Types Of Vines For Landscaping Your HomeWritten by Paul Curran
For covering walls of houses, boulders, stone walls, etc., ivies are, of course, used more than other vines. Boston ivy is quickest growing. Japanese bittersweet [Euonymus radicans) is a good vine for walls, too; evergreen, it grows well on north sides of buildings as well as on exposed locations. Winter-creeper, in both large and small-leaved varieties, is a hardy vine for wall planting. Other vines that can cling without aid to concrete, brick and stone include Chinese trumpetcreeper, English ivy, Lowe ivy and Virginia creeper, sometimes called woodbine or American ivy. Virginia creeper is ivy that twines around trees and covers ground in woodlands, and while it makes a good building cover, it does become heavy and require thinning out as it grows older. Virginia creeper is also effective for providing shade. (Other shade-producing vines are grape, Dutchman's pipe and silver vine.) Many vines which are not self-supporting can be trellis-trained, and can add color and beauty to a house. Among more showy varieties are wisteria, with its clusters of white to purple blos soms; clematis, which has a large flower appearing from early summer until fall; and trumpetcreep-er, with its tropical-looking clusters of big scarlet and orange flowers during late summer.
| | How To Use Biennials & Perennials In Landscaping Your GardenWritten by Paul Curran
BiennialsBiennials are generally very beautiful plants, with most attractive flowers. They are somewhat more trouble for gardener, since they keep growing during their first year and do not bloom until second. Their great advantage is that their seeding stage produces new plants which will bloom again two years later, making it unnecessary to plant additional seeds. The biennials are usually plant ed in early summer and transplanted to good soil when they are large enough to handle. It is a good idea to pot them at this time, particularly in areas where plants cannot be left outdoors all winter. In some cases, they can be transplanted to a coldframe, and then placed in flower bed following spring. The requirements of careful soil preparation apply to biennials as well as annuals. After planting, if you want a continuous new growth of plants, it is best not to weed and cultivate too assiduously. If a really fastidious biennial patch is planted, it will be necessary to replace plants with new ones each year. Perennials Perennials are basic flowers of any garden. Each year they die and renew themselves for next growing season. They are long-lived and last for many seasons. Perennials are also, historically, among our oldest plants. They have been cultivated for centuries and often, as a result of breeding and crossbreeding, bear no resemblance to their wild forebears. In some of perennials, blossoms have become so specialized through centuries of cultivation that they no longer grow 'seeds.
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