Whether they're scrambling up a wall, entwining a fence or draping a pergola with shade, climbing plants contribute style and function in the garden. But vines must be selected carefully, as many are naturally aggressive. Choices popular in the past have created problems we must reckon with, and we should be careful to avoid making the same mistake.
Related: "Tips for Selecting Vining Plants"
Over the past 200 years, foreign-sourced garden favorites like English ivy (Hedera helix), the sweetly scented Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), Chinese and Japanese wisterias (Wisteria chinensis and W. floribunda) and multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora) have naturalized in North American fields and forests. Their vigor means they often outcompete native plants and trees, sometimes outright killing them. Yet garden centers continue to sell some of these plants as ornamental solutions. Who wants that? How old hat. It's time to let native alternatives claim their space in the garden ecosystem. Here are some options:
DUTCHMAN'S PIPE
For covering large pergolas or verandas to create shade or privacy, look no further than Dutchman's pipe (Aristolochia macrophylla), also known as pipevine. Hardy in USDA Zones 4 through 8, it hails from woods and streambanks of the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions of the United States. Somewhat tropical-looking, 6-to-12-inch, jade-green, heart-shaped leaves make the vigorous yet manageable woody vine suitable for screening. Small, pendulous, buff-brown pitcher-pot flowers can appear, though you may need to search for them hiding in the large foliage. Their shape inspires the vine’s common names.
Pipevine takes full sun to part shade and moist, well-draining soils. Deciduous, with stems that become woody with age, it can scramble and climb 20 to 40 feet, but it can be cut back in late winter to control its size. Pinching the growing tips in spring will promote branching.
A second eastern species, A. tomentosa, grows nearly identically to A. macrophylla, but more slowly and with a wooly down covering its leaves and new stems. Both plants are notably toxic if ingested by humans and pets, but the pipevine swallowtail butterfly (Battus philenor) uses them as a caterpillar host. If you plant one, keep an eye out for the shiny black-and-blue butterfly coming to visit.
CORAL HONEYSUCKLE
If it's obvious flowers you want, an excellent replacement for the fragrant, beloved, invasive Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) is, in fact, another version of it: trumpet, or coral, honeysuckle (L. sempervirens). Offering semi-evergreen to evergreen glaucous leaves, bright blossoms and fast growth, it rivals its cousin in coverage but without the strangling tendencies.
Trumpet honeysuckle is native to woodlands from the Northeast through the Southeast and into the Midwest. It’s easy to grow in most moderately moist soils and full to part sun across Zones 4 through 9. Although it lacks its cousin's famous scent, trumpet honeysuckle makes up for it in floral show. Trusses of pendulous coral-orange to red or yellow, trumpet-shaped flowers beckon ruby-throated hummingbirds and butterflies and can rebloom until frost. Occasionally you’ll even find some flowers in a winter warm spell. This climber stays between 10 and 20 feet, but it can be pruned in autumn or late winter; flowers occur on the year’s new growth. Deer tend to leave this plant alone, making it perfect for planting along fences.
CAROLINA JESSAMINE
As another possible replacement for Japanese honeysuckle, the twining, semi-evergreen to evergreen Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens) announces spring in Zones 7–10. This plant covers itself in trusses of fragrant yellow trumpets or bells early in the season, blooming as soon as February in some climates, overlapping with color-matched forsythia and daffodils. Jessamine’s twiggy, twining habit suits it to arbors and trellises in full sun or part shade, and the shiny, flame-shaped foliage stays evergreen in all but the coldest reaches of its range. This makes it a handsome and sophisticated green backdrop long after the flowers are gone. Vigorous once established and becoming woody with age, this vine can take a post-flowering pruning to control its shape and curtail its vigor.
A true Southern belle, Carolina jessamine originates in thickets and woods from the lower Mid-Atlantic southward. Its hardiness range varies among cultivars, so choose wisely. The cultivar 'Margarita' is one of the most commercially available and it is more reliably hardy.
