What vine for sides of garage??

I just love vines and would like to plant 2 vines, one on each side of the garages. (see photo for red arrows) I can plant them into the ground.

The #1 concern is that they MUST NOT damage the rain columns on each side of the garages. I can add some sort of support (any ideas?) from the top of the eaves, and they could follow the eave (sp?) along the top (see photo for green outline). Wouldn't that look awesome?!

I would love opinions from both male & female gardeners. My husband likes the clean look without vines, and I think it needs something. Please help!

Oh forgot to mention that the very late setting afternoon sun reaches that area. It could be said that it is mostly in shade. :-)

I have a vine Parthenocissis Henryana planted on the northwest corner of my garage. It is very pretty in the fall , not a rampbuncious grower. I have it growing up a strip of white vinyl lattice. It does have one fault your husband might object too. In the spring when I thin out its vines it does leave small dried tendrils on the wall.Hope you find something you both will like. Donna

I would go with a Cardnalclimber vine,or is it called cypress(need more coffee),on string,if you don't like it, it can be removed easy.

Cardinal climber and cypress vine are very similar, and hummers love them! (Does your hubby lke hummingbirds? They
should do the trick, because they are annuals, and can be
easily yanked out this fall. Themn they will reseed and come up again in winter, or you can just get rid of the seedlings if you dont like the effect.

We are sorta-kinda in a similar situation: we built a new home less than a year ago, and hubby doesnt want HOLES anywhere!

I love moon vine and so does he- so I went to home dept and bught soe chicken wire and plant to make a column of the wire, freestanding around a pillar by the front porch and let em climb up there.

Also thinking about soing something similar up and over the sides of the mailbox out by the road. and planting more Morning glories, etc there.

Jules, I am the person from chat the other night who lives near you.

You need to get the cardinal climber or cypress vine seed planted very soon: the planting window is closing soon, due to the heat we have in the area. My Godmother thinks they
should be planted no latr than Feb, but I am behind and just barely put mine out to climb over a dead tree.

Love, Lavanda

Oh thank you both Lavanda and rootdoctor!

I will definitely plant cardinal climber and cypress vine this weekend! It sounds great and looks great from the photos that I have looked at. I especially like the chicken wire idea too.

Wish me luck, and I'll keep y'all posted about how it goes this summer.

Jules

Carolina Jessamine likes shade, has yellow blooms and is evergreen...

When I comes to beautiful flowering vines, my answer is ALWAYS consistently Clematis! Various varieties bloom is shade and also full sun. Some are evergreen, some are fragrant, but without a doubt, they are ALL beautiful! They also come in a wide spectrum of colors. Just provide a trellis for them to climb on and they will provide you endless beauty!

What a great idea, Shirley1md!
Would you know which clematis would do well in Zone 8, can take full afternoon sun and is evergreen?
I agree they are beautiful and if I remember correctly, they are not too aggressive.

If clematis does well in your area, I would try that. You can provide a little wire for it to grow in and that way you don't have to worry about something like ivy that will attach itself to your house. I like clematis because I can get it down really fast if I need to work on the house. Here's a shot of mine from last year.

That's exactly what I was looking for ... that look. Oh, it is sooooooo beautiful!

Please, please, please, tell me exactly how it climbed up and across the awning like that. What supports did you use? And it didn't damage anything, right? And it was easily removed, right? What did you do with it during the winter? Cut it down ... leave it ...? Which way is it facing? (North, South, etc)

Sorry about all the questions, but I NEED to know! I am definitely going to try the Clematis. How beautiful! Thanks!

This is Clematis Jackmanii. I drilled a few small holes and put plastic anchors in the wall (maybe I'll take some close-ups for you). I put a long screw that won't rust into the anchor and left maybe a few inches of the screw out to wrap a wire around. I'm in the phone business so I have spare phone wire and that's what I stretched between the screws. You can get better wire at a hardware store (something like electric fence wire would be perfect. I trained the vine up the wire as it grew. Once it's attached to the wire it holds on very well and you don't have to worry about it. This vine will NOT attach itself to your house. That's the beauty of it. You put the support up for it to grow on. The vine doesn't get very big either so you don't have to worry about it getting out of control. This one is no more than the diameter of my thumb at the base. It send multiple shoots up anyway...a few new shoots each season. If you need to cut it back to work on the house, no problem. Cut it back and it'll grow again to fill it in when you let it grow again. I only trim mine a little each spring to keep it looking the way I want. Other than that, I just let it do whatever it wants. I would never ever put a vine on my house that is too invasive, like ivy. I knew I could easily control this one.

Forgot to mention, this is facing north on one direction and west on the side where it's growing above he windows. It blooms very well in light shade on my house.

