Unusual Vines

Akebia is among the most elegant and charismatic vines available for the temperate garden. Its palmately compound leaves — five rounded leaflets on each delicate stem — cast intricate, lacy shadows on walls and fences. In spring, pendulous clusters of small, cup-shaped blooms appear, their chocolate-vanilla fragrance distinctively unlike any other flowering vine. The vine is semi-evergreen in the PNW and milder areas; deciduous in colder zones — though in either case it retains its extraordinary ornamental quality through the seasons.

The fruit is the conversation-starter: bizarre, sausage-shaped pods — typically 3–5 inches long, pale lavender or blue-pink — split open when ripe to reveal a roll of sweet, white, gelatinous pulp studded with small seeds. The flavor is mild and tropical-reminiscent, often compared to lychee or tapioca pudding. The pulp makes an excellent clear jelly and can be used as a flavoring for drinks. The edible skin is slightly bitter and used in Japanese cuisine as a cooking vessel — stuffed and sautéed. The flexible, pliable canes are traditionally valued for basket weaving.

Holboellia coriacea is a close relative of Akebia in the same family (Lardizabalaceae) — and shares Akebia's elegant, palmate compound foliage and the same twining habit. What distinguishes it is its gleaming, deep-green, leathery, evergreen foliage — among the most beautiful of any hardy vine — and its deliciously fragrant cream-colored flowers that appear in spring. In mild climates like the Pacific Northwest, it holds its leaves through winter and provides handsome year-round structure on a fence or wall.

Raintree carries two forms: the standard green-leaved China Blue Vine and a purple-flowered selection. In warm enough summers, both may produce the sausage-shaped, fleshy, edible fruit — similar in structure to Akebia fruit — though fruiting is less reliable than in Akebia and depends heavily on summer warmth and pollination.

Cinnamon Vine is one of the most distinctive plants in the Raintree catalog — a vigorous deciduous vine from the mountains of northern China that produces heart-shaped leaves and tiny, inconspicuous flowers with an unmistakable cinnamon fragrance. The scent is strongest in late summer when the flowers are fully open, and a planting of Cinnamon Vine on a fence or arbor fills the surrounding area with warm, spicy perfume.

In its native Chinese mountain habitat, the vine produces substantial underground yam-like tubers (the edible root vegetable known as shan yao or Chinese yam) reaching several feet in length. At the nodes along the stem, it also produces small aerial tubers called bulbils — tiny, potato-like growths that drop and can sprout new plants. The tubers are starchy, mild-flavored, and nutritious; in Chinese culinary tradition, they are eaten roasted, in soups and stews, or dried and used medicinally. The Dr. Yao selection from Raintree was developed for improved tuber production.

Few vines engage the senses as immediately and memorably as jasmine in bloom. The small, starry flowers — typically white to pale pink — produce one of the most recognizable and universally loved fragrances in horticulture. A single established jasmine vine in full summer bloom on a warm wall or fence will perfume the surrounding garden and even reach into open windows. This is the vine people walk past and stop cold to ask what they are smelling.

Raintree carries jasmine varieties selected for outdoor performance in the Pacific Northwest and similar mild-winter climates, including a hardy cross of J. beesianum × J. officinale that is hardier than the common summer jasmine and offers somewhat more cold tolerance. Jasmine is primarily an ornamental vine valued for fragrance and flower, though the flowers of several species have a long history of use in teas, perfumery, and culinary preparations.

Honeysuckle is one of the most widely loved fragrant vines in temperate horticulture — and Raintree's selections represent the best of a refined group. Unlike the common Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), which is invasive across much of the eastern US, the selections Raintree carries are ornamental, non-invasive European and hybrid forms with outstanding fragrance and flower color.

'Gold Flame' (L. × heckrotti) is a shrubby twining vine with bicolor flowers — pink buds opening to heavily yellow-flushed interiors — and a long season of fragrant bloom from late spring through summer. L. periclymenum 'Inov 86' is a compact, vibrant-flowering selection of European woodbine with exceptionally fragrant blooms from spring through summer. Both attract hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies and make outstanding garden vines wherever a manageable, fragrant climber is needed.

Stauntonia hexaphylla is the most elegant of the Lardizabalaceae family vines — a fast-growing, evergreen climber from Japan and Korea with everything: beautiful compound leathery foliage that remains glossy green year-round, extraordinarily fragrant white-to-pink bell-shaped flowers in spring, and — in warm enough summers — walnut-sized, purple, edible fruit sweet enough to eat fresh from the vine. It is closely related to both Akebia and China Blue vine but is in many respects more refined than either.

The vine is a monoecious plant, producing male and female flowers on the same individual — meaning a single vine can potentially set fruit, though cross-pollination between two plants significantly improves production. Fruit is produced most reliably in the warmest PNW locations (southern Willamette Valley, Puget Sound lowlands, Portland metro) and in other warm-summer climates within its range. The fruit has a sweet, mildly tropical flavor and is eaten out of hand or used in Japanese traditional cooking.

Ho Shou Wu (何首乌) is one of the most celebrated plants in traditional Chinese medicine, with a history of use spanning more than a thousand years. Also known as Fo-ti or Fleeceflower Vine in Western markets, this fast-growing deciduous vine produces pretty heart-shaped green leaves, red stems, and small white-to-cream flower panicles in late summer. The vine is grown ornamentally as a fast-covering screen or fence plant and — in traditional herbal use — for its large, tuberous roots, which are the part used medicinally.

Raintree carries Ho Shou Wu for gardeners interested in medicinal and ethnobotanical plants with unusual histories. The vine is vigorous and easy to grow; it establishes quickly and provides fast coverage on fences, arbors, or trellises. The roots require several years to develop to useful size.