Wisteria macrostachya 'Blue Moon' aka Blue Moon Kentucky Wisteria.

Overview here.

i swear i answered this .. is houzz being weird again this morning??

ken

@ken_adrian I didn’t see any other comments from you come in!

@cearbhaill thank you!

A beautiful arbor! Cearbhaill, Blue Moon wisteria sure is gorgeous! But in all honesty, in my experience, it's pretty aggressive, so unless you can really commit to keeping up with the pruning, I think it'll totally swamp the arbor and possibly even pull it down. I certainly don't think you could grow anything else with it (without the something else getting swamped). Personally, I'd stick to roses and clematis - there are SO many beautiful ones, to the extent that even if you already have lots, there are still so many more to discover! I think Purple Skyliner and a pink (Zepherine Drouhin? Climbing Pinkie? Felix LeClerc? Parade?) would look beautiful - or Quicksilver with a pink. And there are so many gorgeous clematis - blue or purple would look great.

You might be able to get away with Goldflame Honeysuckle; it's aggressive but not too bad. Also, there are some gentler annual vines. Asarina comes to mind, though it might not get tall enough to really cover half the arbor. Hyacinth bean or Cathedral Bell vine might work, too. Morning glories are, of course, beautiful, but they get pretty huge. If you are willing to dig it up every fall and winter it indoors, a tender passion flower vine could work (I wouldn't go with the hardy maypop because, pretty though it is, it self-sows everywhere and is also a bit thuggish).

Anyway, good luck with whatever you choose!

ill recreate it.. but dont be surprised of the other shows up ...

z6 is about half the US.. how about a big city name ...

SAClem is a beast .. it will crush that thing.. unless you cut it back severely every year ... which is a thing ...

i would fix the grass.. you dont wnat to battle lawn in your plantings ....

and make sure this thing is solid ... dont want it blowing over in a wind storm or some such once you get plants covering it.. think of greenery as a sailboat sail ... maybe drive in some rebar or stakes.. and secure it to the ground ... maybe some patio stones under the legs to keep it out of mother earth.. who will rot it eventually ....

the problem with rose.. would be constant pruning/training to keep it nice.. but you would never be able to remove it.. more of a permanent planting i mean ... compared to cut back to the ground clems or what not ...

whats the roof on the ground back a ways.. an old fashioned root cellar or the well. just curious ...

seems like there was one more thought.. maybe it will come back to me later ...

oh.. are you planting now.. or dreaming about the possibilities in spring???

ken

You said white would be okay, and I cannot recommend Sally Holmes roses enough. My goodness, I'm totally in love with her. She is right out of a fairytale. Starts out a pale peach and ages to white. I have two growing on an arch in a spot very similar to yours leading to/from the patio.

She's almost always in bloom for me. (She's actually in bloom right now, late October in Ontario, Canada!) I absolutely LOVE this rose.

Definitely requires care, pruning and training, but man oh man, is she ever worth it! hahaha

Your arbor is really beautiful! When we put ours in we put rebar in to hold it so I agree with Ken to batten down the hatches.

Honeysuckle and wisteria will totally cover and take over your arch.

How about Quicksilver on o e side and a clematis in the other to intertwine? Or 2 Quicksilver? It is such h a great rose and color.

Tammys Sally Holmes is a beautiful choice as well. What a fabulous rose.

What a beautiful setting! I am loving Jeanne Lajoie climbing rose right now, it's super hardy for me and I'm thinking that the miniature blooms would set off the prettiness of your arch. Mixed with a purple or white clematis it would be stunning.

Consider thorniness of any rose you plant if folks will be walking through the arbor since no one enjoys being grabbed by a thorny branch.. One like Zepherine Drouhin is almost thornless, with richly pink, scented flowers that bloom spring and fall for me and avoid the Japanese beetles in summer. Then if you plant a summer blooming clematis such as Mikelite or Venosa Violacea you will have bloom most of the summer.

