By National Gardening Association Editors

Looking for a fast way to add vertical interest to your garden? Consider incorporating climbing annual vines. With their quick growth and prolifically blooming nature, annual vines are perfect for masking unsightly features, adding privacy, creating a shady spot, and adding floral displays on pretty much anything vertical for very little cost. Win, win, win!

Perhaps the most popular annual vine is the morning glories, of which there are many varieties! If you shudder when you think of all of the reseeding that morning glories are known for, take heart- there are varieties available that are non-invasive

Annual vines are perfect for gardeners who want to create a cottage garden look. And many annual vines (Dutchman's pipemorning gloriesmoonflowersweet peasnasturtiums) grown by our grandparents hold appeal as heirlooms.

Unique Forms, Unusual Flowers

There are many other annual climbers that deserve consideration for your gardens. Chilean glory vineSpanish flagpurple bell vine, Black-Eyed Susan Vine, Cardinal Climber, and the Hyacinth Bean vine are and others are all easy to grow, and many sport exotic-looking flowers sure to turn heads.

When people have seen my hyacinth bean, with its red-veined purple foliage and sweet pea-like purple or white flowers, they often stop in their tracks and ask if it is real. The bean pod, develops large and deep purple with an alluring sheen in late summer and it quite unexpected. 

Even within a particular species of annual vine, it's easier than ever to find a range of varieties. More seed companies are offering grouped collections, such as various colors of morning glories, or sweet pea vines dating from Victorian times.

Unusual colors are more readily available, too, such as a white cup-and-saucer vine, a white hyacinth bean, a red morning glory, and the Mt. Fuji series of morning glories, whose sky blue, violet, deep purple and crimson flowers (depending on variety) are marked with a white pinwheel-like pattern and picotee border.

With some annual vines, the appeal is sheer novelty. And because seeds will cost you no more than a fancy cup of coffee, you can afford to experiment. Scarlet runner bean produces brilliant crimson flowers followed by edible beans. Bitter melon has climbing foliage that resembles that of its cousin, the cucumber. It produces a warty green fruit about 3 inches long that eventually turns orange and splits in thirds to reveal bright red seeds. On love-in-a-puff, 1-inch pale green balloonlike seed pods pop between your fingers.

Landscape Problem Solvers

Annual vines aren't just inexpensive oddities. They're also great problem-solvers. They can quickly conceal things you don't want to look at, or play up ones you do. And they're so easy to grow, they're ideal plants to introduce children to the magic of gardening.

Their design uses are almost limitless. Any porch, fence, arbor, large trellis, or pergola is enhanced by an annual vine. But because they grow so fast and are temporary, they lend themselves to experimentation. Make a bamboo or twig tepee for your kids, and cover it with an annual vine such as scarlet runner bean. Plant vines next to a tree 10 to 14 feet tall, and let them scramble up the trunk and into the limbs for a blooming tree until frost. Grow two vines alongside each other in whimsical combinations: a morning-blooming morning glory intertwined with a late-day moonflower, or an international mix of Spanish flag, Chilean glory vine, and Dutchman's pipe.

Use them to blanket a problem slope or fill a new flower bed in a hurry. For instant charm and color, frame a door or window with a vine climbing a string trellis. Less invasive kinds, such as black-eyed Susan vine, can even weave themselves among other annuals and perennials, creating a wild look. Plant shorter growers (4 to 6 feet) in containers and baskets. And hide every eyesore in sight ? a rusty toolshed, a dog kennel, the neighbor's dying juniper hedge.

Even tiny courtyard gardens or apartment balconies have room for annual vines. Despite scrambling to heights of 20 feet or more, the vines have relatively limited root systems and grow happily in a large pot.

How to Grow Annual Vines

Nearly all annual vines do best if sown directly in the garden a week or two after the average last frost date. They grow so quickly that if started too early indoors they become stressed in their small space and tend to suffer from transplant shock. Also, direct-seeded plants will catch up with their coddled indoor-started counterparts by mid July or so.

You may want to start a few plants of finicky germinators, such as sweet pea, indoors as a backup. That way, if Mother Nature supplies too little or too much rain, or too little or too much heat, for proper germination, the indoor seedlings can come to the rescue. Start indoors on the last average frost date; plant in peat pots or cardboard egg cartons so pot and all can be planted without disturbing the roots. Transplant seedlings once they have their second set of leaves, one to three weeks later.

Annual vines, like so many plants, like full sun and well-drained, good-quality soil. However, if planted in too-rich soil or fertilized with too much nitrogen, they tend to produce excessive foliage and not enough flowers. If you want to fertilize, work a little compost into the soil, or at most an all-purpose fertilizer, such as a 5-10-5, according to label directions. The best time is just as plants begin to bloom.

Keep seeds evenly moist until germination. After that, most vines require average to modest watering despite the heavy demands that all the foliage puts on their root systems. According to Wanda Sorrells, staff horticulturist for the Geo. W. Park Seed Co., "Many annual vines are highly drought tolerant. The only side effect [of too little water] is that they might not grow as big." And many might wilt slightly on a hot afternoon but revive by evening.

It's important to provide support at planting time. Some annual vines, even when planted just 3 inches away from the support, will spend days slowly whirling around, reaching blindly for a support in an eerily intelligent way. That time and energy could be put into climbing and developing foliage and flowers. At planting time, if the support can't be placed next to the seed, put a short twig into the ground leading from the seed to the support.

Most vines climb by twining rather than clinging. This twining habit makes them even easier to cultivate. Simply provide a pole or stake and they'll twine right up, though it never hurts to give them a guiding hand every few days until they're a foot or so tall. On a building or other smooth, flat surface, a trellis helps. Construct one of wood, string, or even monofilament fishing line, which creates a nearly invisible support. Unlike perennial vines, even vigorous annual ones (to 20 feet) are fairly lightweight and seldom topple their supports.

The few clingers, such as sweet peas, love-in-a-puff, and purple bell vine, do better with string, netting, mesh, or a trellis for support.

Once these vines are established, few pests or diseases bother them. Their height allows good ventilation, and because they're annuals, diseases seldom overwinter. (Or it may just be that the vines grow so fast they outrun any pests or diseases.) All are killed by hard frost. Simply pull or cut them down and compost the remains. Many are actually very tender perennials and grow year-round in USDA Hardiness Zones 9 and warmer.

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