A vine for container gardening?
Christopher Riley
I have a small second-floor deck, and would like a viney plant to screen one
side of it that faces our neighbor. Last summer I put in window boxes, and
thought about planting something like Virginia Creeper, but couldn't find
any locally (upstate New York; nurseries don't keep much because it is so
invasive -- which also made me a little nervous but I thought the limited
size of the box would keep it from engulfing my small cedar shingled home),
so instead grew Pole Beans. Of course, there wasn't enough soil in the
boxes, and they died shortly after producing. They also took a long time to
develop large enough leaves to screen.
Does anyone have suggestions for a vine that will grow reasonably fast,
survive in a window box (even just seasonally; I'm happy to plant as an
annual), and produce enough foliage to effectively screen out my neighbors?
Thanks for your help!
Chris
Doug Kanter
"Christopher Riley" <cj...@cornell.edu> wrote in message
news:C0236607.186B9%cj...@cornell.edu...
Definitely nasturtium! Nice leaves, great scent to the flowers, and it's
edible in salads. I been growing Burpee Fordhook Favorites for years. Give
them something to climb, and they're in business. As the description says,
they don't like being transplanted. Plant seeds in their final place and
stand back.
Nasturtium Fordhook Favorites Mix
Tall single climbing type nasturtium.
Fragrant single flowers in many colors. Showy in large borders climbing on a
trellis or trailing over banks and walls. Annual. Ht. 6ft. GARDEN HINTS:
Prefers poor dry soil, as rich moist soils produce mostly foliage and few
blooms. Does not transplant well. If raised indoors, plant seed in
individual pots, and transplant care- fully.
axeman
Thunbergia - they have the most beautiful yellow flowers.
Jacqui
>
Mark Anderson
> Does anyone have suggestions for a vine that will grow reasonably fast,
> survive in a window box (even just seasonally; I'm happy to plant as an
> annual), and produce enough foliage to effectively screen out my neighbors?
I'm sure other suggestion for vines will look nicer but IMHO, nothing
beats morning glories in the fast growing and foliage category. I grow
them in containers each year in various places for privacy. You'll need
to build trellises for them to climb but by mid July, here in Zone 5
Chicago, they have enough foliage to provide privacy.
Last year I did an experiment growing a single morning glory plant in a
small 5" pot set into a plastic cover that comes with a spindle of 50
CD-Rs. The water would drain into the plastic cover and the morning
glory roots grew out the bottom of the container and soaked in the
excess water. Here's a pic of the container:
http://www.brandylion.com/images/small-mg-pot.jpg
And here's the resulting plant:
http://www.brandylion.com/images/small-mg-full.jpg
As you can see it doesn't take that big of a container to grow these
big.
And here's a pic last year of the vines covering a couple of trellises
enclosing my garden in privacy.
http://www.brandylion.com/images/healthy-mgs.jpg
All these vines grew in containers.
I grew Hyancith Bean last year too and although it's a nice vine, it's
kind of stupid in that it can't figure out how to climb a trellis on its
own. I got a lot of seeds off that though so I'll be mixing a bunch of
other vines in with the morning glories this year.
Doug Kanter
news:elnLf.21047$%14.5...@news20.bellglobal.com...
> Thunbergia - they have the most beautiful yellow flowers.
>
> Jacqui
Damn you! I'm trying to keep my seed order within budget, and you just
ruined it. :-)
Christopher Riley
I think I'm going to try both the Nasturtiums (grew a non-climbing variety
last year; didn't even know there were climbing varieties!) and the
Thunbergia side by side. There are two window boxes.
We'll see which works best!
Chris
Doug Kanter
You could also hang large baskets and let the nasturtiums trail downward.
Doug Kanter
Oh...another one! Moonflower! Huge, scented white flowers open at night.
Amazing. They almost glow in the dark. Big seeds, easy to grow.