VINES

It has suddenly occurred to me that I have not talked about vines. I love vines. They are so useful in the garden. They add height. Most have beautiful flowers. They are generally easy to grow. They can hide just about anything you don't want exposed.

Most people are familiar with Morning Glories (Ipomoea sp). Drive along a country road and you're sure to see at least one mailbox covered with morning glories. As the name implies, the funnel shaped morning glory flowers open in the morning and generally remain open until midday. I have the old-fashioned purple variety that begin blooming mid summer. Although this vine is an annual, it reseeds readily.

The first time I saw Hyacinth Bean (Lablab purpureus) at the entrance to the demonstration gardens at Michigan State University I fell in love. It was late summer and the pink flowers, electric-purple seed pods, and purple leaves were gorgeous. Some of the seed pods had dropped to the ground so I helped myself to a few of those. I have grown hyacinth bean vine in my garden ever since and I have shared seeds with many friends.

I have added PassionFlower vine (Passiflora incarnata) to my garden a couple of times in the past. Before this year I always got vigorous vine growth but no flowers. This year I purchased a seedling that was already in bud and lo, I've been blessed with many beautiful passionflowers. Passionflowers are native to Tropical America. The name 'passion flower' is said to derive from a resemblance of the blue passion flower to the crown of thorns. Others say the parts of the plant symbolize features of The Passion of Christ.

The Moon Flower vine (Ipomoea alba) is a fast grower with large heart-shaped leaves. The tubular white flowers are fragrant and open at night. My moon flower is trained over my garden window so I have the best chance of viewing the flowers before they fold up with daylight.

A relatively unknown vine is Spanish Flag (Mina lobata). It's narrow, tubular flowers are grouped in stalks. Flower buds are scarlet, turn orange when they bloom, then yellow and finally white-cream. The flowers of the Candy Corn vine (Manettia luteorubra) look exactly like my favorite Halloween candy. This attention-getter has been blooming all summer. Another lesser used vine is Canary Creeper (Tropaeolum peregrinum) which I mentioned in my previous post.

My perennial vines include a couple of species of Clematis, Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), Porcelain (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata) and Moon vines.