residential design, frequently uses vines, especially in several enclosed gardens he has designed.

“Getting vines overhead (on an arbor or archway) or on a bare wall gives you plenty of green without taking up a lot of space,” he said.

A single vine might climb 20 feet yet take up only 1 square foot of ground.

“If you don’t have room for a tree, you can train a vine up a structure,” Moore said. “That way you have the foliage, but you don’t have to worry about trimming a tree and keeping it confined all the time.”

A vine climbing a trellis also creates vertical interest in a garden, Moore said.

“It helps get a garden up off the ground and adds another element of visual interest, in addition to plants,” he said.

If you need to hide an ugly spot, “like the side of my house,” Moore said, entrust the job to a hard-working vine.

An addition was built onto Moore’s house, and the new bricks did not match the old ones.

“I rejected the option of painting my house,” he said.

Instead, he’s going to let a native vine, Virginia creeper, hide the mismatched brick. Virginia creeper has dark purple fruit and glossy leaves that turn deep scarlet in the fall.

Another advantage of a deciduous vine, like Virginia creeper, Moore said, is it gives shade in the summer. After the leaves fall, it lets in the sun.

Vines pull themselves up by various means. Some twine their stems; others have tendrils; English ivy uses roots.

There are two kinds of vines: annual and perennial.

Annual vines - they have only one season to sprout, grow and produce seed to guarantee future offspring - can give color and coverage in short order. These include purple hyacinth bean, morning glory, cardinal flower (or cypress vine) and scarlet runner beans. The passion flower vine is especially rambunctious Team one of these with a night-blooming moon vine to have a beautiful trellis day and night.

The choice of perennial vines is wide. For spring color, there’s purple wisteria. But choose a site carefully. A single vine wants to cover the side of a building, and aggressive stems can pry off roof shingles.

For early summer beauty, go with a large-flowering clematis. For late summer, select a trumpet vine or sweet autumn blooming clematis. Sweet autumn clematis is covered with small, pristine white flowers that are highly fragrant.

For a formal setting, there’s climbing hydrangea, which is slow growing but can easily grow 50 feet.

BOOKS These books might give you ideas about designs for a trellis or arbor, plus many different vines to grow: “Morning Glories & Moonflowers,” by Anne Halpin (Simon & Schuster) “Making Bentwood Trellises,” by Jim Long (Storey Books) “Vines & Climbers,” by Cathy Wilkinson Barash (Crescent Books)