Could anyone tell me where I could get hold of a Russian vine? I'm
told they cover fences superbly.

many thanks in advance

Renee wrote:
Could anyone tell me where I could get hold of a Russian vine? I'm
told they cover fences superbly.

many thanks in advance

By the bottom of the stem and pull hard to uproot it!

They cover fences, gates, sheds houses and entire villages in one
growing season. Really best avoided.

In article ,
Derek Turner writes:
| Renee wrote:
| Could anyone tell me where I could get hold of a Russian vine? I'm
| told they cover fences superbly.
|
| many thanks in advance
|
| By the bottom of the stem and pull hard to uproot it!
|
| They cover fences, gates, sheds houses and entire villages in one
| growing season. Really best avoided.

Yes. The George Bush of the horticultural world - aggressive and
boring.

Why not describe the requirement more precisely? This group can
recommend much more interesting things that cover fences nearly as
fast. You should provide the size of the fence (length and height),
aspect (facing south or whatever), roughly the type of soil, whether
you object to the cover taking over the rest of your garden, and
whether you would like flowers, fruit, birds or what.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 4/4/07 14:04, in article ,
"Derek Turner" wrote:

Renee wrote:
Could anyone tell me where I could get hold of a Russian vine? I'm
told they cover fences superbly.

many thanks in advance

By the bottom of the stem and pull hard to uproot it!

They cover fences, gates, sheds houses and entire villages in one
growing season. Really best avoided.

As is Renee, who has been trolling in uk.food. You have been warned.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/
(remove weeds from address)

It would be irresponsible of me to tell you unless you can answer yes to all of these questions:

Do you have a very, very, very big fence? Do you require it to be utterly smothered, probably along with any other plant or building in the same vague area, up to the size of, say, an aircraft hanger? Are you happy doing a lot of cutting back from time to time and removing very large volumes of off-cuts? Are you happy planting something called "Fallopia baldschuanica" in Latin, and colloquially known as "mile-a-minute"? Are you happy that the BBC advice on it is "It grows far too big, too fast and too ugly even for a large garden"?

But I expect you will discover it is, sadly, for sale almost anywhere they sell plants, along with other horrors like Leyland cypress.

You can find lots of other nice and more controllable plants to cover normal size fences like jasmines and honeysuckles and clematis and chocolate vine, and some of them are evergreen.

On Apr 4, 2:20 pm, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:

Why not describe the requirement more precisely? This group can
recommend much more interesting things that cover fences nearly as
fast. You should provide the size of the fence (length and height),
aspect (facing south or whatever), roughly the type of soil, whether
you object to the cover taking over the rest of your garden, and
whether you would like flowers, fruit, birds or what.

I understand it's called polygonum aubertii. I've seen it on fences
while travelling through Teesdale and did once stop the car to ask a
householder there where she got hers, but she said she'd inherited it.
It looked lovely and I'd like some for my fence. It's south-facing,
roughly five foot high and twenty-five foot long. If you think it will
be invasive, then maybe you could suggest something similar i.e. that
totally covers the fence and produces flowers of some kind. The
Russian vine I saw produced tiny white flowers and looked quite
stunning when in full bloom.

many thanks,
Renee

I understand it's called polygonum aubertii. I've seen it on fences
while travelling through Teesdale and did once stop the car to ask a
householder there where she got hers, but she said she'd inherited it.
It looked lovely and I'd like some for my fence. It's south-facing,
roughly five foot high and twenty-five foot long. If you think it will
be invasive, then maybe you could suggest something similar i.e. that
totally covers the fence and produces flowers of some kind. The
Russian vine I saw produced tiny white flowers and looked quite
stunning when in full bloom.

many thanks,
Renee

I once grew one along a fence. By the second year it had completely taken
over the fence and was scrambling up onto an out house roof. The problem was
it needed trimming every one or two weeks in Summer - it put out shoot
around a foot long each week! I've never known a plant grow so fast.
We've since sold the house. I'd be curious to see if the vine is still there
or if it has completely taken over the entire terrace row.

Norman Digger.

Norman Digger wrote:


I once grew one along a fence. By the second year it had completely taken
over the fence and was scrambling up onto an out house roof. The problem was
it needed trimming every one or two weeks in Summer - it put out shoot
around a foot long each week! I've never known a plant grow so fast.
We've since sold the house. I'd be curious to see if the vine is still there
or if it has completely taken over the entire terrace row.

Thanks for this, Norman. If you or anyone else has ideas for
alternatives, I'd appreciate it. I don't want to have to be cutting it
back every week.

