Tropical Vines

Tropical Vines in your garden are a great way to create a wall of color. You can achieve a large amount of plant material in a very small space because they grow vertically, rather than spreading horizontally. They can be trained to grow on a high or short fence, a wall or even on a tree or old shed. If you have none of these, they can be trained to climb up a single wire. I had a friend in Atlanta who lived in a third floor condo, but that didn't stop him from enjoying his favorite wisteria vine. He ran a wire from the top of his bedroom window, down to the ground, then he planted the wisteria at the base and let it do its thing. In 2 years time, it was quite spectacular.

Vines are a lot like people....some are very aggressive, while others are quite well behaved. Most have amazing flushes of brilliantly colored blooms during their peak blooming time. Here in my Central Florida garden I created a fence for vines made from the usual 4x4s embedded in concrete in the ground, then the standard 2x4 horizontal pieces, but instead of fence boards, I used 8 foot bamboo pieces spaced about 8 inches apart. At the base of each eight foot section I planted one of six different vines to see what they would do. I eventually had to remove the most aggressive one, a red passion vine, because it was trying to take over the entire fence and my nearby grapefruit tree, but the others stayed in their appointed section, offering yearly exhibitions of dazzling color.

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