I have these plants that won’t leave me alone. At first they are kind of stand-offish and I wonder if they are going to do anything at all. But then they start placing demands on my time and I am out there regularly encouraging them to be clingy. You have probably guessed that I am talking about vines. Climbing hydrangea (H. anomala) and Japanese climbing hydrangea (Schizophragma hydrangeoides) are two of my favorite plants. They will grow in shade and, over time, can climb an 80-foot wall. Unlike vines that climb using tendrils (grapes) or by twining (wisteria), climbing hydrangeas don’t need a 3-dimensional structure to climb. They use aerial roots to cling to a flat wall surface. The trick for me was to get them started on the wall.  I planted these vines earlier this year. I didn’t want to drill into the stone wall so I tried a glue gun. By gluing twist ties to the wall, I was able to space the branches out and hold them in place until their rootlets take hold. The clear glue is virtually invisible.  These vines are notorious for getting off to a slow start. But after a few years they should take off and fill my stone wall. These two types of climbing hydrangeas bloom at different times. So by planting them together, I am able to double the bloom time on my wall. And even though they are deciduous, they add some really nice winter interest. The spider-web patterns of exfoliating bark paint my stone palette with both elegance and character.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 9:21 am and is filed under Bob Rensel, Garden Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.