You certainly could, although in my climate it is recommended that tree mallow be pruned back hard each year in early spring. While the plant grows huge (and very rapidly at that), the stems really don't ripen into a real woody framework so the plant can be quite floppy and stems liable to break or split. I would think this is even more likely to happen if it was carrying the weight of a vine. In a hotter climate like yours, this may not be the case. btw, Lavatera is not considered a very long lived plant - about 5 years or so, so that might be another issue to keep in mind.

I have grown this one for years . It is an easy grower and it is a clear light blue--no hint of purple at all--with a yellow center. I have mine planted in a large pot on the deck with a round iron trellis thing ( that fits into the pot). It is a beautiful cultivar of an unusual seldom seen color. My VERY favorite Clematis of all time, though ,is 'Ivan Olsson' -It is creamy white edged in blue --gorgeous! Both of these are available from Brushwood Nursery in Wa.

Great shot Marie. I know I have seen a similar trellis in one of the gardening magazines---perhaps Gardeners Supply. The one I have seen comes in two pieces and it fits around either side of the downspout, but was only three or four feet high. An easier and probably cheaper solution would be to purchase green vinyl coated fencing at a local hardware store such as Lowes and Home Depot (I know Lowes carries it as I have purchased it there previously) and fashion it into a circle. You can connect the ends of the fencing together behind the down spout with wire. You will also be able to make it as high as you desire by stacking two or more sections of the fencing together and wiring the sections together.

Well, I've spent a fair amount of time fighting honesuckle and multiflora rose to keep it out of the woods on properties I've worked at. Didn't realize until I Googled it that the native wild clematis, VB and Sweet Autumn Clematis were different, and that the non native one was invasive. It's the smelly one I want. The wild clematis is not showy enough to waste space on it in my tiny, tiny, tiny urban downtown row house yard. I don't feel there's much danger of my stuff invading a pristine natural area, the best luck a seed from my yard would have is to land on some vacant urban corner. I haven't read anything about the clematis being a big problem around here, but maybe that's because it is not very commonly grown or sold in nurseries. I don't mind cutting back the upper foliage, to keep it trained along the fence. My neighbors have a grape vine trellis that they have to keep after, but the roots don't wander, just the tops. But after that rose experience, I just don't want something with root suckers, because then I have to go into my neighbors yard to pull the stuff up, and it risks disrupting things, in my yard and hers. I don't want to accidentally uproot her tomatoes or something like that. Maybe I should go with a regular clematis. I sure do LOVE, LOVE the smell of the Sweet Autumn Clematis, and the flowers are pretty too. It smells like baby powder. I have such a tiny yard, I can never decide what to plant, because I am torn between wanting stuff to eat, smell and look pretty. I had to tear out my beloved crab apple which has all three qualities, because it was overrun with rust. I didn't treat it at first because the Cooperative Extension folks said it was just "cosmetic." But eventually the whole thing became infected and distorted and covered with the stuff. And I realized that the soil where all the leaves fell would now be infected for years to come. I finally put the poor thing out of its misery. Now there's a huge hole in my garden and I can't decide what to put there. So far I am replacing the tree with a red ninebark, but I don't know about along the fence behind it and on either side.