English Ivy Plant Care Outdoors

Owning an english ivy hedera helix is like getting a valentine every time you look at it.

English ivy plant care outdoors. English ivy hedera helix is a very vigorous and aggressive woody evergreen vine outdoors english ivy is used as an ornamental ground cover or elegant green covering for stone or brick walls. English ivy hedera helix. It s a low maintenance plant that is often used as a large ground cover sometimes entirely replacing a lawn. One of the most common ground covers in shady garden areas english ivy is a perennial hardy to u s.

It can grow long and lush and bring a bit of the outdoors inside. English ivy is also a very popular indoor houseplant or for use in outdoor hanging baskets. Ivy houseplants can actually be one of several different varieties. Severe skin irritation can result from contact with the plant cell sap.

Here are some of the basic things that you should know about taking care of this plant but i ll get into more details of some of them later. English ivy hedera helix most likely was brought to the united states by european immigrants according to the udc cooperative extension service. Pick the right pot. How to take care of an english ivy plant.

Some would even say that it s easier to grow it indoors than outdoors. English ivy adapts to nearly any well drained soil including poor compacted soil and a range of ph levels. The plant produces multitudes of heart shape leaves that come in a variety of colors from dark to light green as well as variegated forms. Department of agriculture plant hardiness zones 4 through 9.

Ivy is beautiful but is also considered an invasive plant in some places because. English ivy vines are poisonous plants for humans dogs cats and livestock. Feed your english ivy plants once in spring once in summer and again in fall during the first year after planting them with a 12 4 8 or 15 5 15 npk formula fertilizer according to the dosage recommended on the label. This vigorous grower spreads quickly and if not watched carefully can become invasive.

This is the plant that inspired the ivy league colleges nickname. Ingesting the leaves can cause excessive drooling vomiting and diarrhea as well as delirium hallucinations rash and fever. Toxicity of english ivy. Let s learn a little bit more about ivy and proper ivy plant care.

The plant performs best in average slightly alkaline soil with a ph between 6 0 and 7 8. All parts of the plant are toxic. The english ivy hedera helix is a flowering type of ivy that is a clinging evergreen vine and a popular plant in many countries english ivy has broad large dark green leaves that can grow up to 4 10 cm long. Growing ivy indoors is easy as long as you know what makes an ivy plant happy.

Water your english ivy to thoroughly wet the soil around the roots once or twice each week during dry spells or droughts.