Good Vines and Bad Vines

At last the construction next door is finished. As he promised, Trey the Builder regraveled my driveway and the privacy fence was installed. I immediately rushed to nearest Home Depot where I bought 4 large cross vines (two different varieties one of which is called Dragon Lady with darker and glossier leaves; the other Tangerine Beauty, with lighter leaves and is the more commonly seen).

Planted these along the privacy fence. I dearly hope these make it. I was unable to dig decent holes as the ground at this spot is severly impacted caliche. But I know that cross vines did well at my Rollingwood house, where they were situated in zero soil directly on top of bedrock limestone.

I have loved cross vines since I discovered them at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, growing on their large entryway pergolas. Cross vines are just about perfect: they are evergreen, seem to thrive on poor soil and little water, have a torrent of coral blossoms in early spring, and bloom now and then through the summer. Plus they mound up on their climbing supports in a lovely rumpled manner. They are the Rod Stewart of vines—rangey, casual, shaggy-maned, the "Thanks, I don’t need a comb, I look fine the way I am" all-time best vine in our repertoire. So I hope they do well.

The nonstop rain (10” or so) we had June-July were kind to my baby plantings. In the other fence picture you can make out, just barely, the crinum lilies which I transplanted in June and are already sending out new growth. I hope that within a few years they are a solid wall of green along the fence and I have pink blooms all summer--here on Aurora, there are no deer to eat the lilies.
This weekend I must do battle with another vine: rampant poison ivy. Grr.