They will forever climb to reach light and once a vine reaches a certain length, it will curl upwards, attach to itself to climb up again, will discover the pot and the pot hangers to attach to, will then go for the awning to attach to, and then may head for the roof. If you train the vines to go along the length of the awning and keep after them, you might be able to get the effect, particularly if you put some kind of strip of mesh or wires/strings along the length of the awning for them to attach to. Only thing is, MFs grow pretty large with a large root system. I've grown some out of a 6" pot that was sitting on a bigger pot with soil in it to get it closer to a trellis and the roots went right through the drain hole of the 6" and into the much larger bottom pot, and even then, the whole shebang still needed quite a bit of water to sustain.

I agree with Jenny. It won't work. MG & MF will FOREVER climb even if they climb onto themselves.

Hi. Does this also mean that I wouldn't be able to train MG's to grow horizontally across a 4' chicken wire fence? Thanks.

What we are saying is that basically, you will have to really keep after them to keep them in line tangerine. You can grow them on your fence easily. But once they reach the top, you will need to check them each day or even twice a day to guide them horizontally. Otherwise once they run out of vertical support, they will continue to grow straight up until they are too heavy to support themselves and will then flop over on themselves in a big tangled mass. Any little vinelettes that emerge from the mass will start growing upright again and the same thing will eventually happen to them too. Since they are twiners, it makes it a bit harder on the grower in terms of training, depending on the type of support. Vines like ivy (with hold-fasts) and clematis (with leaves that do the attaching) or even peas (with tendrils) are a bit easier to train a certain way due to how they attach. But in general, it's all in the maintenance! Of course, once they hit the top, you could pinch the tops or prune them and encourage some branching down lower and that might help some.

Thanks so much for the description jenny_in_se_pa. It paints a very clear picture for me about the habit of twining vines and how they grow.

Do you know of an ornamental annual vine that could reasonably be grown on a 4' high x 35' wide chicken wire fence?

Black Eyed Susan will hang from pots. I don't know if you like those.

The other two above are the cardinal climber and the cypress vine. The ones below are the hyacinth bean vine and the firecracker vine

You can read about them here. Hope this helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: Progardenbiz

vinelover - lover of vines (!!) has given some suggestions - a bunch of which I have started inside myself. LOL

If your fence gets alot of sun, you could still go on and try the MFs or MGs and perhaps some scarlet runner beans.

But I guess the main thing is that as long as you are aware that they will always try to reach for the sun and then flop over, then you won't get frustrated when they do flop over. Often my mid-late summer, the foliage is so thick that you can't tell.

The perennial vines like the ivies, crossvine, or virginia creeper, etc., will tend to stick with the place they are attaching too and not try to shoot up into the sky where there's no support - partly because their stems are much thicker and heavier.

Wow,
thanks for all the replies/advice/suggestions!

I'm considering just installing some trellises for the vines, because the site is so perfect for them. The hanging baskets will have some other occupants ;)

cheers,

~tMM

You know what would do what you'd want? Pothos. You could probably leave it out too (except for when some freak cold spell comes). I've seen many a pothos from a single pot strung dozens of feet around an office (from cubicle to cubicle). I usually wrap mine around and around the top of the pot. And down your way, some people train them to grow up into the trees (which is what they normally do in their native habitat) and hang them along the tops of their porches. Ivy might do the same. Both are more trainable and shade tolerant than the MFs and MGs and are non-twiners (but use rootlets and/or hold-fasts).

Hi Jenny!

Girl you do your homework.

vinelover - This is all your fault!!!! LOL It's scary to see how many vining plants that I want thanks to you. :-p

I had the very same idea here. I planted MG's and one MF vine together in a hanging 8" basket. They went straight up the chains of the basket no matter how many times I pried them off. Once they got to the top of the chains and hit the soffit, they did kind of take on a hanging effect. They are still hanging, but as soon as they find something, they will just grab onto it. Good luck, they are fun to play around with!

The dwarf non-climbing Ipomoea nil types like the "Good Morning" Series or the "Sunsmile" series do very well in hanging baskets...so does the Ipomoea hederacea type known as "Beni Chidori"...it is always shown in Japan flowing down from the containers...

TTY,...

Ron