Vines for Sunny Locations

They thrive in the sun. They grace the garden with shade. What are they? Vines that can take the heat and keep on coming.

Take advantage of the special properties vines can bring to a garden design. The vines listed here will grow full and climb high through the hottest summers. They’ll twist their way through tree branches, twine around arbors, pergolas, and trellises, creep along a fence line, or delicately traverse a masonry wall, leaving beauty and shade in their wake.

Although many of these selections can tolerate light shade, there are more suitable vine plants available for northern exposures and shadowed woodland gardens.

Pink Trumpet Vine (Podranea ricasoliana)

This South African evergreen woody native is happy in the heat. Growth starts slow, then speeds up considerably. Needs moderate water. Blooms in summer with pink, fragrant, trumpet-shaped flowers. More suitable to frost-free areas, but may survive up to zone 9. Will grow up to 20′.

Trumpet Creeper (Campsis radicans)

Native to the eastern United States, this deciduous perennial vine has bright orange and yellow trumpet-shaped flowers. It really takes off, growing 40′ or more in a year. It’s self-attaching on aerial roots, and can become invasive unless confined. Perfect planted in a large container on a patio shaded by an arbor. Attracts hummingbirds. Trumpet Creeper will grow into and through the arbor and provide shade for years to come.

Varieties: ‘Madame Galen’ – orange blooms June to September; ‘Crimson Trumpet’ – vivid red flowers; ‘Flava – yellow blooms through the summer.

Bougainvillea

A wonderful plant for warm winter climes. Red, pink, gold or orange flowers bloom all summer long. It can be grown as an annual where there are freezing winters (less than 30 degrees).

Bougainvillea is malleable. It can be used as a container plant, in hanging baskets, as a groundcover, and even trained into a tree form.

Clematis

Graced with large white, blue, purple, pink, violet, red or bi-color flowers. Clematis grows in zones 4 through 8. It’s a deciduous plant, and although it flowers in full sun, it likes to have its roots growing in cool, shady spots, in moist, well-drained soil. Clematis will grow 8′ to 12′ on twining stems and tendrils. It flowers in the late spring to the first frost.

Types: Jackmanii group – large purple or white flowers; Clemantis henryii – large creamy white blossoms; Clemantis armandii – sweet-scented, white flowers in early spring.

Climbing Hydrangea (Hydrangea anomala ‘Petiolaris’)

This wonderful deciduous perennial plant grows to 50′ and loves to head for the sky via trees or garden structures. Has white flowers growing in 6″ to 10″ clusters, and blooms in summer. Also has cinnamon-brown, peeling bark for winter interest. Glossy leaves turn a rich yellow in fall.

Climbing Hydrangea is a slow-grower, good for covering a shed or other structure over time, but the structures must be strong enough to support the mature plant.

Silver Lace Vine (Polygonum auberteii)

Growing to 25′ in a season, this vine has greenish-white, fragrant flowers that may bloom twice – in mid-summer, and again in fall. It’s a drought-tolerant plant, and one of the fastest growers in the garden (having earned the nick-name “Mile-a-Minute-Plant”).

Use where you want a quick cover over an arbor or trellis, but cut back every 2 years to keep in bounds. The lush foliage is attractive cover for birds, and the vine tendrils can be woven into wreaths.

Green Showers Boston Ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata ‘Green Showers’)

Has glossy leaves similar to a maple, which turn a rich burgundy in the fall. It grows on stems and reaches about 50′ high. In fall, ice blue berries give it more interest. This vine grows well against a masonry wall.

Carolina Jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens)

Carolina Jessamine grows from zones 7 to 9. Native to southern United States, Carolina Jessamine has yellow, trumpet shaped slightly fragrant flowers blooming in late winter, with an occasional new flush in summer and fall. It gets to 20′, is evergreen, and looks good on an arbor, trellis, as cover for a chain-link fence, or as a groundcover stabilizing a bank. Tends to stay in scale in the landscape.

Use caution where kids are concerned. All parts of the plant are poisonous if ingested.

Varieties: ‘Pride of Augusta’ – double flowering form.

Don’t overlook these great vines for areas of full sun where shade is needed for human activity. Sited carefully in the landscape, sun-loving vines will grace the garden with functional beauty for years to come.

Sources:

1. The American Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Gardening, 2003 DK Publishing, Inc.
2. Tough Plants for Southern Gardens, by Felder Rushing; 2003 Cool Springs Press