Plant Highlights

The 'Roger's Red' hybrid California wild grape is a deciduous vine, making it a favorite for covering arbors, walls, or fences. In summer it will provide handsome shade and in winter when the leaves have dropped it will allow the sunlight in. If not given something to climb over, it will become a mounding, spreading groundcover. It is prized for its flaming red foliage in fall, but equally desirable for attracting pollinators when it flowers in spring and birds and wildlife, which feast on the prolific bunches of small red grapes in the late summer. The grapes are tasty but seedy. This vigorous grower requires only moderate additional watering and can put 3'-6' of growth on per year. It is best pruned and shaped during the winter before the appearance of spring leaves. This grape is said to have higher than average resistance to Pierce's Disease. It was originally selected by Roger Raiche from along the Russian River, and has now been confirmed as a hybrid between the native Vitis californica and the European Vitis vinifera.