By the way, this is only 1 plant. It looks like you'd be better off with 2 plants so they can meet in the middle.

Here's another shot for you. I'll get the close-up of the support for you.



This message was edited Sunday, Apr 6th 7:08 PM

Here's the support...

and here's the base of the plant...

Note: that stick looking thing on the right isn't part of the plant. It was a maple branch I used to help it get some support when I first planted it. I should remove it but I haven't gotten to it yet :)

This message was edited Sunday, Apr 6th 7:11 PM

Wow! Thank you so much! This is soooo perfect for what I wanted.

My garage faces exactly North, and the right side of the photo that I posted, faces West. So it sounds just like your situation. I agree that I will need 2 plants, one for each side so that they will meet in the middle. And we love the idea that it will not harm any part of the house.

We have plenty of wire, since my hubby is into stereo wiring our house, so that was a great tip. We won't be able to put anything into the Stucco, but can put screws and wiring into the wood under the awning. And I will have to train them up to the awning with wire too.

Thank you again for your generous advice, pictures and time posting. I really appreciate it! You've been so helpful, as were the others that posted.

I just noticed that there is a Clematis Co-Op with Donahue's Clematis Nursery. Which plant do you think I should order? The Texensis "Gravetye Beauty" looks like it could look great with my Mediterranean style home? BUT, will it grow as well as yours, in my zone 8 (Dallas, TX)? Actually the color is not as important as it is that it grows well in my zone. Jackmanni ... is that a really good kind to get???

OK, enough with the questions ... I apologize ... I must be wearing you out! Thank you for all of your help. Bless You!

Jules

I'm not sure how well any clematis will do in your area. I see most of the zone listings have plenty of the varieties of clematis listed as being good for zone 8. I've heard clemtis like to have there heads in the sun and there feet (roots) in the shade (cool). Maybe as long as you try to do that they'll be ok. The other thing is...most people look at my ONE jackmanii clematis and think it's a freak of nature...because it's so big! Most places I check have it topping out at 10 feet tall or so. Mine is at least 25 feet tall/long in some places. Maybe they say 10 feet if you cut them back and let them re-grow each year?...I don't know. Like I said, I don't cut mine back at all until it grows into areas where I don't want it and then I'll prune it to keep it under control. Maybe you could try jackmanii and see if it looks like it grows well for you.

I've got another variety (not sure of the name right now) that I have planted under a young crabapple tree. I've seen this done on garden shows on TV. I'm anxious to see how it looks rambling up a crabapple. I bet it'll be pretty :) That's another reason I like clematis. It's not the type of vine that will choke off or kill other plants such as trees. Clematis grabs on very gently with new growth that comes out with the leaves...kinda like a long, small stem with leaves at the end. Here's the crabapple it's going under (this tree is maybe 5 years old now...and it's been in the ground at my house for maybe 3 or 4 years).




This message was edited Sunday, Apr 6th 9:47 PM

jules, why don't you show a little enthusiasm?, lol. I saw some nice clematis that kept the bell-flower shape, too, so you might want to look at those. I saw a cute tip somewhere, perhaps in Southern Living. Someone grew a clematis next to her lilac. After the lilac finished blooming, the clematis bloomed in the same tree and it looked like part of the tree. I could go for that. I have a small lilac started, but in my area, I will have to give it plenty of lime.

What can I say woodspirit1? I'm just so PAAAAASIONATE about my gardening! LOL

I'll look for that bell-flowered shaped clematis. Sounds interesting. Won't be growing a lilac though, I've tried it and it didn't work for me. It's tough to grow those in TX.

Unfortunately I don't have a tree that I could pair with a clematis right now, (unless I train them up Palm trees or bananas) but I bet it would be beautiful. Right now I'm going to try to have the clematis climb up the stucco walls; I think they'll stand out pretty well against the white background.

Oh jules, you have a beautiful place. I agree that the clematis against the white garage will really stand out. I have a sister living in Dallas, is that near you? She can't grow anything and doesn't want to try. She thinks it is sure a huge amount of work, but there are a few things she could grow with little or no effort there, like lantanas.

Yes, Dallas is near me ... I live just north of Dallas, the next city.

Too bad your sister won't grow anything. I guess it's either a 'love it' or 'hate it' kind of thing.

Lantanas are as easy as it gets here. And beautiful. I have tons of the purple creeping lantanas bordering my front beds. Just cut them back, and they return every year. I love them.

Actually , she lives in Carrolton, is that where you are? I love the verbena. Maybe when I visit her, I can get those started for her. It looks like lantana in the background and purple verbena in the foreground would make a pretty substantial display even with nothing else growing.

woodspirit1, Carrollton is just west of Plano, next city too. Did you get those lantanas and verbenas started for your sister yet? That sounds like such a nice combination.