Josh, you might want to try 'Confederate Jasmine' (Trachelospermum jasminoides) instead. I'm in 8a, too, and while they seem hardy here, and quite a few people have them planted, they don't seem to get out of bounds. At our garden center, I've noticed a tri-color variegated Asiatic Jasmine. No blooms, of course, but the foliage would be interesting, and the colors (I've just looked at close-ups of both William Lobb and the Jasmine) seem as if the Jasmine would appear as part of the rose. Asiatic Jasmine is mostly a groundcover. However, It climbs about as well as does a Toad (with difficulty). In other words, the Jasmine wouldn't go very far up the rose without your help. This, I would regard as an advantage. Because there is less green to the leaves for photosynthesis, I'm guessing that a varigated Jasmine would be much less rampant. Yesterday, I spotted something sold as "Evergreen Wisteria - Bush Form". It had lime/chartreuse green leaves and wine colored flowers (In August). So, this is apparently a cultivar of one of our native (less vigorous and 'ever-blooming') Wisterias. One of the selling points on the tag was its non-invasiveness.

Sometimes things get confused due to lack of a scientific name. In my case, I speak of trachelospermum jasminoides, which is identified as being both confederate jasmine AND star jasmine. In the south it is referred to frequently as "confederate," and the USDA Plants data base shows it native to the entire states of Lousisiana and Florida, but does not show it as native to Alabama....which I consider as a slap to our southern heritage! :) It is also shown to be hardy to zone 8A at least. I do not think this particular trachelospermum is a true jasmine, it is more likely just a jasmine scented plant, thus they added the "jasminoides" to it, but I'm not a botanist or a horticulturist, so cannot speak for the intent in nomenclature. I would recommend checking on the scientific name of any plant, since anyone may mistakenly call a white blooming 5-petaled scented dark green vine a "star" jasmine because they think that is what it is. But trachelospermum jasminoides, AKA star jasmine, AKA confederate jasmine, is a pretty tough customer, and has endured the last two years of really cold winters here in Mobile (zone 8B) unprotected, although I must admit the plants were mature and huge, and did have a little bit of browning on a few outer leaves. Besides the 100 foot of these planted on my 7 foot tall privacy fence, they are just new last fall and have not grown that much (they take off and GO their second year), I also have these: The massive column of dark green is ONE PLANT of trachelospermum jasminoides, over 8 foot tall and about 4 foot in diameter plus many runners on the ground looking for things to wrap around and climb. It does not attach via platelets like ivy, it just twines and climbs: Here is that plant in full bloom ...ONE plant: And this is what that ONE PLANT looked like in April 2008, I think the 2nd spring after I planted it: after the second year, stand back, because it will be settled into its site and ready to reach for the skies!!

Thanks I'll google that type! Anyone with any local area knowledge on where to purchase clematis? Would be appreciated! Frisco/Plano/McKinney area is local but I'd drive further to pick it up myself.

Sweet autumn clematis goes by many names. The one I have is celmatis terniflora, but the exact same plant - as far as I know - is also called clematis maximowicziana and clematis paniculata. I'm not sure why, but I know that several plants have gotten new sceintific names lately. Don't know which is the current name for my plant. I have heard people call other species (?) sweet autumn clematis, so you could have a different plant. If yours is evergreen, it's not terniflora (or all its many other names). Isn't there something called virginiana that's evergreen and an incredible spreader? Does anyone know?