Perennial Woody Vines:

Clematis
Trumpet Creeper (Campsis)
Honeysuckle (Lonicera)
Bittersweet - need a male to pollinate the female (Celastrus)
Dutchman's Pipe (Aristolochia)
Hydrangea Vine (H. petiolaris)
Wisteria ('Aunt Dee' is the hardiest)

Perennial Herbaceous vines (die back to the ground in the winter):

Perennial Sweet Pea (Lathyrus)

Annual Vines:

Morning Glory,
Thunbergia,
Sweet Peas

Thanks for the list. I really appreciate it. :)

I used to think I'd like to have a vine-covered pergola... Now I think, if I had a nice pergola made, I'd be inclined to leave it as just a bare structure in most cases. The problem, as I see it, is that many of the vines that first come to mind need too much pruning to be adequately controlled/do their best. And getting up on a pergola to prune would not be high on my list of desirable/easy maintenance chores! Wisteria, for instance, can be fabulous but is easiest to prune as a free-standing tree (which is how we grow ours... If you want a wisteria, I recommend growing it as a tree in sufficiently open ground to making mowing under it an easy way to control root suckers.)

I think if I was going to put vines on a pergola, I'd go with some of the reasonably vigorous, but not excessively large, group 1 and 3 clematises. Cutting down the group 3s in spring would be a bit of a PITA, but I have found that group 3s grow and flower quite well without being cut down - which has the bonus effect of making it possible to mix them with the other groups to provide a longer flower season.

Hi woodyoak, I'm actually considering wisteria burford. I think the pergola I'm building will be able to handle wisteria.

By the way, I got lost when you said group 1 and group 3. What do you mean?

I'm also planning to combine annual vines like purple hyacinth vine. This way, I have flowers from wisteria in spring then flowers all summer to frost.

My concern was with the difficulty/nuisance of keeping a wisteria pruned on an 8-9'+ tall structure! To flower best, wisteria needs a lot of pruning and that's a PITA on a tall structure! We use long-arm pruners to do the pruning and it's much easier to just walk around a free-standing tree to do the pruning. Chinese wisteria will conitinue to produce flowers all summer if you keep the new growth pruned back. And, of course, pruning promotes formation of flowering wood. Japanese wisteria are not inclinded to produce the summer flowers, but the pruning still promotes flowering wood. My Japanese one is 'Lawrence'. This is it's fourth summer - it started producing flowering wood last summer but hasn't yet flowered. My Chinese one flowered in the spring of its 5th year although it started producing summer flowers the year after we planted it.

I checked 'Burford' to see what kind it is - Japanese; looks very pretty... I chose 'Lawrence' because it's supposed to be very bud-hardy. It originated in a garden near Ottawa here in Canada. If it will flower well in Ottawa, it will have no problems here! It is also supposed to have some of the longest flower racemes of any wisteria.

Group 1/2/3 refers to how to prune the clematis. There are three basic pruning types - roughly, no prune; light prune; hard prune. It is generally not recommended to mix the pruning types but I tend to ignore the 'rules' and do what works to produce the effect I want!

I would be wary though of growing annuals with wisteria. I think that you'd be very likely to damage/remove a lot of the wisteria flowerbuds when you were trying to remove the dead growth of the annual vine.... I have been experimenting with growing clematis into the wisterias to extend the flowering season. So far, I've only had moderate sucess. I think clematis are not happy competing with the wisteria. I currently have 'Henryi' growing into the Chinese one. It produces a reasonable amount of foliage but only a few flowers. It might partly just be age but it's past the normal 3 years it takes for a clematis to flower well, so I think it's just not vigorous enough to compete. Also, wisteria are legumes so they 'fix' nitrogen. It's possible that puts too much nitrogen in the soil for other vines, encouraging foliage at the expense of flowers. I planted a 'Betty Corning' (a very big, vigorous clematis) this year to try as an alternative. The heat and drought this summer have been hard on it so I'm not sure if it will survive.

Here're some pictures...

