For vines, I have had - by far - the best luck with the Jackmanni Clematis - if you can find one now, this is a great time to plant them.

There are several clematis vines that go by the name "Sweet Autumn" and I bought a couple. Beautiful for the first few years, and then I realized they were some sort of Kudzu, swallowing everything. I finally cut mine down and sprayed it half a dozen times with herbicide, it kept coming back, and its a serious weed - I'm still pulling out vines all over the yard. Similarly, I'd stay the heck away from wisteria.

But the Jackmanni loves the climate, it is spectacular, and doesn't get out of hand.

I'll cast a 2nd vote for the Jackmanni, altho' I can't help thinking that there must be other clematis varieties that would be suitable. It just must be that I don't know what they are . . .

There are 2 Jackmanni that I planted about a dozen years ago in my yard. One is on the northside of the house, the other - on the northside of the garage.

The house wall gets plenty of early morning and late afternoon sun during the growing season. This is 48 North latitude and the sun gets quite a ways into the north sky during the spring and summer. The house vine is a "landscape feature" requiring a substantial trellis.

Because of shade from another building, the garage wall has only morning sun. The clematis there is a vine . . . I'm afraid the soil is very poor there also since someone, a very long time ago, dumped a lot of pea gravel. Nevertheless, the vine does just fine. It was removed nearly to the ground this spring because the garage was painted. It is still blooming now in mid-August after growing back to about 8'. Out of season, but it is nice to see it back so strongly and know that it should be fine going into winter.

Periwinkle grows as a ground cover in somewhat dense shade. Its blooms are somewhat purply blue and goes together (it seems to me) in a rather interesting way with a Jackmanni's bluish purple. It is a vine, however, and will begin working its way up a wall - not so good if you have siding it can get behind.

I've gotta say that if you aren't finding any sun in that one location at this time of year - you may be really challenged to come up with plants that can thrive it what must be day-long shade during much of the growing season.

Steve

I didnt know Sweet Autumn was invasive, David, so I went looking to see what I could see, and Im wondering if maybe your "continuing problem" with the thug might be from seedlings that are continuing to come up! This Florida Site even lists it on their "Category II invasive list!" Theres more information and pictures here about Sweet Autumn which is Clematis terniflora, also known as C. maximonowicziana, ALSO known as C. paniculata!

There are literally hundreds of other Clematis that wont "gobble you up," Dove!

Jackmanii, as mentioned, is a very popular variety, well known for it very impressive show of purple flowers. Depending on where theyre planted, when theyre blooming they can look like a "post" or a "wall" of purple!

Two of my favoritesI love BIG flowersare Candida, a/k/a lanuginosa Candida, a pure white flower thats easily 8-10" across, and Henryi, a equally large one, white with dark anthers that gives it an interesting contrast, especially when theyre grown side by side.

But if you want something thats gonna "get big and cover well in a couple years," Im not sure Clematis is what youre looking for! They often take a few years to get big enough and THICK enough to cover well or put on much of a show! ANDif you want to wind up with something that doesnt look top-heavy, your best bet would be to repeatedly pinch the vines while theyre still small for the first year or two. That would make them produce a LOT of vines at the BOTTOM which you could spread out evenly over whatever youre trying to cover to make them thick all over, rather than just let the few original vines grow straight up, like most people do, and then have them sort of flop over when they "get to the top!" So, if you did it that way, theyd take even longer to fully develop, but when they did youd have an even, thick covering for your wall/fence. Once you leave the vines grow UP without pinching them, its almost impossible to get them to grow "back down" to cover the bottom since plants naturally grow "up!"

If youre interested in information on other Clematis, the Clematis on the Web site is a wonderful reference!

If you just want something thats gonna be "green" to cover quickly and thickly, you want Virginia Creeperbut youd be doing whoever lives there next a real "evil deed" by planting that! Its TOTALLY invasive, and once its been in for more than a few months, it well be there FOREVER!

I researched vines pretty well a couple years ago when I was looking for something to plant on the lattice on my back fence to provide me with privacy, and, besides Clematis, the only thing I found that wouldnt eventually be INVASIVE was grape vines! Grapes, while they may never produce fruit if they dont have enough sun, would also cover your structures fairly quickly with "green" and wouldnt wind up taking over the whole yard.

Whichever vine you finally decide upon, if you want the BOTTOM of the structure covered, be sure you spread the original vines out laterally, near the bottom, and then pinch them, and as new vines develop, gradually spread them out to fill in all the lower areas. Then "weave" them back and forth as they continue to grow up! And to keep them from getting "top heavy," when they get as high as you want them, just keep pruning them back heavilynot just all the way across the top, but cut out some of the individual vines lower down to keep them from getting "weird looking" on top. Once theyve filled in, cutting out up to even half of the vines, at varying heights, isnt going to do any damageas a matter of fact, it will continue to make them fill in more thickly where theyve been cut back!

Iand others Im surecan recommend more of the invasive-type vines if youre interested in that, but you would truly be doing a disservice to both the future residents of the house AND the neighbors, and, should you for some reason wind up staying there, youd wind up hating yourself when you were spending your summers in a constant battle to contain whichever you picked!

Let us know what you decide to go with on the vines, and I/we can also make recommendations for something to plant at the base!

Skybird