Sunshine & orange blossoms

Any homeowner would love to raise a small patch, if not a garden, in front of his/her home. But your pockets should indeed be deep if you aspire to have a garden in front of your home, considering rising land prices in metropolises

So, how will you manage to have some amount of greenery in your home in such a scenario? Opt for perennial climbers which occupy very little space and can spread across maximum vertical space such as a fence, a compound, pillar, wall or roof. One such climber is the flame vine, also known as Golden Shower and Orange trumpet creeper, etc. The botanical names of this creeper are Pyrostegia venusta, Bignonia venusta and Pyrostegia ignea. It belongs to the family Bignoniaceae.

It is a fast-growing, sturdy, evergreen creeper, and a native species of Brazil, now popular in India. It has compound leaves growing opposite each other on the stem. Each leaf has two-three oval pinnae, pointed at the tip. Often, the apical pinna (leaflet) is modified into curled tripartite tendril, which coils around any support it gets and the climber clings to it to grow further. It starts blooming profusely in November and continues to do so till the end of March in Bangalore.

Flowers are bright reddish orange in colour and found in clusters of 2-50 flowers. Each flower is about three inches long with tubular corolla with petals separated at the tip and look like five lobes bent backwards. Calyx is small, cup-like and light green in colour. Every day, three-five flowers bloom in the morning and soon the corolla falls down. A circular nectariferous tissue is present at the base of the ovary, producing nectar. Honey bees, small bees and black ants are drawn to the flowers. Humming birds are also attracted to this creeper. The flower clusters are often borne on the tip of the branches and droop, creating a spectacular scene.

This creeper hardly needs any maintenance. It tolerates both acidic and alkaline soil. It tolerates partial shade and also partial drought. But if it gets more sunlight, it flowers profusely. It is virtually pest and disease-resistant. Recent research has revealed that this creeper has healing properties.

As it grows, its stem becomes hard, and hence, it is advisable to plan the growth of the creeper in advance and provide support accordingly. I had a limited gardening space in my previous residence. But I could successfully grow this creeper on the ground floor and it reached the terrace on the third floor with vertical support. When it reached the balcony of my second floor, I pruned it and the climber branched into two.

I then directed one branch through the hooks of the hanging pots in my balcony and the second branch climbed and spread on the small roof of the decorative tiles on the balcony. When it started flowering, it gave a beautiful look.

My present residence, where I shifted three years back, has slightly more garden space, and I planted this creeper in the left corner of my compound along with Phyllocactus and bamboo of small variety. It grew very well in both the directions (90 degrees to each other) horizontally along the compound and in the front. It not only covered the small sloping roof at the entrance of my house completely, but also created a virtual curtain with its hanging branches full of drooping clusters of flowers.