Leading plantswoman and horticultural writer Sarah Raven is impressed with how morning glory, Ipomoea, performs in Italy. She is less impressed with how it performs in Britain. ““It’s like making Sophia Loren go sunbathing on Brighton beach,” the garden guru wrote recently in The Daily Telegraph.
This provides an example of what may make entertaining reading elsewhere does not always travel well. When
Ipomoea seeds are started early inside, then planted out into full sun when the weather and soil are warm by June, it will do every bit as well as in its native Mexico. So will several other outstanding annual vines grown in similar manner.
Of course, ‘annuals’ are what poor benighted northern gardeners must regarded these welcome introductions from more salubrious climes. In their native tropical and sub-tropical habitats, they tend to be long-lived perennials.
Squeezed for space, city gardeners in particular might consider annual screens of fast-growing, easily cultivated vines. They offer an economical answer to privacy, covering an unsightly wall or fence while increasing the garden’s vertical element. While Morning Glory,
Ipomoea seeds are to be found on seed racks everywhere, others may require some local search or even online ordering.
Climbing Snapdragon Asarina scandens (
A. antirrhiniflora)
This blue-flowered vine that reaches two metres and comes from southern Mexico to the southwest U.S., requires about 16 weeks before blooming in a location where its roots are sheltered from direct sun
Cup-and-Sauce Vine, aka Cathedral Bells, Monastery Bells, Mexican Ivy
Cobaea scandens
While the white flowers tend to blend into foliage, this vigorous vine from Central America reaches up to six metres 6m but again requires 12 to 16 weeks before blooming; named after B. Cobo (1572-1659) a Jesuit priest who travelled in South America
Morning Glory
Ipomoea tricolor ‘Heavenly Blue’
There are some 500 species of Morning Glories; one of them,
I. batatas, is the familiar sweet potato. This one, however, is grown for its beautiful blue flowers, each of which lasts but a day – but there are masses of them. Use it to scramble up to three metres up and over walls, trellises, and tall fences. It was used by the ancient Aztecs as a hallucinogen in religious practices.
Purple Bell Vine
Rhodochiton atrosanguineum
Here is yet another Mexican candidate. The ‘flowers’ are, like the poinsettia, bracts or highly modified colourful leaves; the true flower is in the centre. Even if given ample root room it will probably barely reach two metres.
Black-eyed Susan Vine
Thunbergia alata
Finally one from the Old World, so long grown in Africa that its precise origin is unclear. Frequently sold in hanging baskets, where its massed bright yellow flowers with dark centres can be particularly appreciated. Backed by a lattice, it may reach a couple of metres but dislikes extreme heat. Named in honour of Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828) professor of botany at Uppsala University who, however, never visited Africa.
Canary Creeper
Tropaeolum peregrinum
Native to the Andes of South America, it features bright yellow flowers with large leaves reminiscent of nasturtiums, an accurate observation since it comes from the same family and grows to some three metres. Grow from seed the first season, and then propagate thereafter from cuttings taken in early autumn.
