Virginia Creeper
Parthenocissus quinquefolia
Self-clinging and relentless — the pads damage paintwork, and it finds the gutters the moment the pruning stops.
- Type
- Shrub · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green · Bronze, red and brown
- Sunlight
- Remarkably adaptable, from full sun right through to full shade.
- Watering
- Once rooted in, it gets by on what falls.
- Feeding
- Feeding is seldom necessary.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- June
- Pruning
- Prune twice a year at the very least.
- Overwintering
- Hardy through winter with nothing done for it.
- Apr–Apr Bud Break
- Apr–Jun Spring Growth
- Jun–Sep Flowering
- Sep–Nov Growing
- Nov–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Apr Leaf Fall
- Plant spacing
- 16 ft 5 in
- In-row spacing
- 16 ft 5 in
- Between rows
- 20 ft 6 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Woody, and deeper than the stem suggests
- Working depth
- 24 in–4 ft
- Can reach
- 6.5 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 16–33 ft across, about 1–2× the width of the plant
- Shallowest pot
- 20 in of soil
A vine puts far more below ground than its one thin stem implies, and that is where the alarming vigour comes from. Give the root run depth and drainage at planting; it will forgive almost anything done to it above ground afterwards.
It climbs on adhesive pads rather than roots, so it does not eat into brickwork, but the ground roots are wide and greedy and will find their way into a bed some way from the wall.
The habit is Virginia Creeper’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
- Japanese beetle Japanese beetle in some regions
- Growth pushing into gutters and under roof tiles
- Adhesive pads that damage stucco and paintwork
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Assassin bug ReduviidaeHunts Japanese beetle
A patient ambusher with a curved beak it drives into whatever it catches — caterpillars, beetles, bugs, and the occasional bee, so count it a generalist rather than a specialist. It will jab a careless finger too, so admire it and leave it be.
- Beneficial nematodes Steinernema & Heterorhabditis spp.Hunts Japanese beetle
Microscopic worms watered onto damp soil that hunt down soil-dwelling grubs and release a bacterium that kills them within days. Timing is the whole thing: warm, damp soil and a small target grub, which means late summer for most of what they are used against.
- Garden birds PasseriformesHunts Japanese beetle
Both things are true: birds strip your currants and a brood of blue tits takes several thousand caterpillars out of one fruit tree in a fortnight. Net what you must and welcome them everywhere else — a nest box near the apples is worth more than a spray.
- Praying mantis MantidaeHunts Japanese beetle
A sit-and-wait ambusher that snatches caterpillars, beetles, and anything else that wanders close — friend and foe alike, so count it a mixed blessing. Tall, structured plantings give it perches and egg-case anchors.
- Spined soldier bug Podisus maculiventrisHunts Japanese beetle
A predatory stink bug — same shield outline as the pest, but with a sharp spine at each shoulder and a beak it uses to spear caterpillars and beetle grubs. Learn the spines before you squash a shield bug, because this one is on your side.
- Tachinid fly TachinidaeHunts Japanese beetle
Bristly, house-fly-lookalike parasitoids that lay eggs on caterpillars, beetle grubs, and earwigs — the maggot consumes the host from within. Adults sip nectar from shallow umbels and daisies.
Green-leaved shrubs, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com