David Armand’s grape
VITACEAE, The Grape family

This unusual looking grape has huge, rough leaves and dull-tipped translucent reddish spines on the vines. It grows to 25 feet long. In full sun the leaves turn a rich red-burgundy in autumn, in partial shade the fall color will be less dramatic but the leaves will grow enormously. Dan Hinkley of Heronswood nursery journaled about David Armand’s grape in July 2005. Unlike most grapes, this Chinese native doesn’t root easily from cuttings, perhaps explaining why it’s not more readily available.

This lovely thing is one of the few plants at the second nursery I’m working for has that my main location doesn’t. As the season wears on ordering is slowing and the stock is getting lower, making it more difficult to put together a fab garden from plants on hand. Or to look at another way, just another challenge to be creative.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 26th, 2006 at 9:06 pmand is filed under Plant Of The Day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.