Mine was here when I moved in. I love it, but it grows all over everything - up and down trees - up over my deck railing, up the bird bath, up the telephone wire. I don't try very hard to control it because it's so pretty, but it does like to ramble. I should grow fine on an arbor.

I cut mine back to about 1' from the ground every year as I do my 'Polish Spirit' and it responds with tons of new growth. You may find seedlings of it in various places around the yard, but it's not difficult to pull it up. Fortunately, the places I have found it are next to a fence, or the deck fencing, so it happily climbs all over.

Susan

Thanks, folks. I kind of like climbing things, but the only thing on my fence my husband doesn't cut down is the grape vine. However, if he can cut a clematis back to the ground every year, maybe it can survive at my house.

We cut our Sweet Autumn Clematis back after flowering to prevent self sowing. It grows back beautifully year after year. It was here when we came here 20 years ago and requires very little attention except for cutting it back. EP

Yup, it's the cutting back part you have to remember. This plant is very aggressive, quite beautiful, but very aggresive. Unlike orange trumpet, it doesn't so much send out underground runners thirty feet form the main plant, but it does grow like crazy. More like wisteria, which if left unpruned will take over a fence, porch, etc. It is so lush that the vine becomes very heavy and can break down all but the strongest of pergolas and trellises unless you prune it every year to keep it in check.

We cut ours back immediatly after flowering to prevent self sowing. EP

I have to reiterate all the comments that previous posters have made--autumn clematis grows like crazy and it can come up other places. The previous owner of the house where I've lived for 2 1/2 years now planted one. It's got a southern exposure and is about a foot or so from the mailbox, which poses problems. I think she thought it would be neat to have it grow over the mailbox, so she could get mail from within something alive. The problem is that the mail delivery person refuses to put mail in the box, if that vine is growing too close to the box. I bought a hefty wrought iron trellis, and that vine has loved it--it went crazy this year--intertwining itself all over that trellis which became so top heavy that when the wind blew from the south, that trellis looked like it was free floating and only the vine kept it held to the ground! Finally, we had to lay the whole shebang over on its side, so now that it's been in the blooming stage, I have a blanket of white flowers trailing toward the house. This year, I had a bonus too--another autumn clematis sprung up in a good place, the middle of the raised bed in front of the house, well away from the mailbox. I'll be cutting back and digging out whatever I can of the autumn clematis near the mailbox. If you truly want a climber that needs next to no extra water, this one will be good to go too. I only gave it water when I thought of it through the summer--maybe six times. Build your arbor and then come to my house and I'll let you build one for me too. :-)

Hum-m-m. I'll have to think about this. Seems like this plant has monster capabilities. Trouble is I love vines and hubby hates them. I babied a Virginia Creeper along the fence on the creek until I got it how I wanted it, and one day he came in and proudly said he'd finally got rid of "that vine". I think one bit him when he was a baby.

I love all my S.A.C., I let them grow just about anywhere they want to. I had the most beautiful white blooms in the top of a twenty foot tall evergreen. I do have to smack around the ones that cover the lower growing evergreens and send them to the corner to pout sometimes, those almost killed a juniper by completely covering it. They are not that hard to control though. And I never have to water them. Just wish they would outdo the trumpet vine, sigh. I let the things make seeds, think they look cute. Now if your yard is neater than mine, cutting back after blooming is a very good idea. I am working on having my yard become a "Backyard Wildlife Habitat" Just need to add a cactus garden and another water feature. My yard already qualifies but I want ALL the stars before I make it official. lol

I like the idea of a wildlife habitat. That's what we call our yard although it is unofficial. We don't have a pond, but we do have a creek that runs, sometimes, and we have rabbits and squirrels, a snake now and then, and all kinds of birds, and we feed everything. And we may have raccoons. Haven't actually seen them - it is just that at night some quite large critter tips over the three foot tall sunflower seed container that is topped by a paver too heavy for me to lift. And I still like the idea of sweet autumn clematis.

This vine looks great growing on the trumpeter vines on our chain link fence. The ground is mowed on both sides of the fence so the vines are kept in check. The vines will spread along the fence, but I trim them a few times a year on either end. Let the aggressive vines fight it out.

For the information on Backyard Wildlife Habitat, go to the link. If you live in a place where brushpiles are not a problem, you would be ok for this. They are not mandatory but the rabbits love them. There is a lot of information about how to attract birds and other wildlife by planting the correct plants. Virginia Creeper is a native fruit bearing vine often naturalized by wild birds. It is an important food source to over 35 species of birds. Unfortunately it is a poison ivy look a like and is often destroyed for that reason. Mine has been mistaken for poison ivy by a lot of people. Oh, the water features can be just a bird bath. They don't have to be big ponds unless you want a big pond. I think most of us have those and bird nests, feeders, etc. Plus a lot already have plants that are for butterflys, birds, etc. Nut trees for those furry fuzzy tailed creatures that I don't like. Fruit trees for the birds. And so on.

Here is a link that might be useful: link

Reading these posts has made me decide that I want this plant!

I tried to grow a silver lace vine this year and it did not seem to make it....a morning glory vine took it over and I am afraid may have choked it out but I think an Autumn Clemantis would be a hardy climber and get the fence covered pronto!

OMG - where can I get this plant, it is so pretty and would be perfect for my startup garden.

RetroLady - I tried the silver lace vine, too. Bought it at Horn's as a very nice size plant. Made it 2 years and then died for some unknown reason. Anyway, I replaced it with S.A.C. and porcelain vine - both of which I really like. I plant a lot of things for my birds, and they love the berries on the porcelain vine. I bought a female bittersweet this year to go with my male and hope to have berries next year for it. I also have the Virginia Creeper (which is actually in my neighbor's yard, but the birds love the berries on it, and the sphinx moth cats I have found on it make it more than worthwhile to me.

If you really want a fast growing, but not invasive vine, I would grow one of the clematis viticelli hybrids, like 'Polish Spirit'. It is easy to keep within bounds because you cut it down almost to the ground each spring and it rewards you with wonderful growth and flowers all summer. Most of the flowers occur in spring, but it continues to flower sparsely all summer long. It doesn't reseed at all, like SAC. The blooms are smaller than the bigger clematis in the jackmanii family, but it blooms so prolifically in spring, that it makes up for the bigger blooms. I have mine interspersed with C. tangutica, which blooms small yellow nodding blooms later in the summer, and passiflora 'Incense'. The 'Incense' is for the gulf fritillary caterpillars, and the blooms are outstanding.

Have fun vining!

Susan

I love my Virginia Creeper because my mother planted it in the 1940s and it is still here through all of Okla's weather.