Our Virginia Creeper

Last October, I posted an entry about the vine that grows on our chain-link gate. Only now, the middle of May, is it finally growing in thick enough to again block the view from the street of our oh-so-tidy back yard.

Which is, of course, the reason we've let it grow.

It's a Virginia Creeper, as one Carabeth commented, on that original blog post. She'd found my comment at blurbomat's blog entry of his Virginia Creeper (Carabeth even commented on his post). That is written by Jon Armstrong, husband of the rock-star-status blogger Heather Armstrong at dooce.com. Funny how stuff gets around, posted to, commented on, etc.

It grows from the same spot every year, from the neighbor's yard. From two or three very thick "branches" of vine. I'd never want it to die, of course, because I LIKE the vine. It does stuff. I guess I really do have the same view of horticulture that Marilee does: if a plant doesn't bloom, or bear fruit, or at least change color one a year, then what good does it do as an ornamental plant?

But that's a post for another day.

So since I don't want the creeper to ever die, I do want to know how to make them propagate. The berry-things shriveled up into things that looked like seeds, but they didn't do much when planted. And as it is springtime now, the vine will soon produce something akin to pollen as it did last year.

But those spindly appendages - call them prehensile tails if you want - look like they could dig into whatever medium I might lay them across and thus become roots.

Surely there's some horticulturist out there that knows - Carabeth, perhaps - and I don't want to have to go to a garden center to get a fresh new plant since there's an abundant crop of creepers in my back yard.

Comments?