English Ivy: Beauty and a Beast

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20 April 026 – Can we have a little chat about ivy?

You know, the green vine that carpets landscapes across Cape Cod and beyond?

What’s the deal with ivy?

What I call ivy is shorthand for English ivy, or Hedera helix.  It’s a tenacious evergreen, vining nuisance that grows almost anywhere, except in wet places, and will scramble on or in or over or under or through anything it meets.

And yes, I do mean it will infiltrate, smother, pull-apart, rot, entangle – pick your verb – anything in its path.

Not so charming

In my early years, I thought the ivy that grew through my grandparents’ basement wall was charming.  There was a crack around the cellar casement windows that the ivy squeezed through, inviting itself into the quiet, dark basement where it thrived happily.  All its nourishment came from outside, so where the vine wandered mattered not.

In the ensuing years when I relandscaped their home, that terrible stuff kept coming back.  And back.  Like a wheelbarrow-load of bad pennies.

I once had a funny dog, a golden-retriever mix named Lisa.  Because of her difficult past, she was afraid of almost everything, including a certain dead tree with a heavy clump of ivy that dangled off one side.  The odd sculpture was positioned between a streetlight and a garage door.  On breezy evenings, it looked very much like a huge, nodding caricature of a ghost that would send my pup scurrying to the far side of the street to avoid its scary tentacles.

If you haven’t noticed by now, I find ivy, planted in the wrong place, discouraging.  And most of the time, it’s planted in the wrong place.

Where does ivy make sense?

Where is the right place to plant it, you may ask?

If you happen to have a multi-story brick building, ivy looks quite nice growing up the sides.  You know…the Ivy League?

Associated with elite universities, the name “Ivy League” was once a reference to football team standards set by a group of schools that had, in common, old brick buildings with ivy growing up the sides, those being Harvard, Yale, U-Penn, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth and Cornell.

(Sorry for the departure, but I was pretty sure you wanted confirmation as to which schools share this moniker).

Although by the 1990s even Harvard had de-ivied its hallowed walls; seems Hedera helix destroyed mortar and created untold building damage.

No, no, and no!

English ivy is also called common ivy, European ivy, or “No! Don’t plant that!” ivy.

That third name I made up, but it’s the most appropriate, in my opinion.

Ivy is native to much of Europe and parts of the Middle East.  I have seen it with my own eyes in the beautiful British countryside, and it always seemed so romantic and magical and yes, even beautiful.

But honestly, I wish it had stayed on the other side of the Atlantic.  Those busy Colonists who were responsible for a lot of plants crossing the pond did, in fact, bring ivy to the New World.  Once here, it ran rampant and still does, conquering everything in its path.

What features does ivy have?

Ivy has tough evergreen leaves, most commonly with 5 lobes, but old specimens have leaves of a different shape that can temporarily throw off even plant nerds like me.  Vines can grow nearly 100’ high and they accomplish this with little pads called rootlets that attach to whatever they can grab.

They produce nectar-rich flowers that don’t look like much to we beauty-craving observers and produce purply black berries that the birds eat.  And maybe, just maybe, the birds are to blame for the random sightings of ivy growth on my property.

I swear I didn’t plant ivy, or use any in container plantings, yet here they are, mocking me, laughing at me, flaunting their superior ability to appear again and again.

What role do they play in their native habitat?

In their native habitat, they are highly valuable for pollinators, birds and even deer.  If they weren’t so invasive here (and in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand), they’d likely be good neighbors.

I had a client in Hingham a few years back who had a large brick house and she struggled to get the ivy to grow up the sides.  The best she could do, between the landscapers who continually cut it down at her husband’s request and the deer looking for nourishment in the winter, were skinny little trails of ivy that maybe reached 10-15’.  Blotchy ivy beds due to hungry deer lined the foundation and she never let me fix it or change it.  It looked dreary and disappointing.

I can think of another seaside home in Chatham where ivy dominates, huge beds spawning climbers on all the trees and old walls, creating vast dead zones where the tightly woven net of roots prohibit the growth of anything but more ivy.  Even the resident deer and all their friends and family couldn’t, and obviously don’t, make a dent in it.

What role did ivy have in history?

Because ivy is a card-carrying member of the plant kingdom and I love plants, I must do due-diligence and say something nice about this scourge.

The name “Hedera” means “ivy” in Latin and also descends from a Greek word meaning “seizing” or “grasping”.  The species name, “helix” is from ancient Greek meaning “spiral.” The names together denote a seizing, grasping plant that coils and spirals.

If I had renaming rights, I’d call it Hedera horrible, but I haven’t been asked and likely won’t ever have that honor (Oh whoops. That wasn’t nice!)

Ivy was a part of ancient Roman and Greek culture and was associated with Bacchus, a demigod of Roman and Greek times associated with wine, drunkenness, ecstasy, and fertility, who was quite the naughty fellow along with his female followers. I’m sure the ivy saw some shocking things while wrapped around reveler’s heads as they descended into drunkenness and debauchery.

What does ivy do in your yard?

Used as a groundcover, ivy can be pretty and essentially no maintenance. It’s a wonderful hiding place for rodents too, which is also a great thing…for rodents.

If you are looking for an inexpensive way to get rid of a tree, let ivy consume it which will add weight that aids in blowdowns, as we saw in our recent winter storms.

And to its credit, ivy is highly sociable and will happily grow well beyond your yard because it does not recognize property boundaries, and your neighbors will get to know it too, like it or not.

Think again, and again, before you succumb to planting ivy, okay?

What alternatives do we have to ivy?

There are other lovely native alternatives, like Tiarella or Geranium maculatum for shady spots, or Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva ursi) or Purple Love Grass (Eragrostis spectabilis), and so many others too numerous to list here.

If ivy has established itself in your yard, spend some time contemplating alternatives.  If you don’t have any, don’t plant it! A single ivy plant has been documented to be over 400 years old so if you want to leave a plant legacy, please plant a tree instead.  Preferably a native tree.

If your ivy patch has grown onto your neighbor’s lot, maybe you can appease and entertain them by placing an ivy wreath on your head and dancing the bacchanal in your back yard.  While they laugh, watch out for ticks.  And don’t fall into the ivy.  We may never see you again!

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