Quick Growing Vines
By: Garden Gate staff
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3 quick growing vines
If you have a hard time deciding on a “look” for your garden, tender vines are handy. They’re bright and colorful, and you can try a new one every summer if you want.
For tips on growing three of our favorite tender vines, just click ahead.
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Canary creeper Tropaeolum peregrinum
Native to South America and popular here since the early 1800s, canary creeper is an easy and beautiful vine to grow. This well-mannered plant looks great wandering through shrubs or other vines.
Like many members of the nasturtium family, canary creeper struggles when transplanted. So start seeds where you want the vines to grow. Sow seeds ¼ in. deep after the danger of frost is past in spring. Thin plants to 8 to 12 in. apart when true leaves have formed.
This vine may stop blooming in summer heat, but don’t pull it. It’ll start up again in cooler weather.
Type Tender perennial
Blooms Small yellow flowers summer to early fall
Light Full sun to part shade
Size 4 to 10 ft. long
Cold-hardy USDA zones 9 to 10
Heat-tolerant AHS zones 12 to 1
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Snail vine Vigna caracalla
Seeing snails on your plants is usually a bad thing, but not when they’re these unusual, twisty blossoms. The flowers, which appear in midsummer and last until fall, are mostly lavender-purple, but some may have streaks of yellow or white, while others are darker purple. They’re fragrant, too.
Snail vine is perfectly happy in a container, and you can keep it over the winter in a greenhouse or a warm, sunny room. Water it just often enough to keep the soil barely damp, and don’t fertilize it while it’s inside. If you live where snail vine is hardy but the top of the plant gets nipped back by a rare frost, cut the stems back to the ground and let them regrow.
Type Tender perennial
Blooms Purple or lavender midsummer to fall
Light Full sun to part shade
Size 4 to 20 ft. long
Cold-hardy USDA zones 9 to 11
Heat-tolerant AHS zones 12 to 1
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Black-eyed Susan vine Thunbergia alata
Black-eyed Susan vine used to be only yellow, but nowadays you’ll find pink, orange, and even dark coral to salmon-pink flowers, like those on ‘Blushing Susie’ in the inset.
Reaching 3 to 8 ft. when it’s grown as an annual, this vine is great climbing a small trellis in a container. Or let it drape out of a hanging basket, where an occasional tendril might decide to head up the chain that holds the basket. Give it a spot with some afternoon shade — black-eyed Susan vine droops and doesn’t flower in intense heat. If your plant gets ratty in midsummer, keep it watered and stay patient because it’ll start blooming again once the weather cools off.
Type Tender perennial
Blooms Yellow, pink, red or orange blooms summer through fall
Light Full sun to part shade
Size 3 to 20 ft. long
Cold-hardy USDA zones 10 to 11
Heat-tolerant AHS zones 12 to 1
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