I recently had a contractor doing some work give me a bit of a scare. We have vines growing all over our barn and up a 160 year old oak tree in the back yard. He was looking at the tree and jumped back pointing to the vine saying “that’s poison oak”. I remembered clearing brush away from that tree last year and not getting a rash but assumed that him being a country boy from around here he knew what he was talking about. I noticed another vine just like it in the front garden this morning and it made me do a Google search to find out what it was.

I Googled both Poison Oak and Poison Ivy and it didn’t look like what we have. So I Googled deciduous vine with five leaves and found that it is actually a vine called a Virginia Creeper. I can see why he thought it was poison oak but am very happy its not. Virginia Creeper is one of those vines that’s easy to grow and near impossible to kill. I love it on the barn, in the summer it is lush and green and in the fall the leaves turn a gorgeous red before falling off. The areas we have it are very shady and it adds so much color and texture.

Virginia Creeper in the Spring and Fall