Please advise!!!

Hi all,
First time posting here, also first time homeowner. In my backyard we have an aboveground pool with a deck around part of it. I will attempt to post a picture of it. I had an idea to plant lots of annual vines to go up the deck to cover that awful (in my opinion) color - painting the thing probably ain't gonna happen this year, we'll be lucky to get the pool up and running since we are new to all this! I am growing moonflowers, will be planting Grandpa Ott's morning glories along with a blue morning glory, and I already have several pots of Passiflora Blue Bahama from a local greenhouse. What do you all think of putting those around the deck and training them to grow up the deck? Thank you all in advance, I really love this forum and have been lurking for several months now!! I am in zone 6a.

Also, just after I took the pic, I saw a big bunny rabbit in the backyard. What kind of things are they prone to get into/eat/dig up, etc etc - Before I get my veggie garden going! I'll have to figure out how the bugger gets into the fenced yard.

Thx!
Lack

Welcome to DG.

Just this morning I posted that I'd love to have 100' to grow many varieties of MG's. They reseed wildly. I happen to have grown Grandpa Ott and it's seeds will probably give me many hours of weeding for years to come. They can get out of hand but since you want to cover the color it will be lovely. They hardly need training as they're quite capable of climbing - it's in their genes!

By November you'll be removing the dead vines so please keep that in mind. The kids could be a big help with that job.

Rabbits, here, love all kinds of lilies from Asiatics to Orientals. Blood meal can help keep them away but if you have a dog it will love digging around the blood meal - a real Catch-22.

I love your idea, but I think I'd also put a bunch of Clematis there. They will come back every year, bigger and bigger, and don't have to remove the vines when they go dormant for the winter. Here's a picture of one I have growing on a trellis on the side of my house. It's called "Candida." Pay a visit over to the clematis forum for some more ideas and info. Have fun planting!



This message was edited Apr 14, 2007 11:33 AM

Hi, lack. You've been lurking for months and haven't said a word? how could you resist?

I think your idea sounds great. It will attract bees, but they will be more interested in the flowers than the people. and it should also attract butterflies and hummingbirds. I'm planning on combining morning glory Heavenly Blue, moonflower, and maypop (passiflora incarnata) on the side of my house this year.

As for the bunny, the only thing they ever really bothered in my veggie garden was beets. ate the greens to the ground every time.

Hi and welcome lack. I though I sensed you lurking! I agree with Pirl on the MG's. They are beautiful but they can become a nightmare. DON'T plant Star of Yelta. It's been a disaster for me. I love Clematis and strongly encourage that, though they will not cover it this year. Try some other annual vines - Hyacinth bean (Lablab purpureus) is a nice one that I have used. You can even grow veggies up it! Have fun and good luck.

I keep hearing about how all these different plants keep resowing - do you promise??? I would relish something - anything that would resow itself. Then I could believe I was doing something right!

I would like kids clothes that re-sew themselves.

Victor, You are on a roll!
Lack is it all sunny? There are great climbing roses (maybe too much thorn?). Trumpet vine. Shade is tougher.

Oh! Cup & saucer vine

Thanks Dave. I'm guessing mostly sunny since it's a pool area. Funny, I don't think the lattice color is so bad!

By the way, I just installed a willow fence - attached it to a chain link. Gives a nice look - natural, semi-private and easy to do.

Hi all and thank you for the replies! Yes, that area is sun all day. I am putting in my veggie garden back there, so thanks for the bunny low-down. As for the color of the lattice, well, it's not brown and not red, it's this kinda color that just doesn't seem to fit so well with my vision I guess. It could be worse. I'd prefer a more natural brown or stain perhaps. Alas, I have so many big plans for the yard however it will take a long time to do absolutely everything I want!! Patience is key I guess, especially with clematis. Boy, I could go nuts ordering those plants but I have to restrain myself. One thing at a time!!!

Very true. Good luck sticking to it!

Well you could always plant a few clematis and then fill in with some other annual type vines...that might help. It would also fill in the blanks while you are waiting for the clematis.

Oh by the way - welcome to the board :)

Take the Clematis advice. You can plant varieties that bloom from spring to late fall.
Although MG'S are attractive, Clematis is very low maintainence and the choices
are endless. For your planting zone and the sun exposure you have, go clematis.
The 'paniculata' is a must for late summer and 'jackmanni' is awesome
for summer. http://www.parkseed.com/product_images/43151.jpg

As for annuals try mandevilla. They rock!!
http://www.floridata.com/ref/m/mandev.cfm

Our mandevilla vines have to be brought in each year. Don't yours?

Would you bring the Morning Glories inside every year?
I was suggesting the mandevilla vine as merely a compliment to
the Perennial Clematis, If Lack liked that look.
I replace annuals every year.

Welcome, Lack, and congratulations on your new home.

Planting annuals until you figure out how you want to manage this area is a good idea or until perennial vines get big enough to hide the fence. You may be able to plant your passion flowers in large pots so that you can bring them inside for the winter, as I'm pretty sure they are tender perennials. The Vines and Climbers forum here on DG has many Passiflora devotees who may be able to give you more information.

One of my favorite annual vines that will fill and hide the fence for this year is scarlet runner bean (though the bunnies may eat it if you can't fence them out.) The flowers are a bright orange-scarlet and attract humming birds. The very young beans can be eaten as string beans, and any pods that don't get picked young can be left to reach full size to eat as shell beans or dried in the pod to be used as dry beans or be used for next year's seed. Another annual vine that no one has mentioned is blackeyed susan vine. I don't know much about it, so you would need to look it up to see if it meets your requirements.

I love clematis, but I wouldn't expect them to get big enough to hide anything for this year. If you do plant clematis as well as annual vines, make sure the annuals don't crowd the clematis and be sure they get plenty of rich soil and water so they grow well. Clematis like their roots cool, but no mulch against the stems. There are three basic pruning types: type I needs little pruning, just any shaping you want to do, and blooms spring into early summer; type II gets pruned right after blooming which is spring into early summer; type III gets pruned during the winter or early spring before growth starts and then blooms summer into fall. It's easiest to manage if you have all your plants in one area from the same pruning type so you don't have to remember which one to prune when.

Let us know what you end up doing and take some more pictures during the summer.

PKG - Sorry for any confusion. I paid $15.00 for each of my mandevilla vines so I felt she might not want to be buying a dozen of them every year but to each his/her own.

No problem pirl. I'm sorry if you took what I said wrong.
Sometimes typed words are taken wrong because we
read sarcasim or anger into simply a sentence or question.
I meant only 2 mandevilla vines or annual vines and the rest consist
of perennial clematis varieties. Love Johnny!

Thanks again for the continued suggestions. As you can see in the pic, there is lots of room and fence for vines and such. I will look into all those other plants today!!