I saw a beatiful Pergola in Costco Yesterday.. I WANT! Lucky you! I think it is such a nice addition to the landscape.

There are alot of great options, but some more input would help narrow it down:

Is the Pergola in sun or shade?
Do you mind a scent?
Are you open to mixing Vines (Helps extend bloom period)?
Is it a low water use area?
Is this a Pergola you will be sitting under or more of a decorative piece?
Do you already have a color scheme oir is that relevent?

Some I like are (Many are doing well for me with low water use):

Spice Vine or Oregon Grape (California Natives)(Shade)
Carolina Jessamine (sun)
Clematis (shade roots)
Honeysuckle (Many dif. varieties)(sun - part sun)
Cal. Wild Grape
Bower Vine (easy and fast growing, pretty common)(mine is in mostly sun)
Climbing Roses (Lady Banks is nice)

There are pros and cons to dif vines... If you can give us more details...I am sure someoine else can add or subtract from my short list.

Here at the Wild Animal Park in San Diego they grow what looks like a Honeysuckle bloom but larger and thicker but the fragrance is amazing and it is always in bloom in full sun. We saw a pergola that also had anging plants hanging from the side structures. If you ever find out what this fast growing plant is write me debbysunshine@hotmail.com I love the amazing smell of that plant and find all my Honeysuckles not to have any odar at all.

Debby - do you have a photo of the pergola at WAP, or can you describe its location? I just bought the Costo pergola and columns to replace an aging lath house, and want vines that bloom continuously, unlike wisteria and jessimine. ...diana

The Honeysuckle in question is most likely Lonicera hildebrandiana, the Burmese Honeysuckly. It may not be fully frost hardy in inland areas such as parts of Riverside County where it regularly freezes every winter. I'd also suggest using something like Plumbago capensis or Tecomaria capensis aurea as scandent shrubs/espaliers that can be trained to grow up and over arbors, and will easily bloom spring through fall and are both hardier to occasional freezes than Burmese Honeysuckle. Bignonia capreolata 'Tangerine Beauty' is another fast growing evergreen vine that blooms over a very long season, and is fully hardy in most all of California.

I have a thunbergia vine growing on mine .I put it in last summer from a 1 gallon pot and here's what it looks like now.Also it has bloomed all year long so far.
Kathi

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Here's a Pink Jasmine:

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Here's another pink jasmine.However we took this one out it was on the post of the patio and was too messy,all i did was sweep.

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Here's a Bower vine:

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The bower vine grew very fast,too fast sometimes as it kept getting up onto our patio roof,where we have that black screen over lattice for shade,and we didn't want the vine to get entangled n that.
HTH
Kathi

Thanks for all the responses. Wow, Kathy! Just beautiful! And inkneedeep, one pergola is in full sun (decorative only) while the other is in afternoon sun and we'll be sitting under it.

And I definitely want fragrance! And something evergreen with a long blossom season. Is that a wish list or what?

Hi hope037, my DH built a large pergola over a portion of our back deck. I don't grow anything over it but I do grow clematis up the posts. I thought about growing something over the top but several things stopped me: leaf litter, loss of light to the inside and painting/maintenance. We like to dine under this area and decided we'd rather not deal with the debris that might fall all over the deck if we could avoid it. Also, the pergola cuts down on the light entering the kitchen, which is fine because we have loads of natural light coming in through other windows, but we thought a dense vine would shade more than we'd like. Finally, painting/maintenance could become a chore if whatever we grew had to be chopped back to do so. You may want to consider them, too.

Just thought of something else. If the vine attracts stinging/biting insects you or your guests may be running for cover somewhere else. ; )

Please don't get me wrong - I love covered pergolas. Just trying to help you explore the pros and cons of a vine covered one over a patio.

Diana

The best perfume factory over a long season is Hall's honeysuckle. It the common one with flowers that open white and age to golden yellow.

I love the looks of that Thunbergia. I have a feeling it would hate the dry winds we get here.

I have bower vine. In my soil, it's been a tough plant, hanging in there, but it has never gotten very big.

Dis,
I don't think the winds will bother the thunbergia.We get lots of winds in the backyard and there's a difference in temperature between the front and backyard,as i'm along the coast and the canyon back up to my backyard.So we always have the ocean breeeze blowing across the cnyon and up into the backyard,and sometimes we have to go sit in the front yard as the back gets too chilly and windy.
Kathi