AMERICAN WISTERIA
Chinese wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) and Japanese wisteria (W. floribunda), while stunning on substantial arbors and other structures, tend to escape cultivation in North America and choke out competition once in the wild. Their aggressive nature and deep roots make them hard to remove, too. North America has a much more modest replacement for our gardens and parks: W. frutescens, native to wet woods and riverbanks across the eastern US.
Hardy in Zones 5 through 9 and a lover of full sun and damp soil, American wisteria scrambles between 25 and 40 feet high. However, it's less aggressive and slower growing than its cousins, making it much more suitable for smaller arbors, fences and other structures, where it will become prominent and woodier with age. Amid feathery pinnate leaves, its springtime racemes of lavender to violet-blue flowers remain smaller and less drooping than those of the Asian species, but they are nonetheless fragrant and they attract pollinators and hummingbirds.
Provide a yearly pruning in fall to late winter to shape and control its size and to encourage blossoms, which occur on new spring growth. One of the most common cultivars, 'Amethyst Falls' has small foliage and reaches just the shorter end of the species's size range. It is occasionally labeled as a dwarf wisteria, but that may be a slight exaggeration.
CROSSVINE
Another alternative for both honeysuckle and wisteria on larger structures is the vigorous, twining crossvine (Bignonia capreolata), hardy in Zones 6 to 9. Like Carolina jessamine, it blooms for a long time in spring, with copious two- to three-inch, fragrant, bell-like blossoms in striking red-and-yellow, salmon-pink or orange. It uses tendrils to climb 15 to 50 feet in full sun to part shade. Its leaves are also evergreen to semi-evergreen, according to climate. The foliage blushes maroon to plum shades in wintry weather.
A native of the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and lower Midwest, crossvine blooms on old wood, so any pruning must be done immediately after flowering ends to avoid removing flower buds. It may take a few years to establish. Cultivars offer a choice of colors. 'Tangerine Beauty,' with apricot-orange flowers, is a notable old favorite. 'Atrosanguinea,' which tends to stay just 10 to 15 feet long, blooms in violet red.
TRUMPET CREEPER
Crossvine has a northern cousin, trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), a feathery-leaved deciduous vine that’s more vigorous. It makes for a great screening plant for large structures, thanks to its robust, fast growth and ability to reach 50 feet or more. In fact, its vigor has brought it a mixed reputation, particularly in the warm South, where it can verge on thuggishness.
Trumpet vine blossoms on new growth in mid- to late summer. A native of northeastern and central woodlands, it grows in full sun or part shade, but more sun produces more flowers. Large clusters of orange lipstick-like buds open to reveal three- to four-inch red, coral or yellow trumpets, which attract hummingbirds and butterflies. Large, pendulous seed pods follow, dispersing lots of seed. Remove these before they ripen to reduce seedlings.
Strong structures that can handle wisteria would suit these woody adhering vines, which can cling and climb the side of a façade. All growth should be shorn to the main central vine in late winter or early spring to control the size and encourage that year's bloom. Because it both weaves and adheres to structures by aerial rootlets, trumpet vine lends itself well to espalier. There are a few cultivars available; C. r. forma flava, or just 'Flava', is an exceptionally showy solid golden-yellow blossomed selection worth seeking.
VIRGINIA CREEPER
An occasionally vigorous vine with an unjustified reputation is the Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), native across eastern North America. Sometimes seen as weedy, in truth the clinging, wall-covering creeper is a wildlife-nurturing foliage asset that deserves a second look and consideration as a replacement for English ivy (Hedera helix) or its Asian cousin Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata). A vigorous deciduous vine for shaded or sunny spots in Zones 3 through 9, it climbs by twining and adhering to surfaces via small sticky discs. It produces attractive leaf whorls consisting of five, and sometimes three or seven, jagged-toothed leaflets, which start shiny but age to a beautiful matte green. In fall, their color shifts to a distinct flaming red alongside clusters of blue-black berries that draw birds.
