From: klier@iscsvax.uni.edu
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
Subject: Re: Vine on Masonry
Date: 7 Apr 92 20:21:13 -0500
Organization: University of Northern Iowa

(Caroline E. Bryan) writes:
> 
>>If you don't get TOO cold, how about trumpet flower in any of its colors?
> 
> There's a species of trumpet flower that doesn't know what "too cold" means.
> (Sorry I don't remember the Latin name, it was too long ago) I had a plant
> growing over the railing of my front porch in Wisconsin.  It's deciduous, so
> it lost its leaves in the fall, but it grew like crazy every summer.  All I
> had to do was chop it back every spring lest it eat the house.
> 
> There are also wisteria and clematis.  Neither trumpet flower, wisteria, nor
> clematis have the little suckers that ivy has (although VA creeper does), so
> you'd have to provide things for them to hang onto on their way up.  I'm
> unaware of anything except ivy and VA creeper that has those little suckers.
> Kay Klier, where are you when we need you?

Um... in Duluth.  (Had to go see some friends between blizzard season and
deer fly season.  Doesn't leave much of a visiting season. ;^) (and yes,
they DO have sled dogs.))

There really aren't many plants that are "self attaching" to walls --
like Parthenocissus (VA creeper, Boston Ivy), Hedera (English ivy), 
Campsis radicans (trumpet creeper), Euonymous fortunei and 
Rhus toxicodendron, poison ivy.

There are of course, lots of ways around the problem.  You can use "masonary
nails" or screw anchors into concrete or cement and let plants attach
to those, or add a trellis.  Doing so increases your options considerably.

Some of the more cold-hardy woody vines include:
Akebia quinata (5-leaf akebia)  USDA zone 5  needs trellis
Ampelopsis brevipedunculata  porcelain ampelopsis  tendrils
Aristolochia durior (dutchman's pipe) zone 4  heavy; needs strong support
Campsis radicans (trumpet creeper) zone 4 survivor; totally hardy in zone 5;
   needs strong supports.  
Campsis 'Mme Galen' -- hybrid with larger fls, better behaved.
Celastrus orbiculatus (oriental bittersweet) zone 5 twiner
Celastrus scandens (american bittersweet) zone 3
Clematis -- jackmanii types to zone 4; C. paniculata to zone 4, C. texensis to
zone 5b, C. verticillaris to zone 4; C. virginiana to zone 3
Euonymus fortunei (wintercreeper) (my students call this "Anonymus fortune"
 just to watch my bp rise)  zone 5
Hedera helix (english ivy) zone 5b
Lonicera dioica (limber honeysuckle) zone 2; twiner
Lonicera x heckrotii (goldflame honeysuckle) zone 5; twiner
Lonicera japonica halliana (Halls' japanese honeysuckle) 5b twiner
Lonicera sempervirens (trumpet honeysuckle) 5 (experimental zone 4)
Lycium chinense (chinese matrimony vine) 4; needs trellis. stickers.
Menispermum canadense (moonseed) zone 3; native; twiner.  Toxic seeds.
Parthenocissus quinquifolia (virginia creeper) zone 3
Parthenocissus tricuspidata (Boston ivy) zone 5
Polygonum aubertii (silver lace vine) zone 5; ok if protected in zone 4
Smilax spp. (including S. bona-nox, S. glauca, S. hispida)  zone 3; natives,
  quite hardy and attractive, but awful to work around.  VERY stickery.
Vitis labrusca (fox grape) zone 5
Vitis riparia (riverbank grape) zone 3
Wisteria floribunda (Japanese wisteria) zone 5
Wisteria macrostachys (Kentucy Wisteria) zone 5b
Wisteria sinensis (chinese wisteria) zone 5

Kay Klier