If you can be flexible with color and make this a warm colored area, the selection of native honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens ’Major Wheeler’ blooms for me from midMay until freeze, with the heaviest bloom in May, but a steady stream of flowers that polinators and hummingbirds love all season long. But it is red and yellow, not in your preferred color range.

Thank you all!

@frances-in-nj, thank you so much these are all such great ideas. I’m in nj too, very northwest up in sussex county. Are the roses you mentioned ones you feel are cane or tip hardy to make it through the crazy winters we have up here? Thanks!

@ken_adrian - thanks for the tips! It is wrought iron and has been secured with lots and lots of rebar! It’s not going anywhere! The little roof in the background is a covering over an old 1800s springhouse. With a pump we’re able to utilize the extra water from the spring to help water our gardens in summer. I have big plans for a pretty garden around the spring house in the future because I think it’s such a neat little feature!

@tammy oh my gosh your patio and gardens are beautiful! You might’ve sold me on Sally Holmes… how thorny is she? And would you say she is tip hardy? How many seasons did it take from planting to have her cover your arches like that?

@christine quicksilver is a great idea too, that lavender color is so great. How is she in terms of thorniness? Tip-hardy?

@joeywyoming that’s a beautiful rose as well! I do like the idea of miniature blooms, so that could work well. Does yours have one flush in spring, or is it a repeat bloomer? Thorny?

@nhbabs such a great point about the thorns! I’ve thought about zepherine drouhin quite a bit, but was feeling wishy washy as I’ve seen some posts on here saying they didn’t get too many blooms from her. Has that been your experience? I did also think about major wheeler, but I ended up planting some of that over by a shed we have where I have more warmer tones going on. I am totally obsessed with hummingbirds so can’t wait to see how it does!

I'm in central NJ, kdrago, so I'm probably more like zone 6b. I doubt Climbing Pinkie would be hardy for you (I winter protected my 2 Pinkies in their first 2 years here, though now they are established they seem fine). I'm pretty sure Zeph and Parade would be good. Lovey Felix LeClerc is hardy to zone 3 I think, so you are good with him. I think Quicksilver would be fine too. Not sure about Purple Skyliner, but it's such a great, great rose that I think it would be well worth trying out. For what it's worth, I never protected it, and I never have had die-back issues. Btw, my experience with Zeph is that she is pretty much a once bloomer. The initial flush is great, but after that, it's pretty sporadic. Felix, Parade, and Purple Skyliner are great bloomers; haven't had Quicksilver long enough to be able to say.

@katemartha (z5/6 nj) my Jeanne Lajoie is what I would call medium-thorny. Not totally thornless, but not that bristly-prickly look that a lot of roses have. She's easy to work with in the garden for sure. She has pretty regular bloom flushes and always a few extra blooms between the big flushes, and nice flexible canes, so she's on my list of 'roses I'll plant in every garden I have'.

Im in 6b and have zepherine on a dimilsr arch. She blooms lushly like vlockwork the fist seek of June, then commences to drop leaves from blackspot. i dont spray.

I don’t spray either and don’t get black spot or other fungal rose diseases, but I think my growing conditions are fairly different from yours, @kitasei.

@katemartha (z5/6 nj), because of my zone, it is difficult to compare my Zepherine to any grown in more temperate zones. But I have been pleased with her. There is a good June bloom, and scent wafts up to the patio just above the plant, and then there are a few more blooms in September. But there are so many roses that I cannot grow that finding a hardy, healthy, scented, almost thornless rose makes me really happy.

@joeywyomingzone4, I will need to check out Jeanne Lajoie since if she grows for you she will likely grow for me. Is she scented and is she a climber?

I second Joey. Jeanne Lajoie is my prettiest arbor. She's planted with Prince Charles clem.

@flowersaremusic z5 Eastern WA that sounds gorgeous!!

@NHBabs z4b-5a NH JLJ is sweetly but not heavily fragrant. She is definitely a climber.