Wisteria needs a sturdy support and room to grow. Wisteria will go to the top of your house.

Maybe you just need to watch your vining plants close, and re arrange them some in the early days of growing upwards?

Moni

Game bird,

Your list of 'requirements' is pretty exacting and there are not many vines that will perform that way on such a narrow trellis.

Most vines I've grown have branched out just fine, although as Moni mentioned, sometimes you have to take some time early on to direct the plant's growth horizontally through the trellis, arbor or fence if it is growing strongly upright. Sometimes I spend a little time 'weaving' a young vine horizontally early in the season, but even when I don't, they eventually grow laterally on their own even if their original growth was mostly upward.

Most vines climb as high as they can and then when they reach the top of their support, they go sideways, or droop and hang back down. Some will climb onto the roof if you don't prune them at the top. After all, they are programmed to grow upward and don't have a self-limiting gene that makes them grow X number of feet and then just stop growing.

Asarina (vining snapdragon) is a slower grower but might not be vigorous enough to outcompete the mint or to give you the shade you're seeking. Black-eyed Susan Vine is a very lovely annual vine. I grow it on my garden fence and it seems to spread upward and sideways both, although sometimes I do take a few moments to weave it sideways to spread horizontally because it reseeds every year and doesn't always reseed evenly and I don't like big gaps in the wall of green.

Both Cypress Vine and Cardinal Climber have a lighter, airy foliage. They'll climb as high as the nearest support but don't get terribly heavy due to their airy foliage. They'd only give you light to moderate shade though, not heavy shade.

American Cross Vine might be a good contender. I have it in very poor clay soil and it climbs a 7' arbor and pretty much stays there. It gets only rainfall (as little as 18" or 20" in a drought year) and no irrigation, though, so that and the concrete-hard unimproved soil where it grows might be limiting its size here. It is semi-evergreen and hummingbirds love it. It is tougher than it sounds, though because it grows on an arbor with the yellow-flowered 'Flava' trumpet creeper vine, and the trumpet creeper vine does not outcompete it.

Mina lobata is an annual vine with gorgeous flowers but is very vigorous. Mine climbed its trellis and then started climbing the wall of the house. If you grew it, you probably could prune it back weekly after it reached the top of the trellis, but it certainly wouldn't stop trying to climb higher.

If those were my trellises, I'd likely plant moonflower vine because of the sheer beauty of the vine's leaves and flowers. It doesn't start blooming until mid-summer, but once it is blooming, we make it a point to be out in the yard when the lovely white flowers begin opening up in the evening. They all open up quickly and at about the same time and it is spectacular. I think it spreads out a little more horizontally on its own than its relative, the morning glory. It also has a lovely fragrance from the time it blooms in the evening until the next morning when the flowers close up.

Other than cross vine, I don't know of any perennial vine that will remain the size you want without pruning and they likely will need some training to get them to spread outward and not so much upward.

Some of the annual tropical vines like allamanda or mandeville would be lovely, but you'd have to plant new ones every year or dig them up and overwinter them in pots indoors.

Dawn

There are some newer honeysuckle vines with more limited height than the natives or those from asian countries. I am growing a newer one this year called Lonicera 'Blanche Sandman' that has tubular orange-red flowers with initial flush of bloom in spring and intermittent blooms the rest of the growing season. But, there are many, many other beautiful cultivars. Just avoid the Japanese Honeysuckle which is very invasive.

The nice thing about the Honeysuckle is that it attracts hummingbirds, too.

There are also some hardy Jasmines out there (not Carolina Jessamine, which is not a true Jasmine) with lovely fragrance.

Some clematis will do well. Two I have would be excellent, Clematis 'Polish Spirit' which doesn't really care about how or when you prune it (the majority of Clematis have varying pruning requirements depending on which group they fall into, Group I, II, or III), which has purple flowers, and Clematis 'Jackmanii', larger purple flowers, which prefers you prune it in early spring to about 1' from the ground. The seedheads are particularly attractive when the flowers are gone.

They like their roots cool, and I do that by planting other things at their feet, at the same time I plant the clematis. For instance, I have daylilies at the feet of my 'Polish Spirit' and Iris at the feet of 'Jackmanii', or you can mulch really well. I don't know if the mint will be sufficient to keep their roots cool. Maybe a decorative urn or potted plant placed just in front of it??

