Green In Winter
WE USED TO think only one vine with evergreen leaves was dependably hardy here in the Northwest. Which is why so many gardens are nearly overrun with the vigorous Clematis armandii. This March-blooming clematis is a good choice because it's readily available in most nurseries, blooms early and has sweetly fragrant flowers. But along with the pretty flowers you get coarse leaves and rapacious tendrils that need frequent pruning unless you're willing to have an entire corner of your garden swallowed up.
Of course, it's just these aggressive tendencies that make us love vines: They spread quickly to cover a chain-link fence or create a screen that shields out a neighbor or the garbage cans. In a single season they can climb to coat the underside of a deck, be trained into a living wall, or wreath a less-than-attractive railing in flower and foliage. And when this foliage lasts year-round, vines become as much a part of a garden's bones as evergreen trees and shrubs.
So isn't it fine that now we have other options for evergreen climbers?
Fortunately, three evergreen clematis are due to become more available in nurseries. Each is less aggressive and has more interesting foliage than the more familiar Clematis armandii, with equally pretty bursts of bloom. The three to look for:
• Clematis cirrhosa 'Wisley Cream.' This one offers quiet charms in the colder months of the year. Its creamy little bell flowers bloom November through February, and the shiny, green leaves develop bronze highlights as the weather cools.
• Clematis x cartmanii 'Avalanche.' In early spring, 'Avalanche" offers a snowstorm of white bloom. Each flower is centered in a showy ruff of chartreuse stamen. The foliage is dark green and so dissected as to appear nearly frilly.
• Clematis fasciculiflora is the most unusual of these evergreen clematis, but worth hunting down (if not readily found in nurseries, all are available mail order; just Google the name of the plant). Its silver-veined leaves are so striking it's hard to believe they're evergreen. It's almost as if the leaves have a hard time believing it themselves — they transition through purple and rust shades as well as green throughout the year. The pale, fragrant, bell-shaped flowers bloom in earliest springtime.
By definition, evergreens keep most of their leaves all the time, even though, like dogs shed fur, they drop a few leaves off and on throughout the year. Beware, however, of vines touted as "semi-evergreen," which means enough leaves hang on through the winter to look ratty. Honeysuckles and the chocolate vine (Akebia quinata), for instance, lose enough of their leaves, even in a mild winter, to look pathetically denuded. It's enough to make you long for a cold snap so those brown leaves will fall off and be done with it.
There are some fully deciduous vines that have a real winter presence even when bare. Wisteria has such a hefty trunk and limbs, plus fuzzy buds, that it's attractive year-round. And the naked limbs of the climbing hydrangea make a lovely tracery against a wall or fence even in the depths of winter.
Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and contributing editor for Horticulture magazine. Her e-mail address is valeaston@comcast.net.
For fruit: Billardiera longiflora is also called the blueberry vine, although its metallic purple fruits look more like tiny eggplants. It has finely textured foliage, grows to only 6 feet and has yellow, bell-shaped flowers in spring.
For fragrance: Winter jasmine (J. polyanthum) has shiny, dark-green leaves and pink buds opening to perfumed white flowers.
For containers: Hedera helix 'Buttercup' and 'Gold Dust' are less invasive ivies with small, variegated leaves ideal for trailing down the sides of pots or window boxes.
For fascination: Lardizabala biternata may sound like a reptile, but this Chilean vine is a twining climber with leathery leaves and odd-looking, chocolate-purple autumn flowers followed by sausage-shaped purple fruit.