Vines Have a Field Day in the North Fork Landscape

The ‘creepy crawlies’ are back—like the plant in “Little Shop of Horrors," vines on the North Fork mean business. We have both a pergola and an old brick ice house covered with them. If we don’t keep beating them back, by mid-summer it is almost impossible to get in the house.  One of my favorites just finished blooming, Wisteria. The other—clematis—appears later in several incarnations in our yard. A “wild” white-flowering variety dominates; its hybrid cousin has a lot more trouble holding its own with the ivy that also pops up everywhere.

Wisteria, as it turns out, is a member of the pea family. It quickly climbs by turning either clock– or counter-clockwise around its support. The things can climb up to 60 feet in height and 30 feet wide. In our yard, they set their sights on the phone line. Ouch. Before we have to go after them sharp objects, they float like lavender clouds over the pergola and garden arch. An unforgettable sight.

The clematis come into their own later. They are members of the Renunculaceae family—you’ll remember them from their cousins the buttercups that pop up on your lawn.  No delicate, waxy flowers here. Hybrid clematis flower-heads are huge and showy. I envy the folks’ yards where the ones in my slideshow are growing.  Later in the summer, the wild white variety takes over the fences in the backyard, though the tiny flower clusters bear no resemblance to the spectacular cultivated variety. Pioneers in the Old West heard the Spanish called the clematis “peppervine” and used it accordingly. Unfortunately, the plant is toxic and causes internal bleeding. Some things are best admired from afar.