Q: I’d love to add a vine to my garden, but am not sure how to find a suitable option. Do you have suggestions or a favorite species?
A: I have way too many favorites, admittedly, but I can offer suggestions on narrowing down your options from what may begin as quite a long list of candidates.
Vines climb in different ways, and knowing what climbing styles you can accommodate can help you choose species to try, or help decide where to grow them. The two most familiar climbing methods are with tendrils and with twining stems. Tendrils arise as separate structures designed to coil around a support, tightening as they find purchase to hold the stems up. Species climbing this way include crossvine (Bignonia capreolata) and passionflower (Passiflora). Clematis are unusual in that their leaf stalks (petioles) act like a built-in tendril, so in a way, they climb with their foliage.
Twining vines use the entire stem instead to grab hold of a support, wrapping their whole “body” around it. Examples include wisteria, trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), and Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens).
Some vines cling to the surface of a support, using adhesive-like discs or aerial roots that work their way into nooks and crannies in bark or stone. Species with aerial roots or root-like holdfasts include trumpet vine (Campsis radicans), poison ivy, and climbing hydrangeas (Climbing Hydrangea, Hydrangea anomala petiolaris, Japanese hydrangeavine, Schizophragma hydrangeoides, and woodvamp, Decumaria barbara). Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) and its non-native relative Boston ivy (P. tricuspidata) use adhesive discs, and you’ll commonly see both clinging to highway noise barrier walls.
The other climbing method uses projections like thorns to keep long, arching stems from falling off of the support they grow over. Such species are less vining per se and more scrambling, holding on with a plant’s equivalent of claws. Climbing roses are the prime example of this, both the invasive multiflora rose and the U.S. native rosa setigera.
Any vine lacking a support of its own will turn into a groundcover or will pile upon itself as a sort of free-form shrub or tangle of growth. Some vines hug the support surface for a while and then branch outwards (like invasive English Ivy), while others stay fairly structure-hugging, like Pipevine (Isotrema macrophyllum, formerly Aristolochia).
As for favorites, I like many of our native species and several non-invasives, but especially species that are uncommon in gardens. I enjoy groundnut (Apios americana) and yellow passionflower (Passiflora lutea), both dainty-flowered, smaller-statured vines native to Maryland. Unfortunately, since they are much less widely known than showier species like trumpet honeysuckle, Virgin’s Bower clematis (Clematis virginiana), and American wisteria (Wisteria frutescens, a southeastern native), they are much harder to source. Our new web page Vines for Maryland Gardens can provide some ideas for species to consider growing. How large of a support structure you can provide (or how much of a support you want covered), plus how it’s built, will determine which vines can climb it unaided. As with any plant selection, take site conditions like summer sun exposure and soil drainage into consideration.
Q: I have an aloe vera plant I’d like to share with a friend. How can I propagate it?
A: Division is the simplest way, using “pups” or offsets (younger plants growing attached to the mother plant) if the original plant is mature enough to have produced them. For aloe, offsets develop at the base of the plant, though they might root best if removed in early summer if the plant is more in active growth at that time. Pups have the best chance of transplanting success if they have begun to develop their own roots before being removed. If you have to slice through a connection point to separate them, you can give the plantlet a day or so to air-dry the cut area so it forms a callus to discourage stem rot before potting it up.
A typical potting mix or cactus and succulent potting mix would be fine to use. Coarse sand or fine grit on the surface, used like a light mulch, might discourage stem rot by helping the base of the plant dry quickly after watering. Give the plantlets moderate to bright light (natural or with grow lights), and water just enough to keep the soil from drying out. An offset’s rooting into the new container might take a few weeks.
University of Maryland Extension’s Home and Garden Information Center offers free gardening and pest information at extension.umd.edu/hgic. Click “Ask Extension” to send questions and photos.
