cindra, You have to admit. That's one funny piece of art...it's very exposed and I have a feeling in this case, the microclimate might even be lower to a zone 4. Let's get creative shall we... You can plant vines like the dropsmore honeysuckle vine (up to zone 2) or the mandarine kind (up to ZOne 4). Check out the Sheridan Nurseries online garden guide so you can see what these look like. May not be the same as your coral vine but I think it's close enough. Also how about explorer roses and perhaps a clematis. The new dawn is also a hardy plant. My point is - why settle for one kind of vine. I do this all the time. This way, you have continuous blooms month after month. I also like to plant annuals climbers alongside perennial vines, like moonflowers... etc....... You can plant evergreens(cedars, hollies) besides the tire, forming a natural archway... Bend the tips over and above the tire..in time it will look natural. I think you made an nice entrance, despite it may be suited to people of shorter stature (kids).... You have plenty of opportunity here to design a 'magical garden'... straight from a hobbit's home.... or perhaps you will have created a circular window looking out into a scene... In Asian mythologies, circles are considered good luck. You could also cover exposed areas of the tire with sphagnum moss, chicken wires and plant hens and chicks - which are great in open zones such as yours.

i don't have my eastern botanical references here in california, so i can't look this up, but are you referring to swamp fly honeysuckle? it has a bright red, twin berry that is fused and rather oblong. i see it growing at my folks place in northern new england. i can collect some seed next time i'm there if that's what you're looking for.

ALL vining honeysuckles are twiners - that is, they attach themselves to supports by twining stems, not by holdfasts or rootlets. It's my experience that when well established, they grow very vigorously and will easily produce long stems that could have the ability to reach around a telephone pole. But you will have better luck initially if you provide some sort of support system to get the vine started - chicken wire, fishing line, any sort of twine or wire that will give the twining stems a place to start to hold and climb. You might want to check with your phone company about allowing a vine to climb on their poles - here it is prohibited, as it could interfer with maintenance/service. Lonicera sempervirens is also a bit of a misnomer. Only in the very mildest of winter areas will it remain evergreen - it is NOT in my zone 8 climate! And it has no scent, either.

Lonicera sempervirens, and all other twining vines, will climb better on vertical wires than horizontal. I would put a nice strong screw eye into the pole at a height of about 8 or ten feet, then drive stakes into the ground in an arc about 1 or 2 feet from the base of the pole. Slant the stakes away from the pole, and fasten wires from each stake to the screw eye on the pole. I would use braided wire rope instead of single strand wire because the braided rope will be a little rougher and thus easier fort he vine to climb. Plant the vine near the stakes, and it will climb the wires, hiding the pole. I would not try to go too far up the pole, because the power company is more likely to spray or cut the vine if it gets near the wires. I think you have a fair chance of keeping the vine if it isn't too tall and looks like you are maintaining it. I think Trumpet Creeper (Campsis radicans) would be another very good choice, and could climb the pole unaided. It is an aggressive spreader, but as long as the area around the pole gets mowed, you don't have to worry about it spreading. Trumpet Creeper is a larger vine and blooms in late summer when more hummingbirds will be around instead of early summer, when hummingbirds are nesting and may not be present in a suburban area (if that is where you live)