Hey - to be fair, my mom also thought that playing the Super Nintendo on a television would break the television, and that when I was chatting on ICQ, I was chatting/in love with the computer, and not a real person. Sooooo she doesn’t exactly have the best track record.
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Eliza is my only friend
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Links can help with this–you’ve got an audience waiting.
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Yes, tell us more! Because I didn’t know any of that, and it’s interesting.
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You mean Wrigley Field.
It may grow on Wrigley Field, too, but the name of the variety which leafs out a very lemony green, then darkens and goes blazing red in the fall is “Fenway Park”. It is a fantastic plant.
Not all deciduous vines are safe with buildings. Kiwi and Wisteria, for instance are both beautiful deciduous vines but can wreck havoc. They are very heavy, need lots of skilled pruning, and their creeping tendrils seek out cracks. Wisteria particularly can take a porch right off a house.
The two kinds my study proves best are the traditional ball park clothing Parthenocissus tricuspidatas, except for the big leaved “Crimson Glory” one, which is way too aggressive, and Parthenocissus cinqufolia, or “Virginia Creeper”. Both of these attach with tiny hold-fasts which actually secret a mineral cement, rather than by entwining parts of the structure on which they are growing.
Hedera helix, or English Ivy, is important to avoid because it is an invasive nuisance plant. It is evergreen and has waxy, aromatic leaves.
Parthenocissus tricuspidata is what you see all over the Napa Valley wineries. It is prized there for the same reasons it is prized in Europe: easy, beautiful, cooling. It is a grape relative with small fruit. Just like its wine grape relatives, it can send down a very deep tap root and once established is likely to need little or no irrigation.
I’ve got photos on Flickr somewhere. I’ll see what kind of links I can dig up.
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I’ve also got it going on my own house which has cheap plywood siding. It’s a test. There are at least two other wood sided homes in my area which have had Parthenocissus tricuspidata growing on them for years without apparent damage. I’m going to see what I learn.
One thing I’ve learned is that you need to be sure of your grower. Nurseries don’t always catch their mistakes. These plants are often mislabeled. I’ve had good luck with Monrovia, but have gotten things labeled “Fenway Park” from other growers via reputable nurseries that were poor substitutes.
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Another one that is beautiful and well behaved is climbing hydrangea. Gorgeous. Doesnt attach well, so needs to be tied up as it goes, and looks better pruned, but very lovely deciduous climber. It probably won’t go more than two or three stories, though.
This is another virtue of the good varieties of Parthenocissus tricuspidatas – once established, they can go many stories high. I dont know what the limit is, but five stories is not unusual.
Virginia Creeper, Parthenocissus cinqufolia, isn’t as vigorous a grower as the tricuspidatas. It takes more years to get going and I don’t know of three stories or better coverage. Maybe someone back East know more about it? It has the virtue of being a US native, however.
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OIC, Fenway Park is the name of the… Okay. Maybe a Green Monster reference?
Wrigley rather famously has ivy-covered outfield fences, which Wikipedia tells me is a combination of P. tricuspidata (Boston Ivy) and C. orbiculatus (Oriental Bittersweet.)
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Vine pix on my Pinterest board.
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Ah, see, this proves what @Grey_Devil wrote above: in Chicago’s climate, we’ve never had to worry about those sort of vines (they can’t live through our winters), so around here we wouldn’t know that there are destructive deciduous vines. We only have the good kind!
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Oh man, I have a climbing hydrangea that’s twelve feet tall, a crimson glory that encircles a patio, a wisteria that is… insane, and a kiwi around a pond I built that thinks it’s kudzu.
I’ve purchased a lot of plants from Monrovia.
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Dang. Now I really want a nice garden. Nevermind that the weather is awful 9-10 months out of 12, here.
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This is the street I grew up on - the ivy didn’t cover so many buildings at the time, but the colours were great in autumn:
It looks like they used the right kind of ivy too; here’s the same street in winter:
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Or they can join the Rubble Club.
Gone but not forgotten: The Rubble Club is an organisation to remember buildings demolished in their architect’s lifetime. The Club is open to all who have had buildings destroyed in their lifetime. The Club has three key ground rules: Firstly the building’s architect must be alive and not party to its destruction, secondly the building must be built with the intention of permanence (exhibitions, shops and interiors are not eligible) and thirdly it must be deliberately destroyed or radically altered, it can’t simply burn down.
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That’s a thing? Wow. Learned something today!
The Brits have rose varieties which will go three stories, but I’m not sure how hardy they are to freezing. I would love to see more of them in the US.
One that will go high in one season is hops! An annual that goes three or more stories! Probably needs hella irrigation and feeding, though.
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Oh, things grow p well here in the southern half of Sweden. It’s just not too pleasant to be outdoors for most of the year. We’re finally getting some summer-ish weather, but who knows how long it will last…
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