How fast does Virginia creeper grow?

Wild Wine (Vitis vinifera), more precisely the virgin vine, is one of the most popular and sometimes most widespread climbing plants in domestic ornamental gardens alongside ivy. Well-established plants are well known and even enrich entire house gables or garden sheds with their colorful foliage. But how fast does wild wine actually grow? You can find out everything you need to know about its growth from us, explained in a simple and understandable way.

The growth

Generally speaking, wild wine is considered to grow very quickly and intensively:

• Very dense and strongly branching growth
• Increase in length per growth period (year) between 1.5 and 2.0 meters
• Growth width of single plants up to 4 meters
• Achievable total size per plant from 10 to 15 meters in height

However, in order for this intensive growth to be possible, wild wine must find sufficiently good framework conditions.

The conditions

Like most plants, light, water and nutrients are the parameters of possible growth for the creeper, which is more correctly called a virgin vine. Especially with Virginia creeper, there is also sufficient space, in which the previously described spread in length and growth width is possible without hindrance.

The site

The more suitable the location for the virgin vine, the better it will develop and the more lush its growth will be. Your preferred location looks like this:

• Sunny location
• weather-protected location
• Climbing possibility available

Using a specific example, the perfect place for the wild wine could be a house wall or a trellis, which it can climb up and which protects it from the wind in particular. Oriented to the south-east or east, it gets very good sun and under these conditions can unfold its striking, yellow to red colored foliage in full splendor in autumn.

Since the plant is considered to be very adaptable and resistant, it also gets along well with less than ideal locations. Partially shaded areas in particular hardly bother her. However, the autumn color of the leaves is then less intense.

The planting distance

While Virginia creeper easily finds its own way in the direction of growth, unhindered growth requires space in the lateral direction. If the plant is pressed too quickly by neighboring plants, this also has an effect on general growth. We therefore recommend the following for planting:

• Lateral distance to the next virgin vine at least 2.00m
• Choose the same distance to other vigorous and growing plants
• Per house wall, trellis side etc. only one plant, replant later if necessary

soil and supply

In addition to sun and space, the soil is also of fundamental importance for the growth of Virginia creeper. It thrives particularly well in soil with these characteristics:

• Rich in nutrients
• High permeability
• Fresh to slightly moist
• No waterlogging
• Profound
• Loamy

Sufficient moisture is particularly important for the plant. It should therefore be watered regularly, but only moderately, especially in summer. Because it reacts very sensitively to waterlogging and acknowledges this with poorer growth and less pronounced colors in the autumn leaves.

You can support the Virginia creeper, especially in a less than ideal environment, by adding fertilizer. However, this should only be done in moderation and stopped in the fall. Otherwise it is possible that shoots will grow vigorously until the end, but will not fully mature before the onset of frost. You acknowledge this circumstance with a much lower frost hardness and foreseeable frost damage until the coming spring.

The climbing aid

Finally, we look at the most important aspect of growing Virginia creeper for many hobby gardeners. As a climbing plant, it is able to climb up tool sheds, pergolas, house walls or special trellises. However, not every species of virgin vine is able to do this unaided. Most of the 13 known varieties hold themselves in place using so-called adhesive discs. So they can even grow on smooth stone walls. The gardeners notice the adhesive discs especially when pruning, when the branches have been removed, the plants, however, precisely these adhesive discs as scarcely detachable legacies on the wall remain.

However, there are also individual species, such as the common vine (Tarthhenocissus Vitacea), which do not have these helpful adhesive disks. It is therefore suitable for a comparably successful growth upwards on climbing aids in the form of rough wooden slats, tension wires, etc. reliant. It also advances more slowly overall than its conspecifics. However, it can be cut back much more easily, since there is no need to remove the adhesive discs from the substrate.

Learn more about climbing plants