Climbing Vines

For as long as I can remember, I have been entranced by climbing vines.  There were so many of them at Butchart Gardens in Victoria that I snapped picture after picture as I idly wondered how I could have features like this in my garden.  I even consented to having my own picture made in front of the rosebush trellis.

This year, after years of admiring trained flowers in other people's gardens, I planted a clematis of my own and installed a trellis for it to climb.  Early progress was impressive and I've enjoyed a first bloom.  I've got a few years before I reach Butchart status (!), but I'm looking forward to watching it grow over the years.

Inspired by my trip to the Butchart Garden, I've since spent hours daydreaming about the ways in which I can train more climbing vines for my house.  I have plenty of ivy in my back yard and I've begun to train some of it to grow.  I'd love to have a climbing rose.   Eventually, Sassafras House will be covered in vines and it will just be me and the cats peaking through the last windows left to the sunlight when a grown-up JT comes to visit his crazy mama.