In article . com,
"Renee" writes:
|
| Thanks for this, Norman. If you or anyone else has ideas for
| alternatives, I'd appreciate it. I don't want to have to be cutting it
| back every week.

As I said, post your requirements and constraints. I could suggest
a dozen such plants, but all are unsuitable for many conditions.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Apr 5, 10:34 am, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:
In article . com,"Renee" writes:

|
| Thanks for this, Norman. If you or anyone else has ideas for
| alternatives, I'd appreciate it. I don't want to have to be cutting it
| back every week.

As I said, post your requirements and constraints. I could suggest
a dozen such plants, but all are unsuitable for many conditions.

I posted them earlier, Nick. I'm looking for something that will cover
a fence that is roughly 25 foot long by 5 foot high. I want something
with small flowers, easy to maintain, and which will also mask the
fence, which is quite unsightly. I'm not sure about the soil, but the
fence is south-facing. There used to be blackberry bushes there, but
we had them all uprooted years ago. (Although shoots sometimes still
appear through the lawn!)

Provided the fence is strong enough to support a climber, and provided there
is something for a climber to hang on to such as trellis, then a Clematis
Montana may suit your requirements. I've seem some trained as hedges along
fences this way and they can look quite spectacular. Not as rampant as
Russian vine.

Norman Digger

On 5 Apr, 12:05, "Renee" wrote:
I posted them earlier, Nick. I'm looking for something that will cover
a fence that is roughly 25 foot long by 5 foot high. I want something
with small flowers, easy to maintain, and which will also mask the
fence, which is quite unsightly. I'm not sure about the soil, but the
fence is south-facing. There used to be blackberry bushes there, but
we had them all uprooted years ago. (Although shoots sometimes still
appear through the lawn!)

I admire your patience ...

Are you close to the russian vine you've seen? Because now would be
ideal to take a few cuttings and simply plunge them in some compost
and they'll root easily. I've propagated all our vines in this way,
sometimes putting a cutting directly in situ at the edge of the wall.
I've done Akebia in this way (but mine is not in flowers, yet).

I'd suggest also for your fence a jasmin, if you want flowers. Again,
you'll need to maintain it as with every climbers I'm afraid. Some
grow slower than others, some do flowers then do berries and then a
superbe foliage in autumn, like the cotoneaster. You could also have a
variegated ivy, no maintenance there at all beside perhaps cutting in
the spring huge clumps of them coming forward from your fence (but
these usually bears the flowers so it's up to you). I use a lots
around my house and it's great for the birds. Also it's evergreen. HTH

In article .com,
"Renee" writes:
|
| I posted them earlier, Nick. I'm looking for something that will cover
| a fence that is roughly 25 foot long by 5 foot high. I want something
| with small flowers, easy to maintain, and which will also mask the
| fence, which is quite unsightly. I'm not sure about the soil, but the
| fence is south-facing. There used to be blackberry bushes there, but
| we had them all uprooted years ago. (Although shoots sometimes still
| appear through the lawn!)

Consider any of the more vigorous, small-flowered clematis or lonicera
(including the natives C. vitalba and L. periclymenum). The various
hydrangea relatives and (primarily for foliage) Parthenocissus are
also appropriate. In warmer areas there are lots of other things,
too. Most need something to cling onto, but the hydrangea relatives
and Parthenocissus don't. There are also ivies by the dozen, which
don't, either.

Clematis armandii is excellent if the fence is strong enough and it
can have a few wires tacked into it. It is the best of the evergreen
climbers for such a purpose (in most of the UK, that is), and is
spectacular in spring.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

* Renee wrote, On 05/04/2007 12:05:

I posted them earlier, Nick. I'm looking for something that will cover
a fence that is roughly 25 foot long by 5 foot high. I want something
with small flowers, easy to maintain, and which will also mask the
fence, which is quite unsightly. I'm not sure about the soil, but the
fence is south-facing. There used to be blackberry bushes there, but
we had them all uprooted years ago. (Although shoots sometimes still
appear through the lawn!)


I'd go for a number of smaller climbers, so that you can have interest
at different times of the year. On a similar length of fence in my
garden, I've got honeysuckle, a couple of roses, jasmine, japonica and
a couple of different clematis.



--
Cheers, Serena

My mind not only wanders, it sometime leaves completely.

On 5 Apr, 14:25, Serena Blanchflower
wrote:
I'd go for a number of smaller climbers, so that you can have interest
at different times of the year. On a similar length of fence in my
garden, I've got honeysuckle, a couple of roses, jasmine, japonica and
a couple of different clematis.

What's a 'Japonica'?