Including trailing plants in home garden designs
SOMETIMES in our landscape design, we need plants that grow downwards instead of upwards as usual towards the sun in the sky. There is usually a place in every garden for gravity to play on growing plants. Why do some plants tend to extend their stems or vines down the fence or trellis?
Today we often see landscape designers looking for trailing plants to include in vertical gardens. What are the versatile plants for a good living fence or balcony? I remember many years back, I put together a showy balcony display of several colourful flowering vines. This gave the homeowners and passers-by an interesting view.
Types of trailers
All sorts of plants, from perennials to conifers and succulent plants will grow over a ledge or sloping surface, and can hang down a deep drop. In the natural world, we see this is in forests.
At the Gardens by the Bay in Singapore, a vertical garden has been created to replicate this with canopy gardening.
Some plants like ivy or lipstick plants have a horizontal stem that would grow close to the surface and send roots down to the soil wherever they are to form a dense mat of foliage.
Others have a central root system with long branching lax shoots that would also produce adventitious roots that grow downwards.
Even a climber can reverse its progress under the right situation.
Take note how a ground cover plant may oblige by growing up a slope or down a vertical wall.
Examples of trailing plants are morning glory, clematis, trumpet vine, bougainvillea, passion fruit vine, honeysuckle and ivy.
Growing conditions
By nature, many trailers may even be suitable for inhospitable sites where few plants, other than weeds, can survive. A sloping bank of top soil might have been washed away leaving exposed subsoil, which is difficult for good plants to grow without some help.
The best is to mulch the area to retain moisture and the necessary fertility of the medium.
The direction of sunlight and soil conditions will also determine the level of planting success.
Container growing would ensure less problems with the planting medium. Containers for trailing plants may be pots or other unused containers from the home such as basins and even the odd pail.
Cultivation
Here in our environment and climatic conditions, we have the advantage of good sunlight and water. As such, growing trailers is easy except during long periods of dry weather.
Another factor would be what you intend to use the trailing plants for. For example, I have just planted a row of the passion fruit vine over the car park in the garden, just below a big tree.
The seedlings were first raised in a community container from one fruit.
It took over two months for the small seedlings to grow up to one foot in height, which made them appropriate for transplanting.
I chose a planting medium of new top soil with some burnt soil added. This is to give the plants a good start. They will then be fertilised with NPK pellets to encourage lush growth so they can climb up the netting that covers the top.
Now some other trailing flowering plants such as morning glory can be added to give the site a lush look. I chose morning glory for ease of establishment and its hardy nature—once established it can branch out and survive even in harsh conditions.
One can also select the moonflower, which will bloom at night fall.
The large trumpet-shaped white flowers have a lovely fragrance. If you choose both the morning glory and the moonflower, you will have pretty flowers to enjoy both in the morning and at night.
Weed control is necessary to save the fertile soil for the trailing plants, instead of having to compete for nutrients with the weeds.
It is easiest to pull out weeds as soon as any make an appearance. Resorting to some form of herbicide control may damage the host plants. Watering should be kept to a minimum as these vines are tolerant of drought as well.
I hope you will give some trailing plants a go in your garden.
Do send me an email if you have questions, comments, or suggestions.