you have some high expectations for a newly planted vine ...

leave it lay on the ground.. and ignore it for a few weeks.. then start braiding it thru the ladder ...

and that ladder idea.. was pure genius.. congrats ...

ken

Thanks Ken! Yeah, it's hard to know for a new gardener what the term "fast grower" really means...and it seems to vary from plant to plant....in regards to that Ajuga in that hill, I guess fast means it will probably cover the hill in 3 years! Lol, I thought fast might mean a couple of months!

Some close up pictures I took:
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Dang, outta focus!
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It looks fine to me. I'd just be really careful to deadhead it fully so it doesn't re-seed all over your yard and your neighbor's yard and their neighbor's yard...

How do you deadhead this plant?

Do these plants stay over winter, or do they die back completely?

Also, I was curious that since this is the Variegated kind how come only the initial leaves when I bought the plant have the crackled look, but the new leaves all just seem to be solid green? Do they get crackled as they age or something?

To deadhead this (and any) plant, remove the flowers before they turn into berries/fruit/seed-pods. Unfortunately, many people consider the berries of ampelopsis to be pretty, so they leave the plant to go to seed, at which point it becomes an ecological invasive in many locations. You can Google your state along with the words "ampelopsis" and "invasive" to see if it is a problem where you are.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ampelopsis

fast growing does not really mean much of anything.. in the year of planting ...

it is growing fast.. underground.. to grow roots.. to grow fast above ground next season ...

soon enough.. you will be beating it back with a stick.. a large stick... lol

i THINK.. peeps are being rather nice.. i alluding to the fact.. that you MAY HAVE planted a problem.. if the time comes.. that it swallows the front door.. and you start finding hundreds of them all over the property.. KILL IT ... maybe it will ... maybe it wont...

ken

Hopefully your porcelain vine is thriving by now. I live in growing zone 5 and have 5 porcelain vines growing behind a retaining wall. They drape beautifully down to the patio and have to be trimmed or they would grow into our home and eat us alive. They will grab anything within their reach and it's very difficult to remove the strong tendrils, even after they have frozen and turn brown. I have both the solid green and the variegated varieties. The variegated ones are the prettiest with smaller leaves. The solid green ones grow more vigorously. They tolerate poor soil and are pretty much maintenance free once they are established and it gets hot and dry here in the summer. I cut them back almost to the ground every fall. The solid green ones are the first to thrive in the spring. The vines are gorgeous and the berries very interesting in the fall. We don't see lots of birds eating the berries though. The vines cascade beautifully down the wall where nothing else will grow. I sit colorful pots of bronze leafed begonias between the vines to provide color. We live in a fairly windy location with weather extremes and these have been a maintenance free staple. I appreciate this as nothing else I grow is this easy. I occasionally see a variegated vine that has seeded itself in a flower bed but they are easy to pull, not a problem. My only suggestion re: the photo would have been to plant 2 of the vines since they appear to be the smaller variegated ones.

This plant does not need deadheading as there are no flowers. The berries come in late summer/fall and are scattered throughout the plant. If you deadheaded these, you'd cut the entire vine down and it would be an endless task. However, the vines are easily trimmed if they grow too big or out of control and I do this multiple times each summer, especially on the solid green ones. The new leaves on the variegated ones start a solid color then change. I'm sure your growing zone will determine if these can be invasive. They are not invasive for me in zone 5. They die back every winter and start peeking through again in April here.

I planted 2 of these last summer on a chainlink fence. They remained about 2 feet tall the entire summer but had berries in the Fall. I was disappointed by the lack of growth but this year.... wow! They went from a 2x1 little things to each covering a 7x4 area in 6 to 8 weeks since spring started. Very happy with these (variegated variety) They did have a little die back from the worst winter in 30 years, but came back beautifully.

It is astonishingly difficult to get this plant in England - I really don't know why since we have various parthenocissus vines everywhere...but nonetheless, I tracked down a plain green one to cover the outside of my horsebox (camouflage). I planted it a couple of years ago but this season has been it's first growing season, and so far, it has been slow. However, as we are all veterans in the ivy wars, this has not troubled me one whit - in fact, I was quite happy for it to loll about for a year or 2 before reaching skywards - not least as I am still slightly nervous about this complete unknown (for me) climber. Given the blackberry patch which we call the garden is so rampantly out of control, what is one more thuggish plant except a counterweight to the other thugs in what will no doubt be an all out aggression-fest? True, I did get a bit bent out of shape the first year in the wood but have completely altered my perspective on weeds, invaders, nuisance plants and, of course, a whole range of fauna which lives off the proceeds. As long as I can cut holes for windows and doors, I don't mind living underneath a cascading liana...and as we have nothing remotely like those astonishing berries, I look forward to finding out a whole lot more about ampelopsis...and failing that, I could, at a pinch, rain liquid death around it - much as I have been dealing with ivy and nettle.