personally, i find it very hard to believe that it would be less invasive. who knows! i hope you find out. perhaps it is a slightly different species that makes it less invasive. they are pretty, but then i learned its encroaching habits!

i recently read somewhere that variegated plants grow more slowly b/c there are less chlorophyll producing cells in the leaves. maybe this is the theory behind the invasiveness/less invasiveness topic.

good luck!

The vine grows from a basic trunk that doesn't send runners. But the plant sends out huge numbers of twining branches every year. I have a 5 year old Ampelopsis that I keep controled by regular shearing. It is 20 feet long and is sending out unbelievable amounts of new green growth.

The real problem is not the vine itself if you keep it pruned like I do with mine. The problem is with the fruit. If you have a fertile plant and the seeds are viable, birds can spread them for miles in their droppings. That's when it becomes invasive.

Thanks Cady! You've answered my questions. I think I'll go ahead with it and we'll watch what happens with seedlings.

I have had this vine for 3 years. It is far from invasive in 5a. It is so slow it barely gets to 8 -10 ft before frost. And if we have late frost it kills back all the new growth and it has to start over in the spring.

I have planted a seedling. After a year it is 6 inches tall. I don't think this one is going to be a jack and the bean stalk kind of vine.

I am hoping to propogate it with the layering technique.It is a nice vine. Be not afraid!

Karen

Hi Karen,
I'm zone 5B so I will probably have a similar experience as you. I appreciate your feedback since it reassures me its a safe vine to try. Thanks everyone

cady reminded me of why it is invasive. it is the seeds being spread by wildlife. it is your decision, but choose wisely!

Has anyone tasted the fruit from the vine. Many places say its edible but not palatable. Does that mean its taste is little to be desired?

I was thinking of replacing a trumpet vine with porcelain berry because I heard that it is edible. I think the varigated variety is beautiful with its three berry colors, but I don't want to replace one problem with another. The Trumpet vine covers a chain link fence behind an herb garden. It keeps popping up in the middle of the herbs. This is dangerous because it is a poisonsous vine, and its roots take over so the herbs don't do well there. I need something edible that will cover the fence. Any suggestions?

i am working on schizandra berry vine. however, it is slow but may be b/c of where i planted it. also, blooms are not as obvious as nursery catalogs make it sound. edible berries, but opinions vary on taste i think. if i recall correctly, it is supposed to be tart, but if you wait until after a frost they will sweeten.

passionflower? maypop may do ok in your area and supposed to fruit.

Porcelain berries are fun, but concord grapes will give you tastier fruit to eat, in addition to being a beautiful vine AND not at all invasive. Where I live on long Island Sound there are no more wild grapes (of which concord grapes are a cultivar) to be seen, only dense jungles of porcelain berry vines.

Variagated Porcelain-Berry is quite beautiful. It's ecru, mauve and powderblue berries among the showy scalloped leaves are striking. And it is one of the first vines I added to my garden-scape over 8 years ago. I created a oriental inspired trellis design and build it to divide my lot from my neighbors about two feet back from a sturdy, if not untilitarian looking, chain link fence in the backyard. I installed it as a way of providing privacy as well as to give us both something pleasant to look at. After a couple of years and finally successfully eradicating an old groundcover of lily-of-the-valley, on the neighbor side I skirted the trellis with a row of Hosta Sieboldiana while my side was graced with, first a variety of early tulips, grape hyacinth and a stoll of red hydrangeas. Climbing the 8x12, three paneled trellis are three, now rather stout, variagated porcelain-berry vines, intermixed with three varieties of clamatis; Nelly Moser, Jackmanii, and Niobe. It is among my most prized garden masterpieces, but also, as I learned in the years following it's completion, my thorn in the side. Porcelain-Berry, no matter the type, can spoil our finest natural areas - and does. It not only attracts the strangest types of bees and small wasps I've ever seen (which facinates me that they leave when the area falls into shadow), but the birds love it for the bees...and the berries. The seeds readily germinate and I dig out countless seedlings regularly throughout the growing season, which tells me that where ever our feathered friends frequent there the Porcelain-Berry may likely thrive.