mamahoohoo,
Love the name.
I have a few vines to offer. Virginia Creeper or Virgin Bower Clematis. Let me know if your interested and what you have to exchange.
Thanks,
growjo

I can actually get some of both of them from a neighbour, thanks anyway. Hops seem to be hard to find though. I may have to take a drive in the fall and get some seed from wild ones.

Vikki

I have a hops vine. I can root some cutting for you if you'd like.

BP

mamahoohoo I have some wild cucumber-hedge hog gourd& guess what! I live in Regina

Mamahoohoo, you may want to re-consider your choices. In your zone Wild Cucumber is not hardy, it is an annual and has to be planted every year. If you do not control it (collecting all fruit and seeds), and let it go to seed it will take over your entire property. It is considered a weed by the Ministry of Agriculture in Ontario. It is not the same as hedge-hog gourd.

northerner, hedge-hog gourd is a wild cucumber. T&T seeds is got it in there catalog this year under new seeds & it's not that invasive. Most of the seeds fall straight down & if they germinate, they are easy to distinguish from other plants & pull as they are not deep rooted.

As kids we use to have cucumber ball fights , spread them all over the yard & mom had no problem to control them
The nice thing about them is they grow super fast. Mom would let them grow in the garden & we would put strings up to the eaves on the garage. By fall you could not see the garage.

I grew hops 2 years ago up a drainspout...regretting it erver since. Never let it go to seed! I have little hop vines coming up everywhere, even though I dug up the mother plant. Nasty, prickly vines that resist weeding (snap off at root level, to come back with more gusto).Hops...NO! IMHO I'd rather have the hedge-hog gourd which was growing all over our trees when we bought this house 17 years ago..easy to pull, and I liked the little "loofahs" they produced.
Be careful what you wish for..

I wasn't only referring to winter hardiness... I'm looking for something that'll stay alive through a southern SK summer without being coddled. I know hops will get by without being weedy, but I'm unsure as to whether the spot I have in mind will provide adequate moisture. Whatever I plant will likely not get much more water than what the sky throws on it. I've got a couple other plants in mind, but I'm looking for a little variety to go along with them. :)

Vikki

I have some Echinocystis Lobata I received in a round robin last year. It is labelled 2006. You are welcome to send a sasbe if interested. Have a look at gardenweb in a few minutes...I'm posting a list of other seeds available for sasbe. You might see a few other things that interest you. Thanks...Heather

Here is a pic of the wild cucumber(hedge-hog gourd). The flowers have 6 petals,not 5 as a cucumber bur

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Wild cucumber to the right, morning glory to the left

the wild cucumber around here has been an awful pest. it showed up 2 years ago and is everywhere now, choking out trees and shrubs and crawling over paths and making me trip over the vines. go for another less invasive vine for cover.

I'll have lots of seed of Echinocystis lobata in September. It returns annually to cover my barn board garden shed. Very pretty in flower and has a wonderful fragrance. I redirect the vines when they sprawl into to the pathway. It is not a nuisance for me as I don't compost the vines. Birds spread seed here and there but not in my gardens.