Star jasmine is evergreen and I would think would do nicely on a chain link fence. Fills out fast and you just weave the runners back into the main plant and fence. Lovely smelling blooms in spring.

For 230ft of fence, Caroline jasmine, Brazilian vine, or coral honeysuckle would be my answer. I dont know of a vine that is truly evergreen through winter. But im not sure of Houston winters either. I know Houston is considered a microclimate as its more tropical then the rest of Texas.

My Star Jasmine was evergreen in Zone8 Temple for the last 10 years at my last house. We get the occasional hard freeze, but it came through all of them fine.......and Houston is much milder in winter. :)

Here in Austin I get quite a bit of brown leaves on my Star Jasmines during the winter. Usually I just pick them out when i do my spring leaf clean out. Mine are not blooming as much this year as previous years, probably due to less rain this year.

I like cross vine.

Oh, I love cross vine. My sister-in-law has one plant she set beside her cedar fence and it has filled the entire end of her yard. She assisted it onto the fence, she told me.

Star Jasmine is a wonderful vine....healthy, fragrant, non-aggressive, and evergreen. I have one planted outside my bedroom window and really enjoy this vine. I recently planted a Bauhinia corymbosa (orchid vine) after I saw one growing in a plant nursery that I was visiting. It is evergreen and blooms for months. You may want to consider it.

http://www.smgrowers.com/gardens/vinebaucory.asp  

Molly

I like Sweet Autumn Clematis. Its white and perfumed blooms in early fall are awesome. It doesn't look at its best in winter but it keeps its leaves.

Omar

Thanks so much for all of the input! Star Jasmine it is! I really love the crossvine too, and I have a couple of other places on the property that need coverage so I will probably use it there.

Sweet autumn clematis is not at all evergreen!! Even in my climate, which is exceptionally mild, it will lose all its leaves in winter.

The star jasmine is a good choice. I'd also consider Lonivera sempervirens - native to much of the southeast and evergreen in zone 8 and above.

gardengal, maybe we are talking about 2 different Sweet Autumn clematis?, Maybe different cultivars? Mine (C. terniflora) keeps most of its leaves here in Kyle (8B).

Omar

I'm in zone 9 and Clematis terniflora is fully deciduous. And is so described by most clematis sources. And as a type 3 clematis, it benefits from hard pruning annually anyway.

in mild winters , mine keeps most of it leaves. The discrepancy might be in the character of the winters in Texas compared to PNW. We have much milder weather most of the time and the BANG we get a huge 60 degree drop in a day and then mild again. Usually we will have 3 of these cold fronts. This year we had one. I swam many times in January in the neighboring river. It started to loose some leaves in January briefly around that realy strong cold front and then was actively growing again soon after. You guys get cold and stay coldish for awhile. More time to loose more leaves. We , in Texas, are in a PNW summer right now.. Have been for awhile. Tomatoes are ripening.

Interesting...

Omar

My favorite vine is evergreen wisteria. It would be evergreen in Houston and it has beautiful flowers all summer long. Although it might get too big for a chain link unless it's pretty high. Google it and see what you think.