It doesn't get any more winegardenery than this

A bottle of wine and a gardening activity — there are other variables that can be introduced, but basic wine gardening at its core is simple.

   

How about this variable: A mandevilla plant named after different types of wine to distinguish the different colors of blooms on the plant. 

I've always liked the mandevilla plant, but it's recently become even more appealing.

I ran across these MandeVino plants last weekend at the Home Depot that's close to my house.

Sangria, rose and cabernet mandevillas.

I've always treated Mandevillas as annuals and have never tried overwintering them.

I have a couple of places I plant them, both on trellises.

One pot I have with a 3 foot iron trellis stuck in dirt works well. I like this one because I can move it around to different places on my patio or in my backyard to add a little color as the growing season progresses and then deteriorates.

Depends on what my kill rate has been by August or September and what I'm able to find at the nursery for replacements in other locations. 

This has generally been a good utility plant.

I have another spot along a fence that serves as a trellis for the vines. 

My experience has been that they grow best if they're positioned to get a few hours of morning sun and avoid the harsher direct afternoon sun, unlike bougainvillea.

I used to think there was some relation between these two because the names sound similar to me (at least when a Southerner pronounces them) but they're two totally different plants.

They're both woody vines, but in my experience, bougainvillea does love as much direct sun as it can get and handles the heat much better. 

I'm going to give these new mandevillas a shot and see how they work out.

And I think that'll be a good excuse to try a wine flight while I'm doing my planting.

A cabernet, a sangria and a rose... 

Wine gardening in the sky

A bottle of wine, a gardening activity — wine gardening is wine gardening, even at 30,000 feet.

Flying isn't stressful
when you're prepared.

Thursday is the day that many newspapers include home and garden sections.

My local paper includes a garden calendar that features plant sales at local gardens that include native plants, gardening classes on everything from water-wise landscaping to sculpture gardening and tours of local residential and community gardens — and most of it's free or have nominal costs.

There are also local gardening experts (good because I'm not one) who answer questions, interview local gardeners and profile plants that work well in your area. 

Other papers with national distribution like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal are good gardening resources — Thursday is a good day for garden planning activity, especially if you're on a plane or somewhere that you can't be in your garden. 

How do you use flowers to decorate a room? 

The artistic director of the Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris may be providing tips for arranging flowers for different spots throughout your home — day lilies are my favorite.  

While you're seeing your gardening
plans in full color,
you can enjoy a glass of cabernet. 

Options for color from spring through first frost are offered in color pictures — begonias, hostas and coleus, one of my favorites. Coleus will last into the late summer and provide a blast of color when many other plants have given up, and the newer shade-loving varieties are great in containers on a patio.

And there's wine on the plane for when you're planning your gardening.

Airplane selections are generally limited to one or two; the white one or the red one.

The red on a plane I was on recently was Backhouse, a cabernet.

It comes in a small plastic bottle on the plane, but it's actually a nice California wine you can probably find at a local market for under $12 — well worth it.

Remember: One of the great things about wine gardening is that it is a portable activity. 

You can enjoy wine gardening in many ways and in many different places. 

This way, with a newspaper, and this place, on a plane, was just great for a spring time Thursday afternoon. 

I hope you can find a great place and a great way to enjoy some wine gardening this weekend.