Native Vines
Unlike the non-native invasive vines that we see everywhere killing trees, our native vines seldom hurt them. They co-evolved with our trees and are an important part of the local ecosystem. Some can be a nuisance in a landscape setting, but they can all be trained to climb walls, arches, fences, arbors, or trellises and pruned or sheared for containment. Our native vines add striking beauty, height, and structure to any space and are a terrific way to expand your native gardening palette.
Here are five beautiful and beneficial native vines you can easily incorporate into your home landscape.
Snowberry clearwing moth larvae on Coral Honeysuckle
Great vines for the home landscape
Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens)
Coral honeysuckle, which is named for its evergreen habit, is the hands-down favorite of the native vines for garden spaces and is the official wildflower of Fairfax County.
The vine can reach 20 feet in height. It grows in full sun (best flower) to part shade. The blooms last from late spring into the fall with the heaviest blooms in April-June. In late summer look for clusters of bright red berries. It is deer resistant and grows in a variety of soils such as clay, loam, or sand. It also adapts to moist or dry soil conditions and even tolerates poor drainage for short periods.
This plant twines its way up and can be trained into living curtains or screens with the right support. It is striking on arbors, trellises, railings, or fences. The more room you give it, the more spectacular the display. You can prune it after spring flowering or shear it in late winter for containment.
It also serves as a host plant for the spring azure butterfly, the day-flying snowberry clearwing moth, and the Harris three-spot moth. Hummingbirds love to feed on its nectar-filled flowers, and its bright red berries attract purple finches, goldfinches, hermit thrushes, and robins. Simply stated, the more coral honeysuckle you plant, the more the biodiversity of your property will benefit.
Crossvine (Bignonia capreolata)
Another gardening favorite is crossvine. It is a semi-evergreen, glossy leaved vine which blooms from late spring into the summer, and in the fall, its leaves become purple until spring. It grows in full sun or part shade, but flowers best in full sun. It is not picky about soil or moisture as it grows in clay, loam, or sandy soil and in dry, wet, or moist conditions. It is cold-tolerant and even tolerates brief flooding. It is potentially vulnerable to deer browse.
The vine can grow up to 60 feet. With claws at the end of its tendrils, crossvine clings well to stone, brick, pergolas, and fences without support. Plant it on an outdoor wall to help insulate against summer heat or winter cold. Grow it on large hardscape features like trellises, arbors, or fences to provide privacy. Place it on a sunny slope and it will ramble down horizontally to create a ground cover. You can always prune it after spring flowering or, like coral honeysuckle, shear it in late winter to control its size.
Crossvine is a host plant for the gray hairstreak butterfly and the rustic sphinx moth. Hummingbirds, butterflies, moths, and bees love its early blooming flowers filled with nectar. It can also become a home for song sparrows, tree frogs, squirrels, and other small mammals.
Virgin's Bower (Clematis virginiana)
Virgin’s bower can grow to a height of 15 feet. It blooms late in the season from July – September, producing masses of fragrant creamy white, green and brown flowers that turn to showy sprays of silky seeds. It thrives in many soil types including rich, moist, and well-drained soil to average soil or even dry shade. It tolerates full sun to partial shade, and even flowers in shade.
The vine can be easily confused with the invasive sweet autumn clematis, so be sure you have the native plant which has toothed leaves as opposed to the smooth edges of the invasive. Note also that most parts of the plant are toxic to humans and can cause skin irritation if touched. It is considered deer resistant.
It climbs without tendrils using twisted stems instead. It therefore needs something to wrap itself around to grow such as shrubs, trees, a fence, or a trellis. If no support is provided, it may spread like a groundcover and take root.
In nature, virgin’s bower can grow fast, so keep this in mind when you decide where to plant it as it will quickly dominate small areas. Stems may be pruned at any time during the growing season.
Virgin’s bower is a host plant for the clematis clearwing moth. Its flowers attract honeybees, native bees, hummingbirds, and several species of butterflies. Songbirds will also nest in its foliage or use its white seedheads to line their nests.
Yellow Passionflower (Passiflora lutea)
Yellow passionflower has a complex flower very similar to maypop (see below) but smaller in diameter at 1 inch, more delicate in appearance, and yellow-green in color. The vine blooms in mid-summer, growing in full or part sun, and requires loam or sandy soil. It also likes moist to wet soil conditions, so if you don’t have a moist or damp area in which to plant it, you’ll need to provide 1-1.5 inches of supplemental water per week. The plant is deer resistant, which is a major benefit.
This is a smaller, more easily controlled vine than maypop. It grows to a height of 15 feet. If not contained it will still spread, but less aggressively. A fence, wall, trellis, or arbor for climbing is best, and pruning in late winter is advisable. You could also try it in a large planter pot, provided it has something within reach to climb.
