Golden Acre Home & Garden Centre's Plant Library

Description:

This interesting vine valued for its breathtaking white-pink variegated foliage all season long, small white fragrant flowers and plentiful fruit after three years or so on female plants; an underutilized climber that's excellent for screening

Ornamental Features

Variegated Hardy Kiwi Vine is primarily grown for its highly ornamental fruit. It features an abundance of magnificent green berries from mid to late summer. It has attractive white-variegated dark green foliage with hints of pink. The large oval leaves are highly ornamental and turn yellow in fall. It features dainty fragrant white buttercup flowers with yellow anthers along the branches from mid to late spring.

This plant is primarily grown as an ornamental, but it's also valued for its edible qualities. The small oval sweet fruit is most often used in the following ways:

• Fresh Eating

Landscape Attributes

Variegated Hardy Kiwi Vine is a dense multi-stemmed deciduous woody vine with a twining and trailing habit of growth. Its average texture blends into the landscape, but can be balanced by one or two finer or coarser trees or shrubs for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance woody vine, and is best pruned in late winter once the threat of extreme cold has passed. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Variegated Hardy Kiwi Vine is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Hedges/Screening
• General Garden Use

Planting & Growing

Variegated Hardy Kiwi Vine will grow to be about 20 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 24 inches. As a climbing vine, it should be planted next to a fence, trellis or other rigid structure where it can be trained to grow upwards on it. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 10 years. This is a dioecious species, meaning that individual plants are either male or female. Only the females will produce fruit, and a male variety of the same species is required nearby as a pollinator.

This woody vine does best in full sun to partial shade. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments. This species is not originally from North America.