"Ann" wrote in message
...
Janet Baraclough expounded:

Wisteria can only attach itself to wires or a trellis, it won't
adhere direct to solid walls, therefore it can't "damage your home's
exterior" or "cause permanent structural damage".

That's not true, Janet, wisteria can severely damage buildings, I've
seen a garage pulled to one side and collapsed due to the weight.

Another example is really pretty funny....a woman bought an older home
that had a gorgeous wall of wisteria (the house was brick ended). In
and upstairs bedroom were a set of drawers built into the eaves. They
couldn't for the life of them pull the drawers open. Finally they had
a carpenter dismantle the drawers to see what was wrong....the
wisteria's hold-fasts had hold of the drawer backs! The vine had
invaded the side of the house between the studs, anywhere it could get
a grip.

You should never allow wisteria to grow directly on a building.
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a
South of Boston, Massachusetts
e-mail address is not checked
******************************

another sneaky and distructive vine is Trumpet vine, or Campsis
bignoniaceae. I have the two vines that Mary Emma had me dig up years ago
in her lower yard, planted one next to the light pole at the opening of my
side yard where it flourishes way too much. Between the need to get on a
ladder to clip the seed pods before they ripen and split open to let fly all
their children seeds on wings of gossamer fuzz like milk weed, or their
roots popping leather covered steel shoots that appear feet from the parent
vine in my raised western bed, the love of the blossoms and food for the
hummers is greatly decreased by all the problems I'm experiencing with this
gift.

There is one vine that sprouted from seed years ago under the nook mini deck
(I call it a boardwalk as it's so narrow) that forced it's way thru the
planks cracks to attach to my outside fireplace bricks. After seeing how it
bulked up like it was on steroids in just two years, I pulled it off the
bricks, whacked the vine and carefully crawled under the walkway and whacked
the trunk. It returns like a bad B grade sci-fi movie every year. I'll have
to dose it will Round-up this spring once it warms up and hope the chemical
salts won't harm the many residents of my NSSG (not so secret garden) which
lie just a few feet from this sneaky inhabitant.

There is yet another vine that I had lifted of this digging that I had
originally planted next to the half dead maple tree that I've long ago
removed, and when I lifted the roots of this other specimen and for the time
being, just sat it against the daughter seedling Pawlonia tree that had
sprung up near the outbuilding several yards on the opposite side where the
mother tree is, I forgot about it and never planted it.

It didn't matter. It felt or tasted the soil beneath it's roots/feet and
pulled itself into the ground where it was and now grows next to a fatter
Pawlonia daughter. I will regret it later on when it thrives like it's
sibling on the opposite side of the property. I know while I'm not paying
attention to it there on the eastern side of the property, it's seed pods
have probably launched a take over of the tangled and almost impassible
eastern side of my lower woods where poison ivy, poison oak, cedar trees,
honey locust trees and privet, privet, privet, as well as wild roses and
some blackberry canes reside. (I need a bobcat to tear into that eastern
end......................)

I've even seen what the beautiful Akibia vine can do, and I adore it! There
aren't a lot of vines that don't do some harm that are perennial if given
the chance over time.

And lets hope we don't get into a ****ing contest over this subject. It's
just good garden banter back and forth we've got going here. I'm actually
enjoying seeing the remarks and comments and mild disagreements and
agreements going on here. Makes me feel like the old newsgroup is
back.......but then, that's just me. gbseg The only one not thrown out a
comment so far is Tomkanpa and Zhan......

madgardener, up on the ridge, back in Faerie Holler, overlooking English
Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36 where I have Campsis,
Jackmanii and a few other slowly growing clematis vines, and apparently my
climbing Hydrangea has chosen the mother Pawlonia tree as it's support still
in the pot, unless I tear it off now and plant it against a Jack pine in my
woods this spring...........