Landscaping With Seed Packets

This is one of my absolute favorite garden posts.  I'm sharing it again during my August garden month.

 I've been searching for a non-invasive climbing vine.  I learned the hard way that perennial climbers like to take over, so I decided to select an annual for the geometric trellises in my garden.  I'd never heard of a Cardinal Climber vine before, but I loved the picture on the seed packet and decided to give it a try.  Here it is in bloom.  I love it.

Cardinal Climber in My Garden

The leaves look very much like palm fronds and the bright red flower surprised me

 with the tiny white bud in the center.

If you missed last year's post, my dilemma was a large expanse of wall along the driveway with an extremely narrow bed.  I planted some Japanese Pencil Boxwood in the space.  I chose them because they were tall and narrow.  I'm not sure about the choice.  They look scraggly and thin.  

Expanse of Wall to Fill

I found some geometric lattice at Home Goods and added it next.

Geometric Lattice

Lattice Panels and Dog Photobomb

I planted some small boxwoods and the Cardinal Climber seeds in front of the panels.
The boxwoods haven't grown much, but the vine climbed and covered the trellises.

You can see how narrow the bed is from this angle.  This is the view from the street.

Side Street View of Narrow Bed

Divided liriope from another bed fills the space between the brick and the driveway.

Liriope Fills the Space

This was the perfect vine for the trellises.

Climbing Blooms

Blooms and Japanese Pencil Boxwood

It was impressive when the vines reached out to each other, intertwined, and formed
 a garland between each trellis.  I told my son that they were holding hands.

Intertwined Vines

The vines are holding hands and forming a garland across the wall.

Holding Hands

The vines left just enough open space for the geometric lattice pattern to peek through.

Vine, Lattice, and Japanese Boxwood

I'm so happy with my vine choice.  I bought my seed packet from a display in a hardware store,
but I checked and you can buy Cardinal Climber on Amazon too.  They're supposed to attract hummingbirds, but I haven't seen any yet.

If I do this next year, I definitely will start the seeds indoors first to get a head start.
 It took a long time for them to grow to this size and bloom.