Take your garden to new heights with these climbing plants and flowering vines.
While pergolas, fences, and trellises all make wonderful additions to a landscape, they look even better when adorned with climbing plants and flowering vines. Not only do vines add beauty to your landscape, but they can add additional privacy where needed, and even work well as ground cover, says Edward Lyon, director of Reiman Gardens.
But choosing the correct variety is key, since not every vertical-growing plant works across every structure—some are too strong and will pull your fence apart, while others are too heavy for a stand-alone trellis. Gardening experts share their favorite climbing and flowering vines, along with tips on growing and caring for them.
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Black-Eyed Susan Vine
Fast-growing annual Thunbergia alata is perennial in Zones 10 to 11, but works well as an annual farther north. "You can buy these annual vines very reasonably, and within a month, they're already flowering," Lyon says. "And because they are tropical, they grow very, very quickly." He likes them in hanging pots, where they reach all the way to the ground, creating gorgeous gazebo curtains. Adding to their appeal, they come in a range of colors, including whites, yellows, oranges, and pinks.
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Boston Ivy 'Fenway Park'
Named for the famous baseball stadium in the city where it was discovered, Boston Ivy 'Fenway Park' (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) grows on outfield walls in its namesake ballpark, as well as Chicago’s Wrigley Field and the brick buildings throughout the colleges of the Ivy League. Because it has adhesive grips, 'Fenway Park' will adhere to brick without entering into the mortar. And while it will need trimming to stay in bounds, it’s much easier to manage than English ivy, Lyon says. In fall, it turns gorgeous shades of red, orange, and gold, especially if it’s getting regular sun.
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Bougainvillea
Tough bougainvillea produces colorful bracts (flower-like foliar structures) in red, pink, purple, and yellow. "This evergreen vine practically explodes into bloom with colorful paper-like bracts in hot, showy colors," says Justin Hancock, a horticulturist with Costa Farms. "It's also fantastically heat- and drought-tolerant."
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Carrion Flower
A non-woody native vine, Smilax herbacea is not for everyone because it produces very smelly flowers. But if you have a wooded landscape away from the house and want to support pollinators and birds, give it another look. "Songbirds love the fruit," Lyon says, and its pretty blue-black berries are a good food source for grouse and turkeys (plant both male and female vines to facilitate fruit production). Its flowers also support bees, butterflies, and carrion flies, a beneficial insect.
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Clematis
Chances are, there’s a clematis that will love where you live. "As long as it has sunny tops and you can keep the roots moist, it will grow almost anywhere in the country," Lyon says. Also good to know: By combining different varieties of this flowering vine (they’re classified into three divisions, by blooming times and characteristics), you can have blooms all season long.
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Common Grape
A favorite in English gardens, twining Vitis vinifera 'Purpurea' has beautiful, deeply lobed leaves that are green in spring and evolve to deep burgundy in summer and crimson in fall. Its tasty fruit is a deep concord purple blue, "which goes beautifully with that purple foliage," Lyon says. And while people assume grape vines need tending to produce fruit, "this one doesn’t need to be pruned at all. You can just let it grow and grow." Consider planting one along a porch to create an edible curtain.
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English (David Austin) Rose 'Carding Mill'
A strong performer with spicy, myrrh-scented flowers, Carding Mill is an English shrub rose that won’t grow tall enough to scale an arbor, but will sprawl beautifully along a fence, says Shannon McEnerney with Midwest Groundcovers. Double, peachy orange blooms mature to a soft apricot-pink and begin in late May or early June, reblooming in late summer and hanging in there through fall, even in colder zones.
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Honeysuckle 'Kintzley's Ghost'
Native to North America, Lonicera reticulata looks like it dropped from another planet, with silver dollar-sized bracts in a ghostly, gorgeous silver-blue. Lyon trained one onto a small tree that was no longer living in his yard with stunning results. "We’re always so quick to cut things like that down, but you can still use them in a different way," he says. Unlike some honeysuckles, Kintzley's Ghost doesn’t send out shoots underground, so it doesn’t get out of hand and is easy to keep pruned.
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Mandevilla
This flowering vine blooms nonstop from late spring to fall, producing big, trumpet-shaped flowers in pink, white, and red. "The flowers are attractive to pollinators, like bees and hummingbirds, so you're providing habitat as well as beauty," Hancock says. A tropical plant, it won't survive winter in areas that see frost, making it a good choice for planters and spaces where you don't have room for a large perennial vine.
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Passionflower
Exotic Passiflora spp. is easy to care for and grows quickly, making it popular as an annual in northern climates. "There's a ton of choices, so you can get flowers in just about every color—and many are fragrant," Hancock says. "As a bonus, some varieties produce edible fruit."
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Variegated Kiwi Vine
A mid-range-sized vine with beautiful green, pink, and white variegation, Actinidia kolomikta works well on a variety of structures. True to its common name, it’s a kiwi that will produce edible fruit if you have both a female and a male plant. "The fruit is smaller and rounder than the tropical kiwis we'd normally eat—and it’s maybe a little more floral in its taste, but they're still fairly tasty," Lyon says. If you don’t want fruit, look for a male plant, which will have more of the variegation that gives this plant its showy appearance, he says. Both male and female vines are also pollinators.
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Virginia Creeper 'Star Sparkler'
Native to the Eastern United States, easy-care Parthenocissus quinquefolia adapts to sun or shade. Its flowers aren’t showy, but beautiful variegated foliage more than makes up for that. "Everybody's going to notice it in your yard," says Lyon, who grows one that "gets all kinds of comments" on an arbor over a gate in his landscape. Adhesive grips also allow 'Star Sparkler' to adhere to brick without entering into the mortar.
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Wisteria, Summer Cascade "Betty Matthews"
Cold-hardy Wisteria macrostachya 'Betty Mathews' blooms abundantly on long, drooping racemes covered with dark lavender flowers that fade to a pretty pale lavender. This flowering vine takes a season or two to get started, but grows quickly and heartily thereafter, McEnerney says.
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Morning Glory
Like the name suggests, morning glory flowers open their trumpet-shaped flowers in the morning and close during the night. They are vibrant flowers, coming in a striking blue, as well as pink, purple, and white shades. They are pest- and disease-resistant and fast-growing, so you won't have to wait too long before they adorn your entire fence or other structure. However, they are toxic to people and pets, so that is something to keep in mind before planting them.
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Star Jasmine
Star jasmine is a very fragrant flowering vine that is popular with bees and other pollinators. The ivory star-shaped flowers stand out among the green vines, exuding an elegant look that will make any garden feel more whimsical. The vine is a perennial and will come back to grace your garden every year.