Ornamental Grape

The classic deciduous pergola vine: dense summer shade, then bare stems that hand back the winter sun.

Vitis vinifera · Also known as Ornamental Grapevine, Glory Vine, Vitis, Vitis coignetiae

The ornamental grape is the traditional answer to a problem every Brisbane pergola faces: how to get real shade in summer without losing the winter sun. Because it is deciduous, it does something no evergreen climber can, throwing a dense leafy canopy over the hottest months, then dropping its leaves to let the low winter sun stream through exactly when you want it.

It is grown for its foliage and its habit rather than its fruit; the ornamental forms are chosen for big, handsome leaves and, in cooler spots, autumn colour. Over a pergola or a walkway it is one of the most useful shade plants there is.

In a Brisbane garden

The summer-shade-winter-sun trick is the whole reason to plant it, and it works beautifully here, but be honest with yourself about two things. First, Brisbane's mild winters mean the autumn colour is usually more muted than the fiery display these vines put on in cold climates, so plant it for the shade and habit and treat any colour as a bonus. Second, it is deciduous, so there is a real leaf drop to rake up each year.

In our humidity it can pick up powdery mildew on the leaves, which is cosmetic more than fatal, and it needs a genuinely strong structure because a mature vine is heavy. Give it full sun, prune it hard in winter to keep it in bounds and productive of new growth, and it will shade a pergola for decades.

How we design with it

We reach for the ornamental grape when a pergola or shade structure needs to cool an outdoor room in summer and still let the winter sun through, which no evergreen climber manages. It is the plant behind the deciduous-vine advice in that guide.

It is especially useful on a hard western aspect, the exact situation our note on the west-facing garden is written for: trained over a pergola it tames the fierce summer afternoon, then bares off to hand back the gentle winter sun a Brisbane garden treasures.

Where we write about ornamental grape

Common questions

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