Extremely flexible and adaptable, it can maneuver anywhere from 5 to 40' feet as a groundcover or up a structure. Its immediate surroundings often control its growth. With judicious pruning, Virginia creeper can neatly cover house faces; its adhering discs are much less destructive than English ivy's aerial rootlets. That said, it is not recommended for use on stucco, metal or vinyl surfaces.
Selections include 'Red Wall,' with intense autumn color, and two attractive and occasionally available variegated options: 'Variegata' and 'Monham,' also known as Star Showers. These both show leaves irregularly splashed and striped with cream to light up a partly shaded corner and invite compliments from passersby.
PRAIRIE ROSE
And finally: a rose! Roses are a delight for those of us nostalgic at heart, and any list of climbers, even with natives, would be lacking without at least one rose suggestion. It’s the cherry on top.
Prairie rose (Rosa setigera) is luckily perfect for this list. A rugged, low-care central–North America rambler, it can grow up to 15 feet on canes that can easily be trained to weave and climb along a structure. It grows well alongside a companion like trumpet honeysuckle or a cultivated clematis. While it blooms just one large flush in late spring to early summer, the blush to deep pink or bicolored roses are fragrant, and they arrive on new growth. You are guaranteed blossoms every year and can prune to shape after flowering ends. Prairie rose's deep green leaves put on attractive plum and bronze hues in fall. It’s much better than the naturalized multiflora rose (R. multiflora), which has become a literal thorn in many a gardener's side.
A rare hybrid setigera cultivar from 1843, 'Baltimore Belle,' should be sought out and re-established in gardens, as its flowers start as charming, fat, blush-colored buds opening to double white, old-fashioned cupped pom-pom flowers with a pleasant fragrance. It even offers some occasional scattered rebloom in autumn. Disease-resistant and vigorous but obliging, the species and its fluffy cultivar deserve much wider use.
WESTERN NATIVES
I garden in the Mid-Atlantic region, and the species I've covered above represent the eastern half of North America. But the west also supplies several vines well worth considering for gardens:
Western white clematis (Clematis ligusticifolia): a 20-foot climber that produces a froth of tiny star-shaped white flowers in summer, followed by attractive seedheads.
Common hops (Humulus lupulus): with lobed green leaves and pagoda-shaped bracts, it climbs to 30 feet high. It’s a larval host for the question mark and red admiral butterflies.
Orange honeysuckle (Lonicera ciliosa): Similar to its eastern counterpart coral honeysuckle, this 20-foot climber blooms in warm colors and delights hummingbirds.
California pipevine (Aristolochia californica): The West Coast version of Dutchman’s pipevine, it too blooms with uniquely shaped flowers and feeds the larvae of pipevine swallowtail with its leaves.
‘Roger’s Red’ California grape (Vitis californica x ‘Roger’s Red’): Thought to be a naturally occurring hybrid with European grape, this selection boasts vivid fall foliage color and an ability to withstand drought.
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Image credits: Dutchman's pipevine by Maja Dumat/CC BY 2.0 DEED; Coral honeysuckle by Bruce Kirchoff/CC BY 2.0 DEED; Carolina jessamine by Surely Shirly (Public Domain); American wisteria by Leonora (Ellie) Enking)/CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED; Crossvine by Melissa McMasters/CC BY 2.0 DEED; Trumpet creeper by Ken Gibson/CC BY 2.0 DEED; Virginia creeper by carlfbagge/CC BY 2.0 DEED; Climbing rose by Tracie Hall/CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED; Western white clematis by NPS/Neal Herbert (Public Domain); Common hops by Matt Lavin/CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED; Orange honeysuckle by Matt Lavin/CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED; California pipeline by Peganum/CC BY-SA 2.0; 'Roger's Red' California grape by Jkehoe_Photos/CC BY 2.0
