I am planning to add two large planters with a trellis connecting them to my patio area. I want to put brugs in the planters with some nice colorful underplantings, but I can't decide on the vine for the trellis. Clematis and roses don't do well here. Morning glories or clitoria vine are a possibility but then it will be bare in winter. I don't want thunbergia or wisteria b/c they take over plus I already have them other places. Passiflora possibly? Solanums? A mixture? Any suggestions of something I've never heard of? We can grow bouganvillaeas down here but for some reason I haven't had much luck with getting them to bloom. I want something knock-your-socks-off gorgeous, since its right where I sit everyday. Scent is nice but optional. The planters will be "on the system" ie. timer waters them everyday, and full sun, z9b. Sorry bout the long post - just wanted to give all the details so you vinous virtuosos can do your stuff.
Suggestions from vine experts please?!!
Passifloras might be perfect for that. The blooms are gorgeous and you can eat the fruits;)
Or how about Bleeding Heart Vine?
http://images.google.fi/images?q=%20Clerodendrum%20thomsoniae&hl=fi&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
Or Coral Vine? http://images.google.fi/images?q=Antigonon+Leptopus&ie=UTF-8&hl=fi&btnG=Google-haku
Hey, this one I just remembered. Dutch Pipe-Aristolochia littoralis? It's gorgeous. http://images.google.fi/images?hl=fi&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=Aristolochia+littoralis&btnG=Hae
Thanks for the input Mitjo - I am trying to avoid putting in anything that is deciduous here, like the Bleeding heart or the Coral vine. I love pipe vines but I seem to have trouble with them - they just take forever to get going and I want instant gratification!!
I just realized I have a Blue Potato vine/shrub (Lycianthes rantonnetii) growing in my garden that I ought to move since its getting shaded out. I think I may do that on one side and a passiflora on the other, unless somebody (where are you Moodene?) comes up with something really unusual.
Liz, how about one of those pink or yellow mandevilla vines? My yellow is shrubby and healthy -- got it at Home Depot. I think you have to protect it in winter though.
Or how about the Dioscorea batatas? How grows like the fastest weed ever seen but it's very beautiful. And if it dies you can grow a new one in few weeks.
Though the Discorea batatas is a pretty neat plant, I would stay away from planting it in warm climates. I can literally take over not just your yard but the entire block or more in no time. This is a pest/invasive weed in Florida. It's killing off some of the native plants. Just thought I would post this.
Maybe Bower vine
http://www.desert-tropicals.com/Plants/Bignoniaceae/Pandorea_jasminoides.html
Lace Vine
http://home.hiwaay.net/~oliver/silverlace.htm
Blue Dawn Morning Glory (perennial & sets no seeds)
http://plantsdatabase.com/go/51653/
And there are numerous trumpet vines, depending on which color you like.
Donna
One my favorites is from the Evergreen Clematis family........
http://plantsdatabase.com/go/55613/
http://www.oviatt-ham.demon.co.uk/evergrn.html
Marc
RikerBear
This message was edited Jun 23, 2004 3:21 PM
Well I would use any of these... Rangoon Creepers,Passifloras,Evergreen Wisteria which ya can control,Pink orchid vine, Oxen Red eye,Big Hawaiian woodrose,Butterfly vine,Hawaiian Baby Woodrose,Sweetheart Vine, Sandpaper vine,Bow tie Vine,etc...any of them do well in my zone 9b...
I suggest that you go down to the NO Botanical garden and just walk around the grounds and greenhouse. Then ask to see the horticulturalist and ask him what works. I have done that myself and he was very nice. In fact, I was in a wheelchair at the time. He actually sent a man around with me to DIG pieces of what I really liked for $5 a plant. He was a SAINT.
I can't say what they are like now, but it is worth a try.
good thread
Flicker I can't believe they actually let you dig stuff at NOBG!!! Maybe I could rent a wheelchair...
