Growing Up: A Look at Vines in the Landscape

Freestanding lattice screens with newly planted vines. The combination takes up minimal space, while providing screening and visual interest.

Vines tend to be an overlooked and underused garden element or feature. They can be very useful in the landscape and have many great characteristics to warrant their use in any garden. Vines climb over pergolas to provide shade, spill over arbors to warmly welcome visitors, and display beautiful foliage and colorful blooms on walls and trellises to enjoy. With many of us having small yards and gardens, space can be limited. Installing a lattice panel with vines can screen neighbors and provide privacy in a small amount of space. 

Provide Some Support: 

Vines need support to grow vertically. Fences, walls, trellis, posts, arbors are the perfect way to both enhance the landscape and offer the needed support. If you have a raised bed or terrace, a vine can be allowed to cascade downward and provide interest along the ground and as it spills over the edge of the wall. Try incorporating different hardscape materials into your landscape with wooden or metal accents for your vines to climb. 

Vines climb by different methods and knowing how they climb will help choose the best support system. 

Twining plants will wrap their entire stem around the support. They need a trellis or wire or string to wrap themselves around. An interesting side note is that every twining vine “twines” in a definite direction. Wisteria will only twine clockwise whereas honeysuckle will wrap itself counterclockwise! 

Other vines climb using tendrils. A tendril is a modified leaf structure. The tendril twists itself around the support. Tendrils can wrap themselves around a support sometimes in less than one hour! 

Both of these types of vines need a support that is thin enough to wrap around. They cannot climb on solid structures such as walls or solid fences without the addition of a trellis or wire.  

A third type of climbing vine uses adhesive tendril tips or holdfasts. These tiny “feet” have a sticky adhesive residue that makes a strong bond with the structures it contacts and allows the vine to climb. They quickly cover solid surfaces such as walls, and fences. We always remind people that a vine will never know the difference between a window and a wall so be prepared to remove them from windows once they are established. The common vine that grows this way is Boston Ivy (think Wrigley Field). Another climbing method is with the use of aerial roots. These are actual rootlets that emerge along the plant stem. English Ivy is the best example of this type of vine. We advise against the use of English Ivy on masonry walls because the rootlets will work themselves into the mortar and eventually cause structural damage to the wall. 

Some plants that are considered vines have no way of climbing. They produce very long branches or canes. These plants need to be securely tied to the support or they will trail along the ground. Climbing Roses are an example of this type of vine. 

New to the Neighborhood: 

There is a new series of clematis that we find particularly appealing.  It’s the Raymond Evison Clematis Series. Here is just a sampling of the many stunning selections they offer. 

"Pistachia evirida" has large, lovely white flowers.

Showy 'Diamantina', with its blue-purple double blooms.

'Fleuri' has vibrant purple petals with red stripes within.

'Ohh La La'... the name says it all!

 In addition to these new beauties, below are some vines we like to use in the landscape:                                     

Climbing Hydrangea- perfect for shady places.

The ever-popular Jackmanii Clematis, introduced in the mid-1800s.

Fiveleaf Akebia Vine has unusual leaves and even more interesting purple clusters of fruit.

Fall Clematis brightens fall days, when it is covered with white, star-like flowers.

Boston Ivy puts on a spectacular fall display.

Considering that they take up little space and provide varied interest, there should be room in for a vine every garden.

Volutella Blight of Pachysandra & Boxwood

Top: Affected pachysandra. Bottom: Affected boxwood.

The many rain days we’ve experienced the last several weeks have helped plants and lawns grow green and lush… but they also have brought out a lot of the common disease called Volutella. Even though the prevalence of Volutella Blight of Pachysandra & Boxwood has increased over the past few years, it is very treatable. The increase is more than likely due to having a wet spring, like this year, and those of the few recent years. It is common to notice brown dieback on your pachysandra groundcover and evergreen boxwood. While this may have originated from a few different circumstance or factors, Volutella may be the cause.

Pachysandra Symptoms and Disease

Pachysandra is a common groundcover plant. The most common disease affecting this plant is Volutella blight (sometimes called leaf blight and stem canker), caused by the fungus Volutella pachysandrae. Volutella blight usually first becomes visible as wilting or dead patches in the pachysandra bed. Individual plants develop irregular tan to brown lesions on the leaves, often with concentric rings, which eventually grow and coalesce until the entire leaf dies. Brown or black cankers develop and girdle the stems, causing the plants to wilt and die. During humid weather in late spring and summer, small pinkish spore-producing structures of the fungus appear in the stem cankers and on the undersides of leaf lesions.

Control

Stresses such as insect infestation, winter injury, excessive sun exposure, drought, or recent trimming make pachysandra more susceptible to Volutella blight, so minimizing plant stress is the first step in managing this disease. Sanitation is another important management tactic, so plants affected by Volutella blight should be removed. The disease is encouraged by moist, humid conditions, so practices that reduce leaf wetness and humidity can help to manage Volutella blight. Occasional thinning of the bed, watering in the morning rather than the evening, and avoiding heavy mulch can help. Several fungicides may be used for Volutella blight management preventatively, including thiophanate methyl, chlorthalonil, and mancozeb. Plants should be sprayed first when new foliage emerges in the spring, and repeated following label directions.

Boxwood Symptoms and Disease

Boxwood Volutella stem blight or canker is caused by the fungus Pseudonectria rouselliana on boxwood (Buxus spp.). Volutella buxi is the name for the imperfect stage of the fungus (the imperfect stage produce asexual spores called conidia).

In moist weather, numerous clusters of conidia appear as salmon-pink colored masses through the bark on stems and on leaves. The distinct color makes this the most distinguishing symptom. The volutella stem blight causes stem tips and twigs to die back. Cankers may form on the branches or at the soil line. Foliar symptoms are similar to those caused by winter injury. Leaves will turn orange to bronze and then straw-colored in the middle or the top of the plant. If winter injury alone is the problem, new, healthy leaves will appear in spring and eventually hide the bronze-colored leaves. The volutella fungus infects wounds caused by winter injury from heavy snow load on the branches. The fungus usually enters through cracks create at the branching junctions. The first noticeable symptom is that certain branches or certain plants in a group do not start new growth as early in the spring as do others, nor is the new growth as vigorous as that on healthy specimens. Infected leaves turn upward and lie close to the stem instead of spreading out like the leaves on healthy stems. The bark at the base of an infected branch gets loose and peels off readily from the gray to black discolored wood beneath. Volutella usually does not kill boxwoods, but can disfigure them. 

Control

Pruning before new growth begins allows it to fill in the bare spaces. Dead branches should be removed as soon as they are noticed. Prune out infected branches to healthy tissue and discard. The annual removal and destruction of all leaves that have lodged in crotches of branches is also recommended. Pruners should be dipped in alcohol or bleach water between cuts to prevent spreading the disease healthy plant material. Apply systemic fungicides like immunox or infuse every 14 days in spring before and during new foliage emergences; or contact fungicides like copper sulfate every 7-10 days and after rainfall to prevent inoculation. The first application should be made before removing the dead leaves and dying branches to prevent the spread of the disease during pruning. 

Proper diagnosis and care will help to strengthen the health of your pachysandra and boxwood plants. Early diagnosis is vital for a quick and full recovery. For further information about this or other plant diseases, please contact Nature’s Perspective.