Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
davidrt28

Anyone have Parthenocissus henryana in southern sun?

There's probably a vines forum but I'm sure this one has more traffic.
Years ago I bought a Parthenocissus henryana from Woodlanders. I'm 90% sure that for the first year, the leaves resembled what I expected. Now there's little to suggest it is anything but Parthenocissus quinquifolia. There are many seedlings of the native around. I will always have trouble believing one did a sneaky replacement of the Parthenocissus henryana, but I suppose I might just have not been paying attention. I can more easily believe it was the native all along, sent in error, and I just saw what I wanted to see in the first year.

But I did find a reference somewhere saying that in sun, it can lose the veining. My plant is on a west facing stone wall so it does get fairly hot in summer. So, has anyone else in a sunny warm climate had this problem with it? Or can someone in Southern California say, "yeah, I have it on a south facing wall and it still has the veins". That could confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is the wrong species. BTW if Woodlanders did screw up and send the native, it would be my first issue with one of their plants in over 20 years of ordering from them. Another clue is that several sources say P. henryana has bluish-black or black berries, but I can't find any proper pictures of them. My vine has definitely blue berries, I can't imagine anyone would say there's anything black about them. They are blue with a slight whitish bloom.

Problem currently is it is just too vigorous, I can't justify keeping it especially if it isn't even what I ordered. Debating about a Schizophragma inegrifolium as a replacement, although they are supposedly pretty vigorous too...though I feel like I've seen the more common, hardier "Hydrangea vine", staying relatively confined in some gardens.

Comments (5)