Anyway thanks for all the help. I will ponder all your suggestions. I have installed the solanum that I already had, so I just need to find something for the other side. Here is a pic of what it looks like now. The solanum is a bit shocked, poor thing, but I'm misting it every few hours and I'm sure it will recover.
What a neat idea for the trellis base! Come on now.... tell about that little house. Liz, your yard is lovely.
Check out my thread under Dave's Garden. BTW those are big plastic tubs from Sav A Center - the ones you are supposed to use to ice down your beer. I spray painted bands on them as a disguise. Might not last more than a couple years but heck they were dirt cheap!
The little blue house is a chicken coop. Its totally adorable and completely fails to contain the chickens. Hence the new big tall ugly fence around it. I'm working on covering that one with vines from Moodene!
I also pride myself on using only locally available, authentic Louisiana rocks in my garden. The resemblance to chucks of concrete is really amazing.
OH!! delphinium, what a great!!! yard!
I hope mine looks as great as yours one day. All the pretty stuff to look at.
Thanks Osteole - 5 years of work, sweat and tears. Will we ever move - I don't think!
"Locally available, authentic Louisiana rocks..." LOL.
Hey I can throw those hated vines out my car window for ya to catch...LOL...when I am coming back home from the road trip in July...sent ya an e-mail...LOL..
ROCKS!!!!!!! CHICKENS!!!!!!!! METAIRIE!!!!!!!
I have to cross the lake more often. Things sure have changed.
Johanna
Covington, La.
Don't worry Flicker - Metairie has not changed a bit, cept for the real estate prices. Somebody has to shake up the neighbors around here (neighBOORs as in boring: you know, the 1 dog, 1 cat, 3-ligustrum-and-4-hawthorne-in-a-row kind). And I just hate to see all that good concrete going to waste.
Moo I will be outside with a net.
I wanna see the chickens!!!!
Delphinium, when I get the rest of my fence up, I'm gonna try to sneak two fat hens into the garden, but I might have to tie little muzzles over their mouths to keep them quiet. Think the neighbors will notice? LOL.
Do you have neighborhood regs against poultry? We don't in Jefferson parish but Orleans does. You may be able to keep chickens just no roos. They make very little noise and the eggs are DIVINE! Once you try them you just can't go back...
I called the animal-control office and asked, and was told that if I want to keep chickens, I have to keep them in the HOUSE. Yeah, right!
I agree -- NO roosters. No need for them. I figured that one or two hens wouldn't cause a problem or make noise. Any quiet cluckings would certainly be drowned out by the ever-present sounds of barking dogs, lawn mowers, leaf blowers, edge trimmers, chain saws, power tools, etc. -- the folks around here attack their lawns on an almost daily basis.
I thought that living in a neighborhood of mostly-retired folks would be quiet. And there is a hospital and a police station nearby, so add constant sirens to the list. I need a pair of ear-plugs! LOL. (Still, I love this neighborhood).
P.S. -- And in the thumbnail picture, above, all I saw, at first, was the sheep. I thought, "She gets eggs from a sheep?"
(giggle, snort)
They actually SAID that? Who are they hiring?
Yeah, you know, those egg-laying sheep. The kind that can sleep at the foot of the bed. Animal control would love em. Not!
The chickens used to use the sheep as a step ladder to go to roost - hilarious.
If the neighbors bug you about the chickens you could always throw clover seed...no I'll be good. Isn't it funny how people are about their lawns? Our next door neighbor cuts his twice a week - running the mower in a different direction each time, like on a golf course. He HATES our setup and calls animal control all the time. They finally refused to come anymore. I am SO tempted to plant a nice sycamore right on our side of the fence...all those nice big leaves blowing everywhere in the fall...bad girl!
OH!!! what a cute Silky...I had them few years back..white ones and black ones...missed my chickens..
hey! I do that with my yard 8-) But im not fanatical about it either. There are lots of weeds that would drive some people nutso.
You are a bad girl Delphinum! *laughs*