In my brief experience I wouldn't say hardy kiwis are as tender as tomatoes. We had back-to-back freezes mid-April this year that hit a lot of things hard: all the new foliage on the mulberries, 99.9% of my Asian pear crop (but not the pear leave), the native persimmons that had leafed out already, all the early strawberry bloom, all the growth on a gingko tree (something I hadn't seen before in my 7 years here)... In other words, we had a fairly severe late spring cold event, and there was a lot of new growth on my kiwis that was zapped, but randomly throughout my one largest vine (Anna) there was quite a bit of growth that survived, and I have an Issai in a sheltered spot -- it's the only variety that's bloomed for me so far, but all my other vines have only been in the ground for about a year -- that's still blooming now. For whatever it's worth, I was first introduced to kiwis from a local vine (completely neglected, growing in an apple tree) in 2011, and I discovered another vine just to the east where I was able to get some fruit last year, so they seem to fruit in this area often enough. The vine I got fruit from last year hadn't been pruned in at least a couple years and was loaded with fruit. It was pruned heavily this winter. I'll have to ask if there's fruit on it this year. I think it's just far enough to the east that it escaped the late freeze this year.

You might want to reconsider planting the kiwi unless you have a large area where it can grow. I have a male and female hardy kiwi with the male having the pink and green foliage. They took over an entire side yard and choked out a bunch of other plants, even growing into a Southern Magnolia. I'm ripping them out within the next couple weeks.

I've seen caeruleas down there (burbank / van nuys) *completely* cover those tall skinny juniper-looking trees... My sis had 10 - 15 in her back yard along the fence.. Couldn't even tell what kind of trees they were. The bushes along the back of the pool? (Where the helicopters dip during the fires...) Covered. Neighbor's fence? I think there was one under there... The vines were as thick as my wrist in some spots- Looked more like 'tree wood' than 'vine'. I don't think it's the parent vine that's covering the whole thing (in your yard or hers) as little 'volunteers' were coming up all over the place. Don't know if they were suckers or from seed- As hers had fruit all over it as well, some seeds had to fall & sprout. I'd imagine they might be like the blackberries up here- Give them space, eventually they'll fill it. If it has no natural controls (butterfly larvae, disease, those weird bugs who eat the seeds) & manages to avoid attacks from the weed-eater & lawnmower I don't think it has a limiting factor.

This site shows supports, with instructions on how to build them: http://www.burntridgenursery.com/plantArticles/kiwigrowingguide.pdf Here is a link that might be useful: Supporting Kiwi vines