I've got plenty of ideas but have a few questions for you to help in narrowing it down...

What Sunset zone are you in?

What color bloom do you want?

What size vine do you want/need (is it to cover a pergola)?

Do you want an evergreen or deciduous vine?

Becky

Without more information, it's difficult to make a recommendation. I would also rethink the "fast-growing" criterion. Most vines have an indeterminate growth habit and don't know that you want them to stop growing when they are as big as you want them. The difference between "fast-growing" and "rampantly invasive" is often just a matter of maturity. Many of the other subtropicals fall into this category: ipomoeas, passifloras, distictis, thunbergias, etc. There are some mandevillas that are fairly well-mannered and more determinate in their growth habit. It really depends on the other objectives and limitations that you haven't voiced yet.

"Flowery" vines do tend to be messy, because they drop those flowers. More flowers = more mess. :(

You could do a thornless climbing rose such as 'Renae' or if you are in a no-frost zone, Stephanotis is very nice.

Pink Jasmine - polyanthum - that is my favorite fast growing flowering vine for sunny places. It covered one side wall of my home in one season - it started out as a small plant in a gallon container. And come winter, the whole yard smells of the jasmine flowers. Well worth it and easy to grow. You need to prune it severely each year to make it flower vigorously.

Climbing roses are pretty well-behaved. I like Joseph's Coat for the bright colors, and I second hoovb's recommendation for Renae if you like small pink roses.

I really enjoy my white potato vine. It's really big and showy and in flower most of the year. I don't have to trim it too much because it has plenty of room in the spot allocated to it, but they do get big.

I also like the pink or white trumpet vines, but they need to be kept away from other plants because they grab on and take over.

My favorite flowering summer-sun vine, though, is annual morning glory. I keep one arbor free just for morning glories, and I plant different colors every year. Quite the show.

Renee

I'd like to piggyback on this thread. I'm looking for a vine to cover a metal pergola that's about 7' high and 6' wide. Here are my criteria:

- fast growing; ideally it would cover half of the pergola in a season
- The pergola is reasonably sturdy; it's nailed to concrete. But it does move a bit when shaken. I'm not sure a woody, heavy vine like wisteria would be advisable. So I'm looking for something less heavy and woody.
- We live in the Bay Area, and the soil is clayey.
- fragrant flowers or edible
- low maintenance
- roots that won't damage a drainage pipe that will be about 3-4' away and buried 1' in the ground.

We were considering jasmine and honeysuckle. ashleysf, your recommendation of pink jasmine sounds like it meets all my criteria.

Do grapes grow just as fast as the pink jasmine?

TIA.

Grapes don't grow very quickly for me, but once they get well-rooted, they usually take off. They are so pretty, and they have low water requirements and maintenance needs.

All vines that grow quickly are high-maintenance, unfortunately. They get woody dead growth beneath and form a thick thatch of dead stuff that you look up at, then the new stuff grows on top. The Pink Chinese Jasmine is a pretty bad offender that way, and so is the White Potato Vine. Pink Jasmine has a short bloom period, Potato Vine has a long bloom period.

Star Jasmine has a minimally invasive root structure as far as that goes, and it is easy-care.

Trumpet vines and potato vines have far-reaching surface root systems. I find their roots ten, fifteen feet away from the plant.

Good luck with your search.
Renee

We went to our local nursery this morning. I was disappointed with the pink jasmine foliage: very small and unremarkable. I wonder if the nursery has poor samples. One of the employees there recommended bower vine, potato vine and hardenbergias. The Bower vines look good. I also liked the Burmese Honeysuckle, but I believe they grow really large: over 30'.

The Pink Jasmine foliage is pretty small and unremarkable, and not even very green. It's that blast of flowers once a year that people love it for.

The Hardenbergias are very nice vines. They have a short bloom period, but pretty blossoms and nice leaves. They are a chore to control once they get established, but they are easy to grow and look good all year.

Bower vines are very pretty, but sometimes they get a slow start, and they need lots of water. Once they take off, you have a monthly trimming chore.

I don't know about the Burmese Honeysuckle, but anything with Honeysuckle in the name is something I stay away from. I had one that ate my house and climbed down the electrical wire to the pole where it swallowed the transformer. SCE was not pleased.

Renee

Thanks, Renee. We ended up buying a pink bower vine that's already about 5' tall. Nice foliage, decent flowers. Where this vine will be in the backyard, it'll get a lot of water in the rainy season.

Thanks for all the vine rec's. On my way to the nursery to check them out.

I may be too late coming to this thread, but my favorite is passiflora. It isn't fragrant like lonicera, or edible like grapes, but to have nine months of beautiful Gulf Fritillary butterflies fluttering around the garden is an absolutely amazing thing! I have both the purple and coral passifloras:
{{gwi:553975}}

Campsis radicans, trumpet vine, in the warm, pastel shades.

