Virginia Creeper
Parthenocissus quinquefolia
A vigorous native vine with five-part leaves that turn brilliant red in early fall and blue berries for songbirds, quick to cover a fence, arbor or bank in sun or shade, and it takes heat, drought and salt. Its sticky holdfasts mar paint and shingles, so keep it off the house, and the berries are poisonous to people.
- Mature size
- 40 × 7.5 ft
- 12 × 2.3 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 3b–9a
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to full shade
- Water
- Dry to moist
- Fall color
- Oct
Virginia Creeper at its mature size
A mature Virginia Creeper grows 30 to 50 feet tall and 5 to 10 feet wide, taller than most people.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension.
Through the year
What Virginia Creeper looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Dormant · Nov–Apr
Bare woody branching vine, a few blue-black berries on red stalks.
In leaf · May–Sep
Dense dull green five-leaflet leaves.
Fall · Oct
Brilliant scarlet to crimson-purple, vivid.
Photos
Growing Virginia Creeper
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, and the Plains and Mountain West.
- Growth rate
- Fast
- Good for
- Climber, shade garden, drought tolerant, slopes, deer resistant, fall color, and fast growing
- Leaves
- Drops its leaves in winter
- Native to
- Eastern North America
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Virginia Creeper, that’s about 7.5 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Virginia Creeper in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.