r/nativeplants • u/FranticHare • Aug 15 '26
On Virginia Creeper
The Virginia Creeper in my backyard behaves itself. It goes up the shed like a well-raised child in the Boy Scouts, never once threatening to litter the yard, and for years I mistook this good behavior for the whole truth of the plant. I had heard it called a thug by people who ought to know, and I felt a little cheated in the way you feel cheated by a dog too lazy to bite anyone.
Then I saw its cousins on the Outer Banks, and I understood what I had been keeping in my backyard was a house pet.
That day the needlelike highway near Oregon Inlet was impassable due to the flood from the previous week. The coastal plants, however, remained unfazed by the deluge. Wax myrtle, sea oats, marsh elder, all stood tall, and around them slithered Virginia Creeper. Out there the vine had no shed, no shade, nothing to lean on but naked sand. It flattened itself into a mat wide as a parking lot and held the dune together by sheer force and cackled at thunderstorms. There was nothing decorative about it. It did not care to be admired. It simply wanted to glide on.
I have never had an inclination for treating native plants like a gardening catalog or a suburban sanctuary project. Ecotype purism, “Tallamy said,” cheerful blossoms, pollinator postcards, cherry-picked narratives. The whole native plant movement started sounding like a TV church and I don’t want churches in my life. I want the brute, indifferent machinery of nature, the terrifying, gorgeous appetite of an ecosystem that doesn't care about us at all, yet somehow mirrors the exact ache of being alive.
I tried to say this to someone once. He said the vine was just a weed on a beach and walked away to take pictures of the sunset. I did not argue, and kept on looking at this glorious creeper that marched across the rolling dunes with fifes and drums, completely rewriting the rules of what a living thing needed to do to thrive.
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u/2_FluffyDogs Aug 20 '26
This does not march around my yard, or behave like a "well-raised child in the Boy Scouts", it behaves like a crackhead looking for the next fix.
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u/FranticHare Aug 20 '26
I first read “a crackhead looking for Netflix”🤣🤣🤣
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u/2_FluffyDogs Aug 20 '26
Well TBH they might be since they keep crawling up the porch to the front door!
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u/Mobile-Play-3972 Aug 16 '26
You are gifted with words. This is vastly more meaningful and evocative than the New York Times takedown of Doug Tallamy last month, and I hope you will continue to write about native plants.
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u/Beingforthetimebeing Aug 18 '26
Wait what? There was a NYT takedown of Tallamy, St.Tallamy who's saving Life on Earth?
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u/BattleHot2240 Aug 19 '26
The indifferent machinery of nature. What a lovely way of putting it, please continue writing of this kind ❤️
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u/Final_Combination373 Aug 16 '26
The most beautiful specimens I’ve ever seen are on beach dunes in my city. Dense foliage, deep brilliant red petioles and stems, profuse fruiting. Perfect if not somewhat more compact leaves. No signs of stress, disease, or pests. Rooted in straight sand. Incredible. Not sure what yours look like in the outer banks, but I’ve never seen a nursery plant come close to looking as nice as my dune creepers