Vine care and maintenance

Question

Hi there,

My wife and I recently purchased a new house which has a lovely vine which is a stunning feature of the house that most visitors comment on. We are understandably concerned about the maintenance of this vine as we both do not have large amounts of experience in this area of gardening. It certainly does grow out at times and i’m worried about chopping off the wrong areas, trimming it incorrectly (e.g. too close or too far away from a branch), or damaging the vine generally. Further, the vine is starting to grow out in our neighbours direction as there is more sunlight there and i’m worried about it being harmed.

I’ve attached some photos and would love any tips on how to care for and trim this vine (and the name of the plant if known). At present the vine receives a bit of water every couple of months, no fertiliser, and sun for around 2/3rds of the day. Would it be unwise to plant another vine at the same starting point, or would they try kill each other off despite the mature vine being much larger?

Any thoughts or input would be graciously received!

Kind regards,

Michael

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Answer 1

Although I cannot be completely certain, as I am not extremely familiar with the plants of New Zealand, It looks like a common invasive species in your area called Tree of Heaven, Ailanthus altissima.. Vines such as these can handle massive amounts of pruning.and will need no fertilization. You can prune it back, at almost any time. The best time is always when it is not actively growing.