Our wisterias May 16th this year (the young Japanese one is what's on the stake in the foreground):

{{gwi:36064}}

Summer bloom on the Chinese wisteria July 2 2010:
{{gwi:165267}}
(The summer flowers are smaller and a different color than the spring ones).

And this is a group 3 (hard prune) clematis ('Jackmanii Superba') spilling down from the south gate arbour in early July. It has not been pruned in 7 years, although it is supposed to be pruned down to 12" or so every spring! (It got a very hard prune just after this picture was taken since we removed the climbing roses from the arbour and had to cut back the clematis to do it. The clematis is presently regrowing but it'll be interesting to see how well it recovers by next summer!)

{{gwi:165285}}

I really think clematis are worth considering as an alternative to wisteria - easier to grow and control and very showy.

Hi Woodyoak, thanks for the awesome information. I would like ot know more about wisteria's roots. Are they thick? It's because I am planning to grow them by the post of the pergola which is on my patio. I am worried that it might bring the bricks up.

I don't see your picture. Can you please repost it?

Which picture don't you see? I posted three - two of the wisteria and one of a clematis...

Wisteria's roots can extend over great distances (I read about one 500+ year old wisteria tree in China where the roots were found to cover 1/2 acre!) They can sucker a lot from the roots. Most of the suckers I've found are close to the base but I have found some several feet away. The older the vine is, the further away you'll likely find suckers. When we put in the narrow bed across the front, I was finding roots from the Chinese wisteria at least 20' away from the trunk. Ideally you want to rip the suckers off the roots to remove the budwood, but, practically speaking, it's often easier to cut them off, although that means you will get more suckers from the same spot in the future. I'd say the roots are generally not thick enough to lift bricks in the way that old tree roots would - however they could/likely would send suckers up between the bricks which would shift the bricks. Wisteria are very beautiful but also high maintenance plants and you really have to be prepared to be diligent about pruning and sucker removal if you are going to have a well controlled, flowering vine.

While we love our wisterias, if I was planting for a pergola over a patio, I'd go with a range of clematises that bloom at different times. They are stunning plants in flower and are much easier to control. It takes 3 years before they reach peak bloom - but it'll take longer than that for a wisteria to start to put on a show. If you want a wisteria too, consider growing it as a tree - in a place where it will be easy to maintain. Put the easy, showy vines (clematis) on the pergola and the demanding diva (wisteria) somewhere where it can be a solo act :-) Also - is anyone in your family afraid of/allergic to bees? Bees LOVE wisteria when it is in bloom!

Ah, the picture is showing from my home computer but my computer at work, doesn't. Looks like it's being blocked.

I'll read your new post now. :)

Thanks!

Your clematis is gorgeous! Do you agree that wisteria's scent are sweet and can be smelled from 20 ft away?

Thanks for all the information! Really helped me a lot. ;)

The Chinese wisteria is sweetly scented but I don't find it something you can smell from a distance - it's best appreciated from up close. I gather, from the wisteria reference book I have as well as from coments on various forums, that the American species of wisteria are 'musk' scented and many people find them unpleasant. The Japanese ones are supposed to have the strongest pleasant scent I think - but, since mine has not flowered yet, I can't speak from personal experience....

I really think you'd be better off planting your wisteria as a tree and using clematis for the pergola. Here are a few more pictures of some of the clematises in my garden:
{{gwi:164388}}
{{gwi:678458}}
{{gwi:163326}}
{{gwi:165286}}
{{gwi:161738}}
{{gwi:178927}}

Some of those are young and not reached their full flower potential yet. They are equally as beautiful/showy as wisteria, bloom longer, have a greater range of colors, varieties can be selected to produce a long season of color, and are much less work to grow and control. Keep the wisteria in your plans, just not on the pergola and grow it as a tree, is my recommendation. Grow clematis on the pergola. Then you get to have both of the most beautiful vines!

