I'm space challenged but love the look of this climber. Just bought one and need to plant it. Does anyone know if this plant will grow laterally along a fence, if it can only finds support that is six feet tall? (Tage says it can grow 50 feet HIGH -- might it grow 50 feet WIDE?) My cedar fence is the private type with tongue and groove vertical slats. Will the suckers squeeze through the slats and open it up? That would NOT be a good thing. I'd like to keep it to my side of the fence, plus I don't want openings to develop in the fence. Assuming it is well behaved and stays to my side of the fence and doesn't pull the slats open, will it grow laterally in a way that demands that I position the plant in the middle of where I want it to grow or should the plant be put at one end of the stretch it is likely to grow in. (Hope that makes sense). Thanks!!
Like other climbers will tend to grow to top of fence and then bunch up there, reach around a bit for additional, taller support - unless pruned and trained to spread out over surface of fence in desired fashion, like an espalier. Regular maintenance also the way to keep it from damaging fence. With this one the particular appeal is the silver vein pattern on the leaves, but this only shows up well in shaded aspects. If you plant is on a sunny surface the vein pattern will sort of bleach out.
It will be along a fence that runs north-south. I will train it up the east side of the fence so it will get sun during the first part of the day. I'm curious about your suggestion to regularly maintain. What does that entail exactly? I see that the vine has long tendrils that are just waiting to stick to something... do I lift them and lower them down the fence face? It's hard to tie them to a flat surface. If I put chicken wire up would those tendrils wrap around that or do they prefer to bond (chemically?) to wood? Many thanks for your reply Ron!!
