Desert Vines for Edible Fruits

Many people have small yards – and yet still want a nice garden with pretty flowers. Yes – you can do that in your desert garden!

Many people have small yards – and yet still want a nice garden with pretty flowers – and perhaps even some edible fruit as well. Yes – you can do that in the desert – especially if you grow vines!

Vines Are Wonderful in the Desert Garden

Vines are "vunderful." Since they need very little root space to flourish, they can easily fit in your desert garden – be it large or small. Many vines have beautiful flowers, and the bloom period can be months long, offering an opportunity to fill your yard with color (and pollinators!). Vines can be trained over an arbor to create a shady seating area! “But wait – there's more!” Many vines produce food to savor here in the Southwest.

hardenbergia-soule-vine — Desert lilac vine, originally from Australia - grows well in other desert gardens.

Today we will look at three of my favorite vines for fruit, but never fear - I shall revisit this topic with some other great vines for your desert landscape. Not interested in dealing with a fruiting vine? Here's a lovely flowering vine on my Gardening With Soule home website – the Hardenbergia, the desert lilac vine.

Passionflower Vine

Also simply called passion vine, this tropical genus has over 300 species - most with edible fruit! You may have enjoyed the fruit already – it's in Hawaiian Punch! That particular species (Passiflora edulis) does better in high humidity, but there are a number of passion flower vines that grow well int your desert landscape.

passionflower-flower-soule — Plant passionflower for the striking flowers as well as the fruit. The flowers come in purples, reds and wild combinations of colors. Most blooms are very large, and look like some sort of alien space ship.

The native Sonoran Desert passionflower (Passiflora foetida) is a night bloomer with a heavy, musky scent that draws in bats and giant hummingbird moths. A fast grower, one plant can cover 20 X 15 feet. The edible fruits ripen throughout the summer. I have planted mine under a mesquite tree and it weaves prettily through the foliage. Passion flower will not choke the tree like some species of aggressive vines (like kudzu).

Sonoran passionflower-Soule-fruit — As the fruits ripen on the desert species – they are inside this little “cage” of delicate leaves. The “cage” will dry up once the fruit is ripe.

Baja passion flower vine (Passiflora foetidia variety longipedunculata), has more showy flowers that last to mid-day. It can die back to the ground in a hard freeze, but mine has already re-sprouted. Normally they start blooming in March, and last through to November. A fast grower, one plant can cover 20 X 15 feet. The edible fruits ripen throughout the summer.

passionflower-soule-fruit — To eat passionflower, open the outer skin and scoop out the tasty inside.

Hardy Kiwi

For those of you in the Upper Elevations of the desert, consider the hardy kiwi (Actinidia arguta). Not sure what desert zone you are in? Here is my New Zenler blog post about the Desert Growing Zones.

Also called bower vine, peewee kiwi, and kuwi, the hardy kiwi grows fast to about 40 X 10 feet from spring to fall, before dying to the ground in winter. It is in the same genus as kiwi but the fruits have no fuzz! Besides which the are much sweeter, and are about one third the size. I far prefer them for flavor and ease of eating. A side benefit is that they remain green when ripe so the birds don't know they are ripe yet!

hardykiwi-soule-fruit — Look Ma - no fuzz! Plus - you can pick them when you want to eat them, no wondering if they will ripen when brought home from the supermarket..

Also consider the more heat tolerant Chinese kiwi (Actinidia chinensis) with a sweet, almost strawberry-like flavor and peach-like fuzz. Either species will withstand our climate and soils, but they will need extra water.

kiwi-soule-vine-foliage — Be sure to order the fruiting kiwi by scientific name. There also species with large leaves that fry in the desert sun.

The only real drawback to any of the kiwis is that you will need one male plant for every three to five female plants. You will have to order these from a specialty nursery and using the scientific name.

Hop on This!

Fast growing hops (Humulus lupulus) can reach 40 X 10 feet in single summer. The female flowers (before they set seed) are the part used as an herb or for beer flavoring and stability. Like the hardy kiwi, you need one male plant for every three to five female plants. Hops has large leaves and does not do so well in our low humidity, but if you brew your own beer, it might be fun to grow your own hops as well.

hops-soule-vines-desert-grow — Commercial growers of hops grow them on specific trellis for maximum growing area. You don't need anything elaborate – you just need to let them climb.

More Later

Many members of the cucumber family have a vining habit and can be trained to climb trellises. Cucumbers, luffa, summer squash, and all manner of gourds, such as bottle, dipper, birdhouse, Easter egg, and swan-neck grow well on trellises. More about these when it is time to plant them.

More plants that you can enjoy and that will help you succeed with your desert gardening in my Gardening With Soule Membership Club.

Daily Help & Fun with plants in the desert ~ the land of El Sol

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And there is a book!

cover-soule-vegetable-useful-desert-fruit

More about growing edible plants in the desert in this book! Southwest Fruit and Vegetable Gardening 2022 Revised Edition - written for Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico (Cool Springs Press). The link is to Amazon and if you buy the book there the Horticulture Therapy non-profit Tierra del Sol Institute will get a few pennies - at no extra cost to you.

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Categories: edibles, flowers, vines, desert gardening