This is one of my favorite wisteria photos - a young friend visited last year just as the wisteria bloom peaked... She was perfectly color-coordinated to the tree!
{{gwi:11742}}

I'll check the pictures tonight. I cannot see it here from work. What I only see are texts.

These are texts I see
Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com

I will let you know :)

woodyoak,

WOW, your clematis vines are all gorgeous! Tons of flowers. How old are they?

Would it be fine if I ask seeds from your each of your clematis?

You wisteria is also lovely!

I keep coming back at your 2nd picture, it is so gorgeous! Can you send me seeds of this vine?

Thanks!

The clematises range in age from 4-8 years old. It takes them 3 years to put on a really good show although they bloom from the begining (although you're supposed to cut them back after planting to encourage root growth and more shoots from the roots - I usually can't bring myself to do that though :-) I don't recommend trying to grow them from seed - I never collect seed. It's best to buy them. But, be warned, I find that clematis is one of those things that is frequently mislabelled! Whenever possible I like to buy them when they are in flower - so I can be sure of what I'm buying! I have a lot of clematises that clearly are not what the label said they were! But they are all beautiful so it's never really a problem. The clematis in the second picture is 'The President'. The color is a bit washed-out in the picture; it's darker than that. It's one of the recommended plants for people just starting to grow clematis - see link below. Also check out the other types by clicking on the links on the left side of that page.

Have I convinced you yet to grow clematis on the pergola? (They would need some lattice or other help to climb it as they climb by wrapping the stems of their leaves around things; the posts are too big for them to latch onto. If your pergola plans don't include some lattice walls, there are other easy ways to make it clematis-friendly...)

If you put clematis on the pergola, do you have a place where you can grow the wisteria as a tree? I looked up 'Burford' in the wisteria book I have and this is what it said about it:
'This has baeen introduced by the Mears Ashby Nurseries, Northamptonshire, England, as a cultivar of W. floribunda. While in general it exhibits the characteristics of that species, it shows differences which suggest that it may be of hybrid origin..... Its racemes are up to 41 cm. long, some probably longer with up to 84 or more flowers; sweet scent, not musky....The individual flowers are larger than normally encountered in W. florabunda and because of this, together with its vigor, its bold forliage, and its sweet scent, it is tempting to suggest that this handsome plant is a hybrid between W. floribunda and W. sinensis."

So it sounds lovely but if it is more than usually vigorous, growing it as a tree is definitely the wiser route I think.

Here is a link that might be useful: clematis for beginers - early large flowered

Where do you buy your clematis vines?

By the way, this is where I will grow the vine. :) I'm almost 95% complete on the pergola but only 50% complete on the patio.

{{gwi:1349152}}

I buy most of my clematises at local nurseries - that way I have a better chance of finding them in bloom if I time it right, and therefore have a better chance of making sure that it's really what the tag says it is! But it's not always possible to find them in boom when you want them so sometimes I take chances - and end up with the wrong ones. (One I planted a month ago was supposed to be dark red; it's blooming now - dark purple! Pretty, but not the color I wanted for that spot...)

It is generally said that clematises like soil on the alkaline side. I believe they like fairly alkaline conditions, more than just mildly alkaline. The clematises that do best for me are the ones that have their roots in contact with cement (e.g. near the house foundation, at the base of posts set in concrete, near the concrete curb of the driveway, etc.) so clematises should do well grown up those posts set in concrete. You would need to provide them support to climb. One easy way to do that is to run a couple of lines of screw-eyes up the posts and thread copper wire through them. The clematis leaf petioles will grab onto the wires.

Do you have any plans to put and cross pieces on the 'walls' of the pergola? It looks sort of tall and spindly as it is and I think it might benefit from more structure on the lower part. That would also facilitate growing climbing plants. Somewhere I have pictures of the pergola walk at the Royal Botanical Gardens. There are a number of plants trained horizontally along it and 'walls' in places. I am looking for those photos and will post them if I find them....

Hi woodyoak. Been so busy with the project. Yes, I'm going to build something for the vines.

