Pergola Ideas: Vines for Spring

Our long term solution for more shade over the patio is to plant vines in the bed next to the patio and train them over the pergola. I call this a “long term” goal since it’s the height of summer right now and the completely wrong time to plant anything.  So this will have to wait until spring. However that gives us plenty of time to consider our options. Vine-draped pergolas have me drooling...

(all from Apartment Therapy)

Choosing the vines to plant has been a long debate. Obviously it has to be something that grows in NJ, but that leaves me with a ton of options. The most popular recommendation is wisteria. I’ve heard that American wisteria is known to be much less aggressive than the Asian varieties. But...I’m not a fan of wisteria anymore. I spend a lot of time battling wisteria in our yard from our neighbor’s pergola. Yes they have an aggressive variety, but it’s so frustrating that I no longer like the plant. I also want to make sure I choose something we can tame since the pergola is against the house and I don’t want to cause damage.

Then what? If I don’t want something aggressive, then things like trumpet vine, hydrangea vine, grapes and ivy are out. I didn’t want something that would die back to the ground every winter either - which ruled out things like hops and passionflower. I love climbing roses, but can be a lot of work and I think would be better suited for a small archway somewhere else in the yard. In the end, I settled on clematis. There are so many varieties and colors and we can pick one that’s right for us. They like shaded roots and the vines in full sun, so as long as we plant some ground cover in that bed along with the plants, hopefully they will be happy.

Clematis also needs to be planted in the spring. So we have about nine months before we have to finalize our decision. And narrow down our choices to the right vine. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know!

(clematis from Wayside Gardens)