Virginia Creeper Help

Hello guys, new poster here after some help...

I bought a Virginia Creeper to cover a rather boring fence at the bottom of my garden. I'd read they would grow pretty much anywhere and over anything,

this is what it looked like in Sept, about a month after planting;



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and now it looks like this :(


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I've read a couple of people saying they can go bare down to just the "stalk"(?) in Winter? But is that right and this is normal, or has something got at it / it's not healthy?

Any advice much appreciated,

 

Hi Gooseh and welcome to Gardners Corner from what I can see it's probably just getting it's autumn colour and many leaves will drop off however we'll wait and see what other users opinions might be

 

they loose all their leaves in winter ... lovely plants .... the leaves go bright red before falling off, and should be red right now

1st year after they are planted, they sulk for a bit and don't grow much ... from the 2nd/3rd year, they grow rampant

 

I have one too, first year after buying it was doing very little. Two years on and it is starting to go crazy :D
Just have to be patient with them mate :thumb:

 

I have three creepers (Two tricuspidata Boston ivies and a Henryana) planted in the last 2-ish years.

Despite enriching the planting holes with rich compost, all three looked rather straggly initially.

But two years on, the Boston ivies are looking much more substantial and are currently a deep glossy red. And my varieties are not as vigorous as the quinquefolia variety you have planted. Yours will be fine!

Virginia creepers are deciduous- mine have begun shedding leaves this week.
Your fence is going to look bare until the middle of next spring. Had you wanted something evergreen?

 

mines thread bare i thought something had eaten the leaves but it did turn a stunning red colour before it turned to stalk x

 

Joolz- is yours on a fence or growing up the side of the house?

 

Mine is utterly threadbare but come spring/summer next year, it'll be its usual rampant self. Yours will be just fine.

Graeme

 

its growing up a trellis againgst a waney lap fence melinda, sw facing but it is its 1st yr..heres a pic a month after i bought it :D just a stalk now but i did read on a google search that leaf cutters like them so i presumed it had been eaten

 

Boston Ivy is a lovely climber , mine is growing up the brickwork on a house wall . It self attaches itself with little sticky pads so is not invasive. It is 4 years old and is up to the bedroom window ! The autumn colour is incredible . Although this year mine shed its leaves in September and is now as bald as a coot ! Hope its OK think it may have got stressed in the drought early this year

 

Thanks guys :-)

And on reflection, had I realised it would shed all it's leave an evergreen might have been a better idea :(

I've got a Winter Jasmine there too (also not doing much) so I've hedged my bets a bit

 

get a star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) to grow inbetween the boston ivy and winter jasmine

 

The fence is only about 1m or so across, my girlfriend reckons the Creeper and W/Jasmin are too close together already :E

 

Hey Gooseh,

The fence is only a metre across? You are going to be *constantly* cutting back that creeper. Once it establishes itself, it will be doing a metre every couple of months.

TBH Id reconsider siting the quinquefolia there. Maybe get the henyrana?

 

I thought the same .... they needs lots of width and lots of height to do well