Lots & lots of stuff you can consider. Here's but a few ideas to get you going. Don't be afraid to mix & match- it has many benefits. Longer & more color, disease resistance, and some evergreen presence & fragrance.

Perennial sweet peas would do just fine in clay. They are easy to start from seed and come in deep pink/magenta, paler pink and white. Be sure you want them before you plant them, though, since once they have a start they send down a huge taproot. They aren't fragrant like the annuals but look just like them and bloom much, much longer- for most of the summer. They sprawl, but will climb with a little help. In my clay they have lived for an average of 5+ years, and there are always more seeds to start new ones if you lose a plant here or there. In fact, i recommend deadheading so you don't get many seedlings. It's semi-evergreen. Severe cold will kill back the upright growth but it springs back very fast in spring.

Another perennial vine that does very well here because it's a native is clitorius ternata, aka butterfly pea. It's a pretty lavendar color and the vine itself twines very easily and lace-ly up things. It flowers for about 2-3 mos. It's not evergreen and doesn't really make a presence til about late june. It works well scrambling through other earlier flowering vines because the leaves are so lacey. Fun, corkscrewing seedpods.

For spring color, consider carolina jessamine. It's covered in yellow trumpets in spring and is evergreen. Another native.

Yet another native is coral honeysuckle - beloved by hummers, not bothered by clay, and beautiful besides. Long tubular flowers in a pretty corally- orangey red tone. No fragrance, (and not invasive like its japanese cousin) but it blooms about 9 mos out of the year, on & off in flushes. Starts shortly with a huge flush and goes until hard hard frosts, usually in dec at my house. Semi evergreen. A relative, gold flame honeysuckle, is the picture you see representing the carolina forum. It's almost as heavy a bloomer as the coral, has the added bonus of sweet fragrance. Also not invasive and semi-evergreen, and it blooms about the same amount of time as coral. The colors are a soft blend of pink and yellow.

You can always consider rose & clematis- a classic pairing. There are lots of climbers that do well here with minimal fussing.

Thank you for the great info. I can't wait to get started!!

My dream is to make the back yard fence a showy, colorful wall of blooms all Spring and Summer. That is what we had with sweet peas at Long Beach City College in CA where I got my degree in Horticulture.

I think the Perennial sweet peas are what I'll try for my fence.

We have the driveway on one side of the property and the creek in the back and other side. Sometimes the creek overflows and comes into the yard under the fence on the one side. I wonder if anything will grow onto the fence on the creek side with it being so wet there?

I see vinca growing wild in the woods next to the creek.

Thanks again! Mary

I see vinca growing wild in the woods next to the creek.

Only because it has escaped cultivation - pesky thing, it's a bit invasive.

A good native vine for shade/wet is Clematis virginiana.

Here is a link that might be useful: Clematis virginiana

There's a species of jessamine that is swamp jessamine- so it could def stand wet feet. It also has the advantage of reblooming as the season wears on but is a lot harder to find. If you planted that and the clem on the wet side of the fence you could keep other things from creeping up since those are both vigorous enough to hold their own.

For ground covers that will work well consider creeping jenny (lysamchia nummarlaria) or letting violets seed their merry way in & around. An annual that would add color is the native impatiens known as jewelweed. It's an antidote for poison ivy the native americans used (but it gets pretty tall). They'd all be happy in wet situs. Another nice plant is myostis (can't recall the species off the top)- it's a water loving, perennial form of touch me not. I still have it in & around my pond- i think- and could maybe bring some to the spring swap. Where it's happy it goes bonkers. Another good wet site plant would be turtle head- chelone- comes in both pink/purple and white. An odd little native perennial that does well in those conditions is mimula something or another- pale purple flowers (again, i can share). Several types of iris can deal with conditions like that (siberian, blue & yellow flag, louisana, japanese among others). A few ferns love that type of condition- royal, sensitive and ostrich all dealing well with occasional wet feet. I'd stay away from mints, obedient plant (physostegia), salvia uliginosa, beebalms and gooseneck lysamachia, which all would love the conditions and add color, but get out of hand very fast.

If you go with the sweet peas in that situ, please do deadhead them. They can be a tad invasive in the right situ- and i'd think having a stream to potentially carry seed downstream might just meet that criteria. It's not hard to keep an eye on them for seed pods- they are held very upright and just snip them off before they ripen, which takes a few weeks, so you only need to do it every few weeks. You'll also get more blooms that way. If you come to the raleigh spring swap i can bring some seedlings. Mine are all the deep pink color, which seems to be the one you see most. You can probably trade on seed swaps for the other colors.

Thank you all for the wonderful suggestions!! I have more options than I thought!

I've always loved Passiflora and wonder if that could be an option?

How does the swap work? Since I'm new here so I don't have anything to "swap" ! I'm also on a budget...being a new home owner is expensive!

Thanks so much, Mary

No worries- we always get some newbies who don't have much or anything. For those of us who've been doing it a while, it's a good thing- because everyone else already has the stuff we bring, sometimes in quantity! :) Coming to the swap is a great way to stretch a budget! It's a potluck, too, so just bring food or pots or anything, really. We are all about good food. There's a thread started over in exchanges already for special preswap trades, but if you look down a bit more you'll see info from past swaps and that will give you a great idea of what to expect. It's normally in late april- the date has yet to be set this yr.

Yes, passionflower is an option here. That said the common maypop (the native one) is very, very invasive and doesn't stay put. Most of them don't, for that matter. The blue one, p. cerulea, is terrible about running but it is hardy here. So if you really, really want passionflower i might suggest putting it in a big tub, rather than planting it in the ground. Put something under the pot because it'll go right out the drain. One of the herb vendors at the farmer's market usually sells several kinds in summer- some are hardy and some aren't. I have 3 kinds myself but they are all non hardy types that i keep in pots inside a cool greenhouse in winter. I've seen an all white kind and a red and white type growing as perennials here in addition to the blue and the native maypops (but i don't know the names for either of them, sorry). There's also another native one that isn't as showy- can't think of the botanic off the top of my head. Flowers are greenish white.

Don't get hung up on the fact that your soil is clay. There are really only a few things that despise it. What gets more things is the hot muggy summers, but one summer here will convince you that the vast majority of stuff can be grown here happily. There are some things that just won't work, but that's true of anywhere. You just find substitutes or adjust your expectations. To garden in clay, the best thing is to go up- like with lasagna gardening, and/or incorporate some great compost or humus. Clay itself is a good thing- it holds moisture & nutrients very well. It just needs a little help to become golden. :) In a droughty year you'll be very glad you have clay vs. sandy soil- which is the other common type around these parts.

Thank you tamelask!

As I look over the lists of plants I've been researching for my clay soil I've discovered that so many were on our plant lists in Long Beach where I lived for 15 years and where I got my degree in horticulture.

For a kitchen garden I'm planning a raised sq ft plot to start. That way I can minimize weeds and not have to deal with the clay soil!

I've always wanted a showplace garden and living here is giving me that opportunity! I love the climate here!

I also love garden crafts and make a cute planter made with childrens overalls as well as other things I kept busy with in Tucson instead of trying to grow anything but weeds or cactus!

Here is a link that might be useful: The Happy Horticulturist