Native vines are a totally underutilized plant in Mid-Atlantic gardens. Filling gaps, covering walls and fences, and making a great vertical feature in any garden, vines can be used to attract butterflies and native insects to your garden. Vines are useful if you don’t have much vertical space, and they usually grow quickly and form screens almost instantly.
Vine caterpillar on Dutchman’s pipe
For example, the swallowtail feeds on the Dutch pipe, Aristolochia macrophylla, which is a valuable woody vine that can cover a huge area quickly, in a season or less. Useful as a screening vine, it is very easy to grow. Another native, Trumpet Honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens, It is frequently visited by hummingbirds and long-tongued pollinating insects (e.g., the white-lined sphinx moth). and wisteria frutescens, amethyst fallsIt is a better-behaved version of the rampant Asian wisteria, which I have found growing inside homes through basement windows.
Here are my top 5 options:
- Honeysuckle Trumpet (Lonicera sempervirens)
Native to the eastern United States from Maine south to Florida and west to Illinois and Texas. Related to the highly invasive Amur honeysuckle, Lonicera maackiiand Japanese honeysuckle, Lonicera japonica.
Trumpet Honeysuckle is a beautiful and versatile vine that comes in several colors. Noted for its 1- to 2-inch-long tubular flowers that appear in late spring or early summer, it is a magnet for hummingbirds, bees and butterflies. Under ideal growing conditions, it will produce a second flush of flowers in the fall. The flowers turn into orange to red berries in late summer and fall, which birds love to feast on.
Needing support with a fence or trellis, these vines grab hold and begin to grow without being tied down. The only drawback is that this honeysuckle does not have the wonderful aroma of the invasive species.
The most common ones found in commerce include ‘John Clayton’, which features yellow flowers and grows only 7 to 10 feet long; ‘Major Wheeler’, a floriferous variety with deep red flowers and very good resistance to mildew; ‘Fragrant Cloud’ and ‘Magnifica’, a compact vine with orange-lipped crimson flowers.
2. Pipe (Aristolochia macrophylla)
Native to the Appalachian Mountains from New York to Tennessee, but can also be found sporadically from Maine to Alabama.
Pipevine, also called Dutch pipevine, is a woody vine most easily identified by its large, heart-shaped leaves. This vine can provide a dense screen of foliage for a porch or arbor from early May through October. Since the vine can become quite heavy, choose the support structure carefully.
It has very interesting pipe-shaped mahogany-colored flowers that appear from mid-May to June and actually look like pipes. They are usually hidden under leaves, but they are worth looking for.
Pipevine is the host plant for swallowtail butterfly caterpillars and can reach 30′ in length. So place it carefully and with good support.
3. Wisteria (Wisteria frutescens ‘Amethyst Falls’
TO Top selection of our little known native wisteria, this deciduous vine is truly special and not many people know about it. Much less aggressive than the Asian variety many people are more familiar with, it is a delicate vine that grows slowly but surely to cover an upright structure. Consider it a dwarf version of the exotic Asian giant that can quickly cover and undermine buildings. ‘Amethyst Falls’ is the named variety and is lovely.
Lightly fragrant, lavender-purple in color and borne in 4- to 6-inch cascading clusters in May and June, I have it growing on my pergola. It’s also great for containers; I see this variety being offered more and more in local nurseries. Deer resistant and drought tolerant, everyone with a small or large garden should have room for this great plant.
It is a host plant for the navy blue butterfly, the silver-spotted skipper, and the long-tailed skipper.
4. Carolina Jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens)
A stunning bright yellow vine that brightens an early spring landscape, this vine covers fences and trees in open woodlands in the southeast region. South Carolina’s state flower also does quite well here in Maryland. Growing up to 20 feet or more, some people also grow it as a ground cover. Sweetly scented, the golden yellow flowers cover the vine so that you can barely see the foliage, in April in my area and earlier in the south. The trumpet-shaped flowers last several weeks and you can trim them after blooming to keep them contained in a smaller area.
Attracting hummingbirds, butterflies (Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly) and bees to its fragrant flowers, every part of the plant is poisonous. An important warning: Flowers produce nectar that is toxic to bees if consumed in sufficient quantities, and honey produced from their nectar can be toxic to humans. This also applies to rhododendron flowers. Very deer resistant, the vine is easy to grow and evergreen.
5. Bignonia Capreolata (vine cross)
Native to the southeastern US, this spectacular vine has a very tropical appearance, is covered in a cluster of exotic flowers that smell like mocha, and is rarely cultivated. Using tendrils as support, like an ivy vine, this beautiful vine can quickly grow up supports such as fences and trees to make a great display. Blooming heavily into a woody vine, this deciduous vine can grow 30 to 50 feet, so place it carefully.
Cross Vine grows well in shade or full sun (blooms more profusely in sun) and can die back in severe winters. However, the roots are resilient and will produce new growth the following spring. Tolerating a wide variety of conditions, the vine blooms in early spring in my mid-Atlantic region, between mid and late May. It provides excellent food for traveling hummingbirds and is an early source of nectar for native pollinators of all types.
