Description
Russian vine, also known as silver lace vine or mile-a-minute, is a climber of the knotweed family. It comes from western China and Tibet. It grows up to 10 m tall, twining around supports, and spreads 5–8 m wide. It is the most vigorous climber of all – its shoots can grow up to 6 m in a year. The leaves are small, arrow-shaped and green, falling in autumn after harder frosts. The young shoots are red, and the leaves stay green until the frosts, dropping once frozen.
It flowers from August to October. The flowers are tiny and white but extremely numerous.
It is used to cover buildings and high fences, and is also suitable for planting by arbours, pergolas and various strong supports.
It is particularly suitable as a screening plant against noise in towns and along roads. It can also be grown in large containers and boxes on terraces and balconies.
Requirements
It is not demanding about soil. It tolerates poor soils and drought, but grows much faster on fertile, moderately moist soils. It grows best in a sunny position; it can grow in partial shade, but then flowers less. It is sensitive to low temperatures and may be damaged by frost in harder winters, but it regrows quickly in spring. It covers supports very quickly and can even be too invasive. It can be freely cut back as soon as it spreads too much and starts to smother other plants.