{{gwi:553976}}

The Bower vine is very messy,however i have both the purple potato vine and hardenbergia,and of the 2 the potato vine is the best overall.It's not messy and here it blooms all year(i'm in S.Calif),grows very quickly.The hardenbergia flower is very pretty,reminds me of a miniature orchid,but it only blooms here in late dec thru feb.
JMO
Kathi

I don't necessarily recommend these, but nasturtium and Lady Banksia rose are showy and fast-growing. I second the motion for C. radicans, but all these can get out of hand easily. I think the banksia rose is the worst. If you don't cut it back every year, it'll engulf everything around it. C. radicans will cover a telephone pole and then start growing on the wires.

I'm glad I found this thread. Lots of good ideas, and pros and cons I hadn't considered.

A public garden I tend is in the back of a 2-story church with vast, white walls that receive full sun most of the day during summer. In Sacramento, that can mean several days of 100+ weather. We don't get any rain through the summer, so everything needs to be hand watered in the hot, rainless months.

For the past 3 years we've used blue morning glories, which are like perennials in our climate. We usually have several days of below freezing weather in the winter which tinges some of the plants, but usually never kills. Careful pruning before spring makes frosted spots invisible.

I have not planted any morning glories myself. They have self seeded or continued to grow like perennials. Everyone loves them, but are willing to consider something else. There are places where I need to pull down dead vines, but most of it continues to grow.

Last year it joined forces with an extremely vining rose and took over the lower half of the building. Then it was difficult to cut back with all the thorns. It also has turned the corner of the building getting entangled with other plants. It jumped to the palms and hollyhocks in the nearby raised bed.

I'd like to find something that is more low-maintenance especially since this is a volunteer-tended garden. Is there anything besides close vigilance and pruning to keep the vining rose from playing with whatever is on the wall? It is planted very close to the wall. I've considered letting it take over, but it's not a big bloomer, especially if I let it grow wild. Perhaps best solution is to dig it up.

The bright blue of the morning glories is very exciting against the white walls, so I would need something with lots of continuing color to keep everyone happy. If the vine lost control and kept growing up to the second floor and roof, we would have no way o trimming it back.

I've considered passifloras, but was told only one species might survive Sacramento's very hot summers. I do like Black Eyed Susans and the flowers are bright, but not sure they are right for that spot. Jasmines might be too invasive although they smell heavenly. I don't know any that have bright colors either.

I don't know the name of the existing vining rose. It has thorns. Not an option of replacing it with a rose that's more manageable -- no funds at all and digging it up would be a big pain. Nasturtium would be WONDERFUL but it needs the coolness and moisture of the Bay Area to thrive here. I haven't found a good spot yet that is shaded enough for a small patch of nasturtium that would bloom in early spring and again in very late summer.

Maybe staying with the morning glories is the best way to go? I could be more aggressive in keeping it confined to the one wall, then pull all of it down about December. By spring it's all grown back and starts blooming the minute the sun shine hits it for longer periods of the day. But it never reaches the second story walls.

Is there something else you all could recommend within the confines of my situation?

This year I've been promised a sort of small arbor around "U" shaped bench seating. My job is to create some overhead shade. I'm leaning toward grapes. Since this garden isn't secured, we don't want to create completely opaque sides that might mask 'other' activities at night. Someone also mentioned tomatoes -- hadn't considered that.

Morning glory is one of my favorite because I find it's easy to cut back to the wick each year then regrows well in the summer. As for your arbor, how does Wisteria do in Sacramento? I've never grown it because it gets too heavy for any of the arbors/trellises I've had, but my neighbors was beautiful. You just can't beat those gorgeous flowers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Loribees Garden Blog

I really love solandra maxima. Very nice huge showy yellow flowers. Grows very fast. My five gallon took over a whole 20 foot fence within the year. Nice glossy deep green leaves. I urge you to take a look at him. His name is also cup of gold vine.

Yikes, Morning Glories!!?? Talk about swallowing a house! If I can find it, there's a photo on the Internet of a house entirely covered in Morning Glory vine. It is considered an invasive species in many places. I'd steer away from Morning Glory. Cross Vine (Bignonia sp) is a lovely option, comes in many colors, well behaved and has very spectacular flowers. Bower vine (Pandorea jasminoides varieties) can get pretty agressive, but does grow quickly and can be easily trained. There is a new variegated variety out that has a pretty pale pink flower and interesting foliage. Red Trumpet Vine (Distictis buccinatoria) is also a good choice as well as Flame Vine (Pyrostegia venusta), but that can get pretty big.

Patty S.

@marganne, what did you end up with? I too live in Sacramento, and have been struggling to find something long blooming that can endure our full sun and crazy heat. I'd love to know what has performed best for you outside of the already mentioned morning glories.

What ever you do, DO NOT plant "Campsis radicans"! I made that mistake over 20 years ago. It's a beautiful trumpet type vine with orange flowers, but it's a MONSTER! It will come up all over from the roots. It's even come up a good 30 feet away from the original plant. We ripped it out 10 years ago and sprout are still coming up in random places all over the yard. Round up is not very effective on it, and we just have to keep pulling them when we see them. The even broke through the plastic weed cloth barrier under bark mulch.

If you want a pretty trumpet vine, plant a Distictis. The Distictis "Rivers" is beautiful without taking over the world. It's also called Royal trumpet vine.

Just wanted to warn everyone.