These perennial vines will take some time to develop over the course of the next 2-3 years. So planting annual vines with them will help soften the blow of having to wait until they are large enough to do the job. The annual Moonflower (Ipomeae alba) is a great suggestion, the leaves are very large and heart-shaped. The blooms are fragrant when they open in the evening, and the beautiful night-flying hummingbird moths are attracted to them. They don't reseed much either, so no worries about invasiveness like other members of the Ipomeae genus (like morning glories). If you do plant morning glories, I suggest 'Chocolate' or 'Rose Silk' because they are not invasive like many of the others, and they have beautiful dusky pink blooms.

Other great screening vines include perennial Dutchman's pipevine (durior or macrophylla, or tomentosa). They are easy to control. The down side for many people (not me) is that they are the only food plant for the beautiful black and irridescent blue Pipevine Swallowtails. The caterpillars can completely consume the foliage of a pipevine, and while it does grow back, many people don't like using this vine for an ornamental because of that. Ditto, the passion vines that the Gulf Fritillary butterflies use as a host for their caterpillars.

I also like the idea of the perennial Crossvine (Bignonias) of which there are a few lovely hybrids, too. They are not as invasive as Trumpet Creeper as Dawn says, and the hummingbirds love them.

Hope these suggestions help you along in your decision.

Susan

Susan beat me to it....pipevine is supposed to be a great vine screen. I am just getting started with mine, so I have no personal pics to prove it ;)

Growing host plants, and raising caterpillars is SO much fun....the screen is just an added bonus :)

OH, I can post a pic of the butterfly though!

{{gwi:492136}}

Lisa

I need to print out this thread and take it with me to the nursery.

Okiedawn mentioned the trellis itself being a problem. Is that kind of trellis designed for a certain type of plant? What should be growing on it? Is there an attractive way I can modify the trellis so it can grow/support a screening vine, like with string or heavy fishing line?

Sounds like the best options are: American Cross Vine, newer honeysuckles, clematis, and hardy jasmines.

Other things to consider are pipevine and passionflower for butterflies and moonflower (annual).

Thanks for the suggestions!

You are not likely to find the pipevine locally, but can order them online from various nurseries.

Precure in Oklahoma City carries the white passion vine, Passiflora caerulea later in spring. They also carry red, but the Gulf Fritillaries will die consuming it. If you are not interested in the butterflies, though, it would be okay to buy it (ouch! that hurts to say). The red is not hardy, though. The white is supposed to be hardy to zone 6 or 7. I keep losing mine, but I grow P. 'Lavendar Lady' which you may be able to find at TLC or O'Reilly (?) or online as well. They grow fairly quickly. (Note: Marilyn at Wild Things also carries Passiflora incarnata, but it can get out of hand)

The pipevines you would want to order are Aristolochia durior or macrophylla, and Aristolochia tomentosa. Those are hardy vines in Oklahoma. They are also native plants, but are hard to find locally, if at all.

There is a lady who sells native plants in Oklahoma, at Farmer's Markets, etc. Her name is Marilyn and they own Wild Things Nursery. I think she will be at the Edmond Farmer's Market a couple times in May and in Oklahoma City at Will Rogers Park June 12th. If you e-mail her she can bring what you want to the show you intend to attend.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Wild Things Nursery

Thank you for the link. I live in Skiatook, in the NE corner of the state, so it's unlikely I'll cross paths with her. I'll look for those cultivar names though.

I went to the Sand Springs Herbal Affair today. I got two honeysuckles, coral belle, or something like that. They look like normal honeysuckle, but reddish/pink/orange blossoms. The man selling them suggested I put chicken wire across the bottom of my trellis so as to give the plants more to hang onto. Then depending on how that worked, how it looked, etc., I could attach more chicken wire as it grew.

I would have bought a third, but he only had the two.

I also got a bunch of tomatoes and peppers, some lavender and thyme and... I think that's it. Got my mother a very impressive looking jade plant for an early Mother's Day gift. She went with me, so she picked it out which helps a lot.

I looked for clematis and cross vine, but no one had them. Honeysuckle is good. I'll plant them on the two "outer" trellises of the three and that will leave the middle slot open - either for another honeysuckle, or a clematis, or maybe just morning glory and moonflower this year.

I think the honeysuckle will climb your trellis without chicken wire. Sometimes vines grow into the wire and then it makes it harder to cut them back. I think you could tie them a few places with some degradable green or brownish cloth strips to get them started on your trellis.

It's not so much the climbing that's the issue, it's getting it to branch out as it does so. Last summer I had a sort of lollipop effect, where the trellis had little thin, nearly leafless vine stems wrapped around it, then at the top was a clump of tangled, leafy vines. I'd rather it had some side branches down lower. The idea is to get a screen or some shade out of it.