Garden Centre

Friday, October 31, 2008

No wine but a great vine

The best of October, for me, is the colours in my grape-vine. There are three vineyards within eight miles of my home, all of them producing British white wine, so there’s no reason that I couldn’t have a proper viticultural vine, if I wanted to, but I’m lazy enough to prefer to buy my wine in a bottle and not have to go through all the hassle of pruning a vine and harvesting and making a few bottles that would probably end up utterly undrinkable.

And yet I do have a vine. It is Vitis vinifera 'Purpurea' which is perhaps the most decorative of all the vines, and has the advantage of being hardy in the south of the UK. Even the young foliage turns from pure green to having blushes and tinges of bronze, which become a mauve colour through the summer and then the traditional (but actually quite rare) deep purple in autumn. Fruiting vines don’t produce such uniform depth of colour.

The burgundy foliage coincides with the ripening of tiny bunches of grapes which have the same rich tone as the leaves, but don’t be fooled, they are bitter and so full of pips that once you’ve spat the pips out there’s nothing but skin and a sour taste left in your mouth! Even the birds, in the depth of winter, won’t eat them.

Labels: ornamental vine, vitis vinifera purpurea

The All Seasons Gardener at 8:14 AM

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