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Fragrant flowering perennial vine, light shade for arbor

true_blue
13 years ago

Hi,

I am looking for a flowering & fragrant perennial vine to cover my arbor both in width & height:

The dimensions are: 19" width x 100" (approx. 8Â) height.

It receives approximately 3 hours of direction sun. The rest is bright/dappled shade.

Zone 5, Montreal Canada.

I would like it to spread the entire width and height.

IÂve been doing a lot of research but when it comes to the fragrance, the reports are conflicting.

IÂd appreciate any suggestion.

At the sunny side of my arbor, IÂve planted a new dawn, rose, which is supposed to be an aggressive grower. ItÂs it first year, so I am not expecting much.

Thanks,

Bob

Comments (13)

  • flora_uk
    13 years ago

    One of the fragrant honeysuckles? Lonicera sp. Hardy, dappled shade tolerant. I don't think any of the fragrant jasmines would be hardy enough. Wisteria is fragrant but a too big. Clematis montana likewise.

  • true_blue
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Thank you so much.
    I've decided to wait and see how the New Dawn grows.
    I've heard a lot about it's growth rate. So, I'm going to wait for a couple of years
    and see..

  • flora_uk
    13 years ago

    I don't find New Dawn particularly fragrant. There's a vase of them on the table in front of me and I can't smell them at all. You could fill in with sweet peas until the rose grows up. I have a vase of them here too and they definitley have a scent.

  • woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
    13 years ago

    New Dawn here is sweetly fragrant - it's a light scent but very pleasant. ND however, while pretty and we really like it, is VERY thorny and VERY vigorous. After ours finishes its main bloom flush in a couple of weeks, we're going to remove it and replace it with a combination of honeysuckle and clematises. Have you considered using some of the scented, vigorous clematises like Sweet Autumn or Snow in Summer (a.k.a Paul Farges)? Both of those do quite well in part shade for me but you might want to use honeysuckle if the light is limited. Actually, if there's only 3 hours of direct sun, the rose will not be too happy.

  • true_blue
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Hi Flora & Woodyoak,

    Thank you for your comments & suggestions.
    It helps me to plan correctly for next year.

    This year, we planted a morning glory. ItÂs blue flowers compensate for its lack of fragrance. It has reached the top of the arbor. At the sunny side of the arbor where the New Dawn is, my wife had the brilliant idea of fixing small pots of cascading geranium (Pelargoniums), which gives the impression of a climbing rose!

    Our New Dawn is slightly fragrant. I planted it because of itÂs blush rose color and itÂs vigor. No one has been attacked by the thorns yet! My ideal rose would have been Zephirine drouhin, but for some reason ours, refuses to flower.

    I like the idea of sweet peas. I am going to give it a try next year.

    I am not sure of sweet autumn clematis on the arbor. It would be smothered! I thought they were best to cover fences. I dismissed Rubromarginata for the same reason. I thought of Betty Corning but it seems to be slightly fragrant.

    I am not sure of honeysuckles. I have an orange one, but the flowering season is short (4 days) and sparse. I might be convinced if you know of any with a reasonable flowering time and disease resistant My nursery has John Clayton, Goldflame and Major Wheeler. What do you recommend?

  • Lilyfinch z9a Murrieta Ca
    13 years ago

    I have goldflame, and i cannot detect a smell. However it is just so pretty and the hummers love it! It has been blooming a month so far and im really happy with it.

    Woodyoak, how long does new dawn bloom for you?

  • woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
    13 years ago

    lilyfinch - ND blooms elmost all of June and into the first week or so of July, and then does a bit of reblooming if you deadhead. This is the arbour and swag that will be cleared of the ND and planted with clematises:
    {{gwi:161708}}

    I had been planning on maybe planting honeysuckle on the arbour and swag too but I think I'll stick to just clematis. I love the Jackmani Superba that is on the front of the arbour now:
    {{gwi:165285}}

    'Harlequin' hneysuckle is a nice one, but grows best on something like a chainlink fence because it needs to be tied in. I'm not sure if mine is unusual or not but it doesn't twine around things. This year I've noticed some stems that do but the variegation on them is different. I'm wondering if they are reversions to some parent. While the bloom period isn't very long, the variegated leaves add nice interest:
    {{gwi:163531}}

  • Lilyfinch z9a Murrieta Ca
    13 years ago

    Woody oak, thank you so much for the info! I adore that picture of your arbor! I have an arbor myself but cannot decide what to do with it. I dont have luck with my clems getting very large, and roses i love but if they defoliate or get bad diseases i dont have the patience to keep after them. But i was considering new dawn..how romantic! And your arbor will be lovely with the clematis as well. You must have stunning gardens!

  • woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
    13 years ago

    lilyfinch - the secret to getting that clematis so big is that it is a group 3 that has not been hard pruned in 7 years! I frequently do not hard prune group 3s because I find they have a much better display of flowers if you don't prune them. The bottoms can be a bit bare at times but that's easy to hide by planting or putting something in front to hide the bare stems. In this picture, the clematises on the side have not been pruned down hard in 4 years. The ones on the copper pipe fence get pruned - by accident - by the dogs bouncing around when watching people through the fence.
    {{gwi:165286}}

  • true_blue
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Woodyoak, those are wonderful pictures.
    I can understand now why you have to move the New Dawn.
    How old is your New Dawn?

  • woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
    13 years ago

    Our ND is 9 or 10 yeaors ol. I can't remember exactly what year we planted it but it was in either 2000 or 2001.

  • true_blue
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Good luck would transplanting it!
    I transplanted mine this spring, which I'd bought last year. For a one year old plant it had major roots. It took me sometime to just dig it out! Yours should be something.

    By the way do you ever protect the base during winter or you do nothing?
    Does it have a lot of die back?

  • woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
    13 years ago

    true-blue - we didn't transplant the New Dawn somewhere else. We dug up the one on the south side and disposed of it. The one on the house side we gave a bit of a reprive and just hacked it back to a couple of canes that go around the corner and into the mockorange under the kitchen window. We will remove all other canes that appear. I have never given New Dawn winter protection. But the arbour is in a fairly sheltered spot - south side of the house. One mild winter a few years ago, one of the New Dawns actually had a flowerbud in January! It was too high up to try to cut it off and bring it indoors so it got killed in the next snowstorm... But I'd have to say it's a pretty tough plant!

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