Cypress Vine - Easy Climbers

The Cypress Vine or Ipomoea quamoclit,  is yet another plant that can give a lot of confidence to those like me who are new to apartment gardening. This is one of the first plants that I planted about 6 weeks ago. I am fascinated to see that it is growing beautifully and with tremendous speed. This is definitely one of the fastest growing annuals. I was fortunate in the fact that there had been steady rains for the past 4 weeks. Not really sure if that and the humidity helped this plant to grow to such lengths. Now I see plenty of buds and can hardly wait for them all to flower. 

Saplings or Seeds?

While I have heard that these vines grow easily from seeds too, I have yet to experiment on that. I am going to let my flowers seed and try that. But they can sure grow easily from saplings. You can get these saplings in any nursery. I got just one sapling and planted it along with a tropical oregano plant – mine is the variegated variety. Since I am balcony gardening, I choose horizontal plant containers (you can see that in the image) and plant three or four varieties of plants in the same container. I usually choose a bushy plant (the tropical oregano), a climber (the cypress vine) and a hanging plant.

This is mainly to make maximum use of the available space and give the apartment garden a fuller look.

Potting Soil and Fertilizer for the Cypress Vine

The Cypress Vine grows easily in any good soil. I used a mixture of compost, coco peat and clay soil as the potting mix. After two weeks, I added NPK fertilizer -1 table spoon in 1 liter of water. I water them only when the soil gets dry. I didn’t have to do a lot of watering since there had been rains. 

Where to Plant the Cypress Vine

Since these are easy climbers, I suggest you use a corner of your balcony to ensure that you help the plant trail along the corners. Since they have the tendency to cling on to any support to creep, it is sensible to plant them in such a way that they don’t attach themselves to your other plants. If you don’t have railing in your balcony like I have, you can actually use twines or threads to guide their growth. 

This is a blog by Farhan that shows the Cypress Vine actually growing up to 20 feet in height. http://farhansgarden.blog.com/2012/08/20/cypress-vine/

These plants are planted in the ground. But you can do something similar to your potted Cypress Vines too. Happy planting!

What You Need to Get Started

Space: Once you have decided to have a balcony garden, you can do so in as little a space as possible. Try and make maximum use of all the available space. At the same time bear in mind the fact that you should be able to maneuver between you containers to give each plant their due attention. You can use the vertical space for hanging pots for spillers and hanging plants. You can use the walls of the balcony too to nail in containers that are specifically created for it. You can construct ladder like railings in your balcony to place more containers. For tough climbers, you can also build support structures with bamboo sticks. 

What is important to note here is that you should make allowance for drainage. You don’t want your plants water logged. This means container gardening involves quite a bit of water spillage. While, almost all commercially available containers do come with plates that hold drainage, you should be prepared for the floor getting wet. Allow space to mop away the water. Also make sure that you don’t displace the pots too often. 

Sunlight: While it is impossible for a balcony garden or an apartment garden to get a whole day of sunlight, you are sure to get at least 5 to 6 hour of it every day and sometimes even more. There are some plants, especially ornamental plants with foliage that require good sunlight – Pothos, Agave, Cypress Vine are some of them. There are some other plants like Coleus and Asters that are quite happy with dappled sunlight or shade. Position your containers to meet the requirements of each plant. 

Containers: Plan your balcony garden and the plot placements before you decide to buy the pots. The four most important things to bear in mind while you make your container purchases are:

1. The containers should be such that it is large enough to support plants when they have reached their optimum growth level.
2. They should have good drainage facilities like pores and holes.
3. They should be able to hold the soil mix without spilling
4. The material of the container should be hardy enough to hold the soil, the grown plant with all its roots and foliage.  
   

Large Containers:

You will need larger pots for plants that thrive well for years. The best examples of these plants are foliage plants like Vines and Climbers and other large foliage plants like Umbrella Palms. If you planning to plant bulbs of Gladioli or Dahlia, it is wise to use large containers with enough depth. Planting up to 5 bulbs in each of these containers placed no less than 6 inches apart will give them enough space to grow and bloom very well.

Medium Sized Containers: 

You would need these for small foliage plants like Golden Sage, Ferns, Fox Tails and Hostas. Such containers are also ideally suited for growing flowering plants like Petunia, Asters, Zinnia, Marigold and Phlox. Once the flowers area in full bloom, you can use these potted plants for indoor decor too.

Small Containers: Plants like Ghost Plant, Jade Plant and succulent plants like Cacti that don’t have a bushy growth can be grown in small containers. 

Hanging Basket Containers: They too come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Such containers can be used for hanging and spilling plants like Portulacas, Table Roses, Spider Ivy and many hanging Ferns.

 

Potting Media: A good potting media consists of a mixture of compost, soil or sand and, moss peat or coco peat. For all plants to grow and thrive happily, it is absolutely necessary for them to get the right nutrition and this is why you should pay a good deal of attention to getting the potting media right and mixing them in the right proportion. 

Fertilizers: The all-purpose fertilizers that are sold in markets or plant nurseries have the 10-10-10 combination of NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium). Nitrogen helps in the growth of stem and leaves and Phosphorus aids in the development of a healthy and strong root system. Potassium helps the plant withstand adverse weather conditions and helps the plants in resisting diseases. 

Pothos Plant or Money Plant – Purify Your Indoors

This is by far the easiest plant to grow and with its moniker ‘Money Plant’, I guess it is really one of the first choices to get started with. Now these leafy vines can be grown easily in containers. While left free to grow in the woods these plants can actually reach a height of up to 40 feet in the jungles of the tropics. In containers they can grow up to 8 feet if given enough support and care. 

It is the leaves of the pothos plants that make them attractive. These plants are available in many nurseries, but since many houses have them too – it is good to take a good cutting from any of your friends’ or acquaintances' homes to pot them in your containers. When these plants start growing you can provide them support with moss sticks or let them trail along merrily on your balcony walls. You can also place hooks on the walls to give them support or let them trail along the window railings.

Potting Pothos to Give it a Bushier Look

The pothos plants are also very popular indoor plants. They are known to purify the air indoors. Since they don’t need too much of sunlight, they can be easily be grown indoors. You can make them grow bushier in pots by simply planting several cuttings in the pots. A medium sized container can hold up to 8 cuttings easily. The best way to do this is to make a cutting just under a node. You can make several such cuttings and place them so that the nodes are in water. Most of the nodes will begin to produce roots in a few days. Once the roots are strong enough (about 1 to 2 inches in length) you can start potting them. Make sure that the potting medium is well draining. I usually place some gravel at the bottom of the pot. You don’t need to water them every day. Over watering these plants can cause rotting of the roots. 

While pothos plants are pretty much happy to simply grow profusely in a good potting mix of compost and soil, if you want to give them a prod for more foliage, you can use an all-purpose fertilizer fortnightly.