Definitely plant in the fall; as you pointed out, it's just too hot now - you could do it, but you'd have to watch over it like a baby until winter.

Wisteria is a twiner ,so you are going to have to put some kind of trellis up for it to climb up to the roof line. My wisteria took a couple of years to really get going, so don't be disappointed if it doesn't look like much right away. It bloomed fine, just didn't grow all that much until the second year in the ground.

I know what you mean about the fragrance; it's really a shame that the greatest-smelling vine - japanese honeysuckle - is such an invasive thug.

Thank you lisanti. I am so worried that the vines will be gone from our local nursery come fall, which is why I was antsy to plant them now. But I know you're 100% right to advise me to wait.

Thanks, too, for the tip on adding a trellis. We were planning on it but I didn't include it in my original post.

There was Japanese honeysuckle on sale at Home Depot. My first thought was "Shame on you, Home Depot, for selling something so invasive!" My second thought was "Where can I plant this wonderful smelling vine?" ;)

I know just what you mean about the honeysuckle - it's hard sometimes to keep to the high road and resist that incredible fragrance.

I thought of your post the other day as I was trimming back the pipevine on my back fence. It has no fragrance, and almost hidden flowers, but it can cover a structure so thoroughly that rain doesn't get through. In Victorian days, it was often used to screen in porches - early air-conditioning. Wisteria won't give you that total shade,but you do get flowers (although the pipevine flowers are very cool). Pipevine loves to grow UP, and would probably need no work on your part to get to the roofline, while you will have to help the wisteria decide which way to go.

Just a thought; sometimes when your first idea isn't doable, you need to throw out all your ideas and start again.

Here is a link that might be useful: MOBot page on pipevine

Hi katie, lisanti. I grow both of the vines mentioned. The Wisteria is by far the more aggressive vine. I don't think anything would be necessary to help the Wisteria climb to the roof because the long, long, long shoots it sends out could be left to grow long, and then thrown up to the lanai roof. A couple nails on the supporting posts would also allow it to climb. The main disadvantage to the American Wisteria is that it is very aggressive, and like lisani says, it can take a year or 2 before you see this part.

The Aristolochia. What can I say? My very favorite vine. Sure, the flowers are small, and if bloom or fragrance is the prime concern, then skip planting this one. But is covering an area with lush, shingled green is where you're at, then Aristolochia is unbeatable.

When other vines have shifted to flowers and making terminal buds, this one is still growing. When summer drought has turned to cool fall, this one grows, covering any bare areas that resulted from the drought, re-greening the bare spots where the Pipevine Caterpillars have eaten.
At the same time, it is a gentle vine, never growing more than a foot or so down (the tips die unless they are at least a little pointing up). It doesn't make the runners typical of Wisteria, so it can go years without pruning.

The one drawback to the Aristolochia is the dieback in the winter. Many of the smaller vines die, leaving a tangle of small brown vines. During the summer, this dead material is invisible from the sunny side, but behind the vine (your inside room), the brown is visible. If you are a neat freak, this is not the vine to plant. On the plus side, you can cut it all down to the railing and it will re-green.

The plant is like the tortoise of the fable. It doesn't jump out and start growing with the first ray of sun in the spring. But it also doesn't stop growing after a flush of flowers like many vines, it keeps greening and greening whatever it is growing on, all summer long. And unlike the Wisteria, it doesn't run over to the neighbors and swallow their house too.

I like my Wisteria macrostachya, but the Aristolochia is better behaved and less work.

Aristolochia last year.
{{gwi:1343507}}

What a great picture! Oh, I wish I had that in my yard; it looks like something from a fairytale.

Dzit- the point I tried unsuccessfully to make was that Wisteria doesn't only grow upwards; I have a native Wisteria on my back deck and sometimes it looks like it's trying to come in the house, but if I want it to go UP the trellis, I have to wind it around the upright. Lateral growth? Dynamite and pretty much unaided. The Pipevine, however, seems determined to go up,even if there's nothing to twine around, and I have to do some manual twining to make it go sideways. I hope, for the sake of the OP, that this was clearer than the first time I tried it.

I understood you, but I'm glad you chose to re-emphasize it for clarity. The gazebo actually has 2 vines on it, one at the left and one on the opposite corner at the right.

I'd post a pic of the Wisteria, but since I grew 2 "trash" plants for it to cover, I don't want to offend somebody and call their treasured plants trash. Let's just say that I grew a shrub that is sort of invasive but attracts butterflies as the low scaffold for the vine. About 15 ft. away, a less than desirable native with thorns is the foil for the vine. If ice ever brings down any of the plants, the vine and the bush will come back, and I'll have to do what I should have done years ago, cut down the C.p.