By the way, the plan is going to change. :( Talked to my wife yesterday and she doesn't want me to put dirt on each post. She wants it's covered with bricks. My only choice now is annual vines. I will have to use big pots. bummer...

Are there going to be garden beds along the sides of the patio/bricked area? If so, you could plant the vines there and train them over to the posts. You might have to build a support 'bridge' across to the posts for fragile vines like clematis, but it certainly would be doable...

We have the same thing in mind! :D It will have garden bed for sure. I am thinking of planting 2 clematis. How long do you think it can fill my 20x10 ft pergola?

FYI. I'll be putting large pots on the other 4 posts. I'll be planting purple hyacinth beans and morning glory. I was told that it can easily fill my 20x10 pergola in one season. What do you think?

Only two clematis?! I think you'll want more than that! There are some vigorous ones that would cover it fairly quickly (e.g. Betty Corning might work nicely) but you might want to think about what sort of look you want - neater and narrower shots of color or big rambling vines?; what colors would suit the garden - and the house, both interior and exterior, since it will be seen from both inside and out?; when do you want the flowers to appear in the season - e.g. do you want them to coordinate with something else showy in the garden (look at my lilac and clematis combo earlier on this thread...)? Think of what you want the pergola to look like and work back from that...

I'm not a big fan of annuals. I do have some morning glories - that I'm trying to get rid of! They seed around like mad and become weeds. They choke and smother more desirable things. They will certainly cover the structure eventually but I think you'd come to regret planting the MG. I don't have any experience with the Hyacinth beans though. You know the beans are toxic if eaten raw in sufficent quantity...? Do you have kids?

Here is a link that might be useful: hyacinth beans

Yup, I have kids but they're ok with plants. I have castor beans for 2 years now. They know the disaster it can bring.

For the clematis, looks like I want red, blue or lavender. I'm thinking of growing honeysuckle too. I would want something that will bloom from summer to frost. I like the trumpet vine but I don't like it suckering from what I was told.

So yeah, I want something that will put on a show, head turner, jaw drop! :D

I would definitely avoid trumpet vine! Betty Corning clematis combined with a dark purple one would be very striking and long blooming. It might not combine that well with honeysuckle though because the flower colors would probably clash a bit. Go to the clematis forum and do a search on Betty Corning. There are quite a few threads that have pictures of it with other clematises for contrast.

I grow 'Harlequin' honeysuckle and early Dutch honeysuckle. Harlequin has variegated leaves, which adds interest. I don't find that it twines well so you need to tie it up to get it started. The early Dutch is highly scented, flowers for a long period and is a strong twiner. It is considered invasive in southern areas I think.

This is 'Halequin' on a chainlink fence in mid June:
{{gwi:163531}}

This is early Dutch at the same time, on the same fence, making a nice combination with the neighbour's rose - the honeysuckle continues to bloom off and on for the rest of the summer although more sparcely than the June bloom:
{{gwi:1349153}}

I think you should consider espaliering a fruit tree on one or more of the 'walls' of the pergola. I suspect, given the time and effort you've put into planning your garden, that espalier might be something you'd find intriguing to do! It would make an attractive frame on the pergola and it would be fun and easy for the kids to sit on the patio and harvest fruit from the walls :-)

You are making me so jealous with all your gorgeous vines!!! :D

I'll think about the fruit tree! ;)

I'll head out to clematis forum in a few. Thanks for all the tips and tutorials!

v1rtu0s1ty -

What did you decide to plant? Got any updated pics? Im thinking about vines for an arbor and Im in your Zone.

I'm back! :D I was about to post another question.

I don't have any pictures yet. It's still cold here. We are in 30F. Last year, I planted Clematis, I forgot which variety. LOL.

I am planning to put large pots beside my pergola posts then plant Hyacinth Vine. The thread I'm planning to start is about hyacinth vine seeds.

I can't believe I didn't put my almost final pictures. I still need to work on the bench and pillars. :D

{{gwi:432045}}

{{gwi:432046}}

{{gwi:432047}}