Green Thumb
One of the most dramatic ways to display vines is with an arched trellis.
As gardeners, our eyes are trained to survey the ground in search of new delights as they spring from the ground and for the unwanted intruders we call weeds.
Because vines give us a reason to look up, a garden or landscape is almost always enhanced by their presence.
One of the most dramatic ways to display vines is with an arched trellis. They not only offer support, they allow the vines to become covered walkways and places to sit or dine.
There’s something enchanting about standing under a vine-covered arch, even the small ones that often serve as entrances to gardens.
French impressionist Claude Monet captured their romance in the many rose-covered arched trellises he erected at his garden in Giverny, France, and immortalized in his paintings. One need only search the Internet or Pinterest for images of “arched trellises” to be awed by the beauty of wisteria, clematis, roses, hyacinth bean and honeysuckles climbing up and over these structures.
OK, dreamers like me: It’s reality check time. We’re not Monet and our gardens will never rival Giverny. But we can be inspired by them.
Seven years ago, Ann Frogge planted just three scuppernong vines — a bronze variety of the muscadines that grow wild in the South — on one side of well-built arched trellis in her Germantown garden.
The vines now completely cover the trellis creating a shady enclosure.
Because birds, squirrels and other creatures enjoy the sweet juicy fruits as much as Frogge, her harvest typically amounts to one or two dishpans full a season.
After several years, vines like muscadine and certainly wisteria become so heavy they need extra strong support. Frogge’s landscape contractor used livestock panels set into 4-by-4 supports for the trellis.
The panels, which are available at farm supply stores, are sections of sturdy fencing that can be bent into arches.
Typically 4 to 5 feet wide and 12 or more feet long, they can be used in numerous ways to support plants, including beans, peas and tomatoes.
Every February, Frogge’s muscadine vines are pruned back hard, a chore she has done professionally to ensure a rapid return of the vines and the fruit.
Frogge has installed some upright trellises, also made of livestock panels, to support Malabar spinach, golden jasmine and honeysuckle vines.
Malabar spinach is an attractive vine with red stems and dark green edible heart-shaped leaves. Although it’s not really spinach, it can be used like it raw in salads or lightly sautéed or steamed.
It’s a good source of vitamins A and C as well as calcium and iron.
Unlike real spinach, it loves hot weather and doesn’t mind wet soil. In other words, it’s perfect for us.
Malabar spinach is considered a tender perennial that may return year after year in temperate climates. Frogge said hers comes back each year.
Arched trellises made with single livestock panels are being utilized in the Collierville Victory Garden. They support beans and also some ornamental gourds that have already been picked.
In Internet searches, I saw a big arched trellis with a variety of gourds hanging in autumnal splendor from the top and sides of the structure. I wanted to be walking through it or, better still, sitting under it at a long table enjoying a meal with friends.
hosta fans unite
Bill Ferrell is a bit of a hosta-holic with some 300 varieties planted in his Cordova garden.
“I plant most of them as singles but I have a mass planting of Frances Williams and they really stand out,” Ferrell said.
The popular Frances Williams has large green-blue leaves with golden variegation. It is the winner of an American Hosta Society Distinguished Merit Award.
In our normal summers, extremely hot and dry conditions cause hostas to look weary, even crisp at this time of year, especially in gardens without irrigation. Ferrell is pleased with the way Frances Williams has held up through many weather conditions this year.
Ferrell will join fellow hosta fans at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Memphis Botanic Garden for the first meeting of the Mid-South Hosta Society following its summer break.
On the program will be Stephanie Cohen, aka The Perennial Diva, presenting “A Walk on the Dark Side,” a slide lecture on hostas and other shade-loving plants.
Cohen, who gardens on 2 acres in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, is the co-author of three books: “The Perennial Gardener’s Design Primer,” “Fallscaping” and “The Nonstop Gardener.”
The event is free to members; $5 for nonmembers.
ATTRACTING HUMMINGBIRDS
You may think you need lots of red flowers to attract hummingbirds to your garden. Turns out that recommendation is another example of gardening folklore debunked by C. L. Fornari in her book, “Coffee for Roses and 70 other Misleading Myths About Backyard Gardening.”
If your favored colors lean more to purple and pink or orange and yellow, not to worry. The little birds apparently don’t care much about color but they are sensitive to location.
If you move a feeder or a plant that the birds have been visiting year after year, they will fly off to other feeding areas without even looking to left or right in your yard.
In Fornari’s Cape Cod garden, hummers faithfully visit her blue salvia, peach agastache and pink and white nicotiana.
As the tiny birds are now on their southward migration, be sure to keep your feeders filled with fresh sugar water, too. Make a nectar-like syrup by bringing 1 cup white sugar and 4 cups water to a boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar and then cool the liquid before pouring it into the feeders.
Bacteria grow faster in hot temperatures so when it’s 93 or above, feeders need to be emptied and washed daily. You can wait three days when temps are 85 to 88 degrees; four days with 81 to 84 degrees and five days when it’s 76 to 80 degrees.
Those are just a few more reasons to be happy for the arrival of fall.