A vine for container gardening?

[Christopher Riley]

Hello,

I have a small second-floor deck, and would like a viney plant to screen one side of it that faces our neighbor. Last summer I put in window boxes, and thought about planting something like Virginia Creeper, but couldn't find any locally (upstate New York; nurseries don't keep much because it is so invasive -- which also made me a little nervous but I thought the limited size of the box would keep it from engulfing my small cedar shingled home), so instead grew Pole Beans. Of course, there wasn't enough soil in the boxes, and they died shortly after producing. They also took a long time to develop large enough leaves to screen.

Does anyone have suggestions for a vine that will grow reasonably fast, survive in a window box (even just seasonally; I'm happy to plant as an annual), and produce enough foliage to effectively screen out my neighbors?

Thanks for your help!

Chris

[Doug Kanter]

Definitely nasturtium! Nice leaves, great scent to the flowers, and it's edible in salads. I been growing Burpee Fordhook Favorites for years. Give them something to climb, and they're in business. As the description says, they don't like being transplanted. Plant seeds in their final place and stand back.

Nasturtium Fordhook Favorites Mix Tall single climbing type nasturtium. Fragrant single flowers in many colors. Showy in large borders climbing on a trellis or trailing over banks and walls. Annual. Ht. 6ft. GARDEN HINTS: Prefers poor dry soil, as rich moist soils produce mostly foliage and few blooms. Does not transplant well. If raised indoors, plant seed in individual pots, and transplant care- fully.

[axeman]

Thunbergia - they have the most beautiful yellow flowers.

Jacqui

>

[Mark Anderson]

I'm sure other suggestion for vines will look nicer but IMHO, nothing beats morning glories in the fast growing and foliage category. I grow them in containers each year in various places for privacy. You'll need to build trellises for them to climb but by mid July, here in Zone 5 Chicago, they have enough foliage to provide privacy.

Last year I did an experiment growing a single morning glory plant in a small 5" pot set into a plastic cover that comes with a spindle of 50 CD-Rs. The water would drain into the plastic cover and the morning glory roots grew out the bottom of the container and soaked in the excess water. Here's a pic of the container:

here's the resulting plant:

you can see it doesn't take that big of a container to grow these big.

And here's a pic last year of the vines covering a couple of trellises enclosing my garden in privacy.

these vines grew in containers.

I grew Hyancith Bean last year too and although it's a nice vine, it's kind of stupid in that it can't figure out how to climb a trellis on its own. I got a lot of seeds off that though so I'll be mixing a bunch of other vines in with the morning glories this year.

[Doug Kanter]

Damn you! I'm trying to keep my seed order within budget, and you just ruined it. :-)

[Christopher Riley]

Thanks, guys. I already have Morning Glories on a trellis in my driveway, so I think I'm going to try both the Nasturtiums (grew a non-climbing variety last year; didn't even know there were climbing varieties!) and the Thunbergia side by side. There are two window boxes.

We'll see which works best!

Chris

[Doug Kanter]

You could also hang large baskets and let the nasturtiums trail downward.

[Doug Kanter]

Oh...another one! Moonflower! Huge, scented white flowers open at night. Amazing. They almost glow in the dark. Big seeds, easy to grow.