cascading vine suggestions?

[Tess]

Hello--I'm in Zone 8 and I'm looking for ideas on what to plant atop my tall retaining wall that will give it a little color and some "softness", cascading downward. While we get a lot of rain, the summers are droughty, so it should not be too delicate. Any suggestions?

[Sunflower]

A groundcover rose like Seafoam or climber like Red Cascade would be bulletproof and look lovely cascading down over a retaining wall. Be sure to mulch them well to keep weeds to a minimum and to retain moisture and keep them well watered the first year and by year 3, all you will need to do is thin them out a bit in spring and water only if it's very dry.

[paghat]

It can be a little hard to track down, but if you can find the New Zealand Appleberry Vine, they are delightful evergreen vines with teency leaves, yellow tube-flowers late in spring, & largish purple, white, or violet berries the texture of eggplants. They will cascade down a wall to four or five feet, or climb up a wall three or four feet, but won't cover a wide segment of wall, as they're relatively small vines. Article here:

more full-coverage dangling vine would be Vinca major "Maculata," not quite as aggressive as regular wild Vinca major, variegated gold & green leaves half the size of the regular form, evergreen, rapid growth & will dangle many feet down a ledge & spread as wide as you permit them, large dark blue-purple flowers. Article here: ornamental strawberries can also be trained to dangle down a ledge. Their fruit is quite edible & pleasant but not large producers, but the trade-off is bright red flowers that persist spring to early winter. I have two hybrid varieties, "Pink Panda" is a bit more clumping, but "Lipstick" has long dangling stems. Evergreen to semi evergreen. big-coverage vine is Golden Hops, though it is deciduous so nothing for winter looks, its golden leaves are really something. I have it planted two places, one where it is a climber going straight up a wall, the other on a top of a stone ledge that it has dangled down & hidden the wall. Article: the ratgirl

[Pam - gardengal]

Hmmmm.......zone 8 with ample rain and droughty summers - sounds like the PNW!! Prostrate rosemary would be an excellent choice for this situation, assuming it gets plenty of sunlight. Most vines will have a tendency to want to grow upwards, but rosemary cascades beautifully. Evergreen, fragrant and sporadically convered with tiny blue flowers. And you can use it for cooking just the same as upright rosemary. Look for cultivars like 'Irene' or 'Huntington Carpet' - each will cascade a good 3 feet or more.

Another, less extensive cascader would be the Helianthemums or sunroses. Also evergreen with foliage color ranging from deep green to a silvery gray and covered in late spring and early summer with a profusion of tissue paper-like flowers in your choice of colors - reds, red-orange, peach, pink, yellow or white.

pam - gardengal

[paghat]

I never thought of using helianthemums as cascaders but sounds like a great idea for shorter cascades. I have a nice collection of sunroses, their flowering is just so spectacular, & their various shades of nearly evergreen foliage pleasing even through winter. I never quite positioned them to see a cascading effect but I can see they'd do that, though in most cases only to a one or two foot drop. Some few of mine were in spots that over time were getting too little sun because of the growth of larger shrubs eventually overshadowing them, so I've been planning to move some of the worst-positioned ones that were stunty or less flowerful this year, to a newly raised garden with stacked-rock ledge where they should never become shaded. If they spill down that a foot or so, the entire ledge may be invisible next year.

-paghat the ratgirl