Latest news with #Virginiacreeper
Daily Mirror
01-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- Daily Mirror
Households with no time urged to plant these 'neglect thriving' flowers
If you're too busy to grow a bountiful garden this summer there is no need to miss out - these delightful climbing plants require little to no care and will grow almost anywhere While most of us enjoy a lush flower-filled garden, not all of us have the time to commit to it – luckily, experts say these gorgeous climbing plants thrive with little care. So, if you aren't naturally green-fingered, no need to miss out. One of the greatest benefits of climbing plants is that they're perfect for smaller gardens. Since they don't take up any floor space, they can easily fit in a balcony or a little nook, adding much-needed colour and charm. Equally, many also do well in shady spots with minimal watering. With that said, here are the five easiest flowers to grow, according to Home and Gardens. Virginia creeper These red-coloured vines are native to North America and famous for their hardiness. One of their best features is the fact that they can grow in practically any soil-type. Bert Bast is garden expert and owner of Bast Brothers Garden Center. He told Home and Gardens: 'Virginia creeper, or Parthenocissus quinquefolia, can grow in nearly any soil condition and requires very little care.' Even better, it doesn't need to be watered often. He continued: 'There is very little you can do to harm this plant, and once established, it shouldn't need any additional watering or attention.' Honeysuckle This delicate climbing plant is already a popular choice for its ornate white leaves and divine fragrance. A honeysuckle will leave your garden smelling like a sweet mixture of jasmine and honey. Even better, it requires next to no maintenance. Honeysuckle can be grown in any pot and left to its own devices, as it winds itself across your walls. Plumbago Notable for their powdered blue shade, these delightful little flowers are native to South Africa. Therefore, they prefer warm, sunnier climates and are best grown over the summer season. Maintaining them is incredibly easy. They can be grown either as a shrub or climbing plant. Trish Hunt, a plant expert from Millstone Nursery, advises that all they need is a small piece of garden twine to help shape them. Nasturtium April or May is the best time to plant these edible climbers, as the soil will have warmed up and the risk of frost has largely passed. With their bright red blossoms, these plants add the perfect pop of colour in summer. You don't need to worry about the kind of soil they are placed in, either. Simply provide a structure for them to climb up and they will do the work for you. Even better, their blossoms can be added to salads for a peppery kick! Morning glory These Mexican flowers truly bring to mind a tropical sky, as their petals blend beautifully from purple-blue into a pink centre. Better yet, they're easy to maintain. While they prefer full sunlight, they can be grown in partial shade – a relief for British gardeners. Plus, once planted, they can grow quite rapidly, to anything from one to three metres in a single season.
Chicago Tribune
15-10-2024
- Health
- Chicago Tribune
Outdoors column: Poison ivy causes rashes, but benefits wildlife
I once thought I was among the 20% of humans who experience no ill effects from poison ivy. But a visit to southern Illinois years ago proved me wrong. Itchy skin with blisters plagued me for weeks. Still, I do not hate poison ivy and since that episode have learned to admire this plant that offers much to wildlife, especially in autumn and early winter. A chemical irritant in the plant's berries, leaves and stems, tricks the human immune system into attacking skin cells causing rashes and itching. Burning the plant can cause smoke that gets into human lungs and causes problems. Botanists speculate that the irritant evolved to help poison ivy defend itself from marauding beetles, caterpillars and slugs, or perhaps to ward off infection. It certainly didn't evolve to keep humans away. In fact, mammals such as deer and bears can eat the leaves with no harm, and more than 60 species of birds including catbirds and the yellow-rumped warbler migrating through our region now, eat the berries with no problems. The key to living peacefully with, and even enjoying poison ivy, is to learn to recognize it and admire it from afar. Some scientists think that climate change may be increasing the population of poison ivy, as well as its potency to humans. So it makes sense to know where it's at when you're hiking in the woods. Throughout the growing season, poison ivy leaves are composed of three leaflets with the middle leaflet typically longer than the other two. In autumn, the leaflets turn red, orange and yellow, and sometimes linger into winter as solid red leaflets. Another vine-like plant, the Virginia creeper, also turns a lovely red in fall, but it can be separated from poison ivy in several ways. Virginia creeper has five, rather than three leaflets, and its vines are smooth while poison ivy vines are hairy. Virginia creeper typically grows as a vine crawling up trees, but poison ivy also grows in shrub form or even as a groundcover. In autumn, Virginia creeper produces dark berries, while poison ivy has clusters of tiny, less than quarter-inch-wide greenish-white fruits. Though Virginia creeper doesn't cause bad skin rashes like poison ivy, it can cause some minor irritation, so it's best not to touch either of the plants. One of my most recent encounters with poison ivy was in a Lake County forest preserve this month. Yellow-rumped warblers, birds that migrate from the northern United States to the tropics in fall, were flitting around the poison ivy. Through my binoculars, I could see they were munching on its small berries. This fruit provides sustenance to this warbler species so that it can hang around longer and fatten up before heading south for winter. At least four yellow-rumped warblers crowded on one tree branch to pluck berries from the poison ivy. Other migrating songbirds that linger longer in autumn also eat the berries, and I heard a gray catbird give its meow-like call while the warblers were feasting. Some biologists speculate that the chemical irritant in poison ivy somehow gets neutralized in the bird's digestive system. Other wildlife, including deer, eat the poison ivy's leaves. Biologists think minerals such as clay and salt eaten by deer help neutralize the plant's toxins. In spring, small, native bees pollinate the flowers while getting some nourishment. And over the summer, larval insects actually use folded leaves of poison ivy to surround them when in the pupa stage. It might be fun to look for those natural events come spring, but when doing so I'll be careful not to touch this fascinating native plant.
