I get shear happy at times and want to clean things up, cut things back, clear plants out that aren’t doing well, and just make space. It’s an impatience that isn’t admirable, as I sometimes shear before thinking, not always giving plants an opportunity to reveal their potential. A few months ago, I had my eye on a dead looking vine in the perennial garden and even told my son that it had to go. The previous owners of Coppertop hadn’t listed any specific vines to expect in that vicinity other than clematis. My son can be patient, and he encouraged me to wait and see. This brown vine was entwined with one of the featured arches and gates in the perennial beds, so I was dreading removing it and starting fresh. While all other plants including vines in these gardens budded and showed their green side, this vine continued its dry, scraggly state all through April and into May. I was oiling my shears. Then, in mid-May it sprang to life.

By the end of May it was showing true beginnings of leaves.

I took a photo of some of its leaves near the end of June and asked an online resource if this might be a grapevine of some type. The funny thing is, I’ve helped harvest grapes in Portugal and Italy, and I’ve become familiar with some varieties of grapes and grapevines, but this vine just didn’t look familiar in its barren state. My wise online resource said YES, this is Vitis, or grape of some sort.

The grapevine grows in an area with a number of other vines, including a few clematis and climbing roses. This area is packed full, each vine lending support to another. The grapevine grows over the arch.

I’d been wondering if certain grapevines just bear foliage when I spotted something last week. We have GRAPES at Coppertop! Grapes were definitely not listed by the previous owners on the list of fruit growing here, so it’s a big surprise. Let the plans for winemaking commence.

Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau