Creeping Wire Vine, Muehlenbeckia axillaries




I have a hands-down new favorite trailing plant for pots, baskets, window boxes, etc. etc. etc.



Let me count the ways I love it:


* It grows like gangbusters;

* Has shiny, glossy, boxwood-sized leaves that

* Look beautiful adorning the deep brown/maroonish-purple

* Wiry stems that literally dance and curl and leap


 and reach over the container edge. All whilst forming a thick, dense mat of glossy green on the surface. It also, by virtue of its wiry nature:


* blends beautifully with other ground covers and trailers like money wort and Asian jasmine

* or bushy plants (like golden feverfew and lady's mantle in my pots)

* without being a thug at all, just

* ever so delicately insinuating itself, weaving in and out of its potted companions


as they tumble and spill over the sides. All this and it's


 * drought tolerant

*grows in both full sun and shade

*is pest resistant and 

*responds beautifully and lushly to sheering and trimming if it gets a bit rowdy.


It looks quite fetching as it underplants my topiary boxwood...


equally so as it aspires to become topiary itself on a wire frame. It is hardy to zone 6, though I had patches that survived the Polar Vortex of last winter.


No doubt, with more aggressive mulching on my part, it would have fared even better. It would make an ideal, fast growing ground cover for slopes...or
difficult areas like dry shade. That said, it also looks


great all by its lonesome in a shallow pot positioned just so as...to catch the sunlight on its glittering small leaves.


 Unfortunately, it's difficult to find in local nurseries or big box stores. So find some at Gardenality, (here) or at Schubert Nursery (here). Also look for it
under the names Angel Vine and Mattress Vine.

Or... look UNDER the mattress FOR Angel Vine...but DO look for it. You won't be disappointed, I promise.



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