Native Vines

Native vines, and where to get them, have been much discussed this summer on some native plant Facebook pages I follow. Beaux Arbres has a fine selection of native vines for the Ottawa region.

One of my favourite vines is the Glaucous Honeysuckle. Unfortunately, I forgot to collect seed from this species last year. To have some Glaucous Honeysuckle available, I layered some stems of the plants in my garden. I have only a couple of these starts left. I do have a good supply of Hairy Honeysuckle, grown from seed. Hairy Honeysuckle is similar to Glaucous, but the flowers are yellow rather than red and it flowers a little later.

Canada Moonseed (featured image) is not well known but it is a good vine for shade. The flowers are tiny and hidden in the leaves. If the plant is female, and there is a male nearby, the flowers will be followed by dark blue fruit. Leave these for the birds – the seeds should not be eaten by people. Canada Moonseed has attractive lobed leaves.

There are two native Clematis in the Ottawa area. Virgin’s Bower is a large vigorous vine, adorned with a froth of small white flowers in late summer. It flowers best in a sunny locations. Much less common and much less known, Purple Clematis has large nodding blue-violet flowers in spring. It is found in the wild in woods, but it flowers more abundantly in gardens if it has at least half-day sun. Both vines have attractive seeds heads after their flowers. Now that I have a few Purple Clematis established in the garden at Beaux Arbres, I have easy access to a supply of seeds of this elusive species, and I now have a good supply of young Purple Clematis available.

American Bittersweet is, like Canada Moonseed, dioecious, that is, it has male and female flowers on different plants. Some years ago, I grew some American Bittersweet from locally collected seed, and I still have a few pots left. This plant will not flower when dwarfed by being kept in a pot, and there is no way to tell if it male or female until it flowers. Most folks, quite understandably, want a known female, since it is the bright orange fall fruit which is the decorative feature of this vine. The oldest and largest specimen in the garden at Beaux Arbres is a female and it has produced a couple of suckers. Drop me a line if you are seeking a female American Bittersweet, and I can pot up a sucker off our known female.

We grow two herbaceous vines, the dainty biennial Allegheny Fringe, and new this year, the intriguing American Groundnut. We were generously given some garden divisions of Groundnut by a loyal customer and I am propagating it from the roots. For centuries, American Groundnut has been vegetatively propagated by Indigenous people in eastern Canada for its edible roots, so this is one species where I needn’t worry too much about maintaining genetic diversity through propagating by seeds. The tubers of American Groundnut are delicious roasted.

There is one more native vine which I would very much like to be able to offer: Carrion Flower. I have tried several times to start this handsome herbaceous vine from seed but have never been successful. I would love to hear if anyone has been successful in germinating Carrion Flower.