The fruit of the yellow passionflower is a marble sized green berry that turns purple or black as it ripens. The fruit is edible but has a bitter taste which birds and small mammals seem to like. It can be used to make purple dye or ink.
The plant is an important larval host for the gulf fritillary butterfly. Honeybees, native bees, and hummingbirds also visit the plant, as do fruit eating birds.
Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia)
While it is primarily prized in the landscape for its brilliant red-burgundy fall foliage, Virginia creeper is an important member of the local ecosystem providing food for literally hundreds of insects, birds, and other animals.
The vine prefers sun to part shade but produces its best fall color when grown in full sun. It adapts to clay, loam, or sandy soils and to dry or moist conditions, and is usually resistant to deer browse.
The tiny brown flowers of Virginia creeper are often hidden by foliage, but they offer nectar and pollen that attract many bee species. Later in the summer ,small hard berries appear that are red at first, turning to mauve and then to black later in the season.A small percentage of people are allergic and can get a rash similar to poison ivy.
Virginia creeper is a vigorous grower. It uses tendrils with strong adhesive discs that attach to just about anything. Large arbors, trellises, and fences can be used for support, but don't let it climb on your house. It will do considerable damage to the paint, gutters, wiring, window frames, and other surfaces.
Virginia creeper can grow up to 40 feet in nature, and seems to be limited only by the height of the structure it climbs. Virginia creeper can be used as a ground cover to hide things like a stump, a snag of dead trees, or a rock pile, or for erosion control as its stems will form roots which help stabilize a slope.
Without doubt, Virginia creeper is a generous provider of abundant food to many animals and a meaningful addition to the landscape. Dozens of species of birds, including thrushes, woodpeckers, warblers, vireos, mockingbirds, and other songbirds consume its berries. Mice, skunks, chipmunks, and squirrels eat its stems and leaves. The plant also hosts the Virginia creeper sphinx moth, the achemon sphinx moth and the grapeleaf skeletonizer.
Vines more suitable for unlandscaped (or very contained) spaces
Purple Passionflower, Maypop (Passiflora incarnata)
Maypop is lovely but a nuisance when it pops up all over the place. It is primarily known for its large and intricate lavender or bluish-purple shaded flowers which bloom in mid-summer. While maypop can grow in partial shade, it performs best in full sun. It grows well in clay, loam, or sandy soils and in dry or moist conditions. It is potentially vulnerable to deer browse.
Using its tendrils, maypop can climb to 36 feet. It also spreads aggressively by root suckers, so it’s best not to plant it near a lawn. It can be contained by removing the suckers or pruning. Planting it in a container to limit propagation and providing an arbor, fence, wall, or column to optimally display its amazing flowers is advisable.
The fruit of maypop is an edible, greenish yellow berry about the size of an egg. The name maypop comes from the loud “pop” the fruit makes when crushed. Maypop fruit can be eaten as is or used to flavor beverages, jellies and jams, and baked goods. Many fruit eating birds also visit the plant.
Nectar is produced both at the base of the leaves and within the flowers, so the plant attracts many pollinators, especially bumble bees and other native bees. Maypop is also the host plant for several species of insects, including the gulf fritillary, the variegated fritillary, the red-banded hairstreak, and the plebeian sphinx.
Trumpet Creeper (Campsis radicans)
The flamboyant flowers of Trumpet creeper are a magnet for hummingbirds. It is easy to grow - too easy for most people's taste. It does well in average soil with regular moisture and full sun to part shade. It is high climbing, up to 35 feet, scrambling over anything it can reach with aerial rootlets that will damage any wood, brick or stone it touches. The plant can also form a dense groundcover and be very effective for erosion control, but in doing so, it will cover other plants or hardscape structures aggressively.
The vine is such a vigorous grower and talented spreader, however, that it is best used in natural areas. It is well known for easily escaping cultivation and densely colonizing itself by suckers and so is often considered a nuisance.
Vines that are missing from our lists
American Wisteria (Wisteria frutescens)
American Wisteria is widely available in garden centers and is native further south in Virginia but not in our region. It is important to distinguish this gentler native vine from its Asian cousins, which are invasive here and harmful, even fatal, to the trees they overtake. The flowers of American Wisteria are smaller but equally beautiful. It is an aggressive grower but far less than the invasive non-natives.
It does best in moist soil and full sun, blooming in late spring to early summer. It can grow up to 30 feet and is often used to adorn arbors, pergolas, and fences where the blooms can be on full and graceful cascading display. Carpenter bees are attracted to its nectar, and the plant is the caterpillar host for both the silver and long tailed skipper butterflies.
