I am not real familiar with vines, but I know my mom has a vine that is VERY fragrant. The name of it is Silver Lace Vine. You could also try some different types of Ivy....G/L...PC

Thanks for the tip on the silver lace vine! I've read lots of good things about it. I'll have to see if I can find one. :)

There's lots of great vines to cover fences. The trick is finding a balance between covering a fence and taking over the world. ;-)

Good point! There is one area of the fence that I am going to keep vine free because its near a bunch of tall bushes and I'm already trying to battle wild honeysuckle from overtakin them. I think I'm going to keep the vine on the section of fence that I can mow right up to.

Do you want the vine to be evergreen, deciduous or die back to the ground? The bare stems of deciduous vines, like trumpet vine and some clematis, can be rather unattractive in winter. One good option would be evergreen clematis.

I'm looking for something preferably evergreen. I ended up getting a crossvine plant out at Baites and I'm anxious to get it planted.

I have some wild trumpet vine growing through some of the overgrown shrubs on the back of my property. Since its already there I've been tempted to train it on the fence, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not. Does anyone know if its evergreen?

Trumpet vine is not evergreen, but crossvine is.

Personally I'd vote against ivy, but I'm fighting a veritable out-of-control infestation of it at my place, which colors my point of view. Ivy does tend to get out of bounds and require serious control measures sooner or later.

Crossvine is a great choice, I think. Lonicera sempervirens, the native Coral Honeysuckle, is evergreen and mighty pretty. It can get some powdery mildew if it's stressed, and aphids occasionally like it, but it does great for me in part shade with no care. There's a thornless smilax called Jackson Vine (Smilax smallii) that's evergreen and quite well mannered -- nice looking, too. In part shade you could also try a Pipevine. Aristolochia tomentosa is the species that's native to middle TN. The big-leaved ones (A. macrophylla) are more common in E. TN, especially in the Smokies. Pipevines aren't evergreen, but they are bodacious growers and quite handsome in leaf. You have to hunt for the odd flowers in the foliage. My favorite aspect of the plant is that it's the host plant for the caterpillars of the gorgeous Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly, and I get the caterpillers and resultant butterflies on my vine every year without fail. They don't do any significant damage to the vine, and it's a treat to have that kind of beauty homegrown, so to speak.

If you're in a warm z6b, that evergreen clematis (C. armandii) is a lovely plant, but truly a rampant grower. A great choice if you've got the room.

You could also consider Carolina Jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens -- the species name "sempervirens" means evergreen, BTW). Look for 'Pride of Augusta' or 'Margarita Cline', both hardy in z6.

And there's always Virginia Creeper. I've got a fence covered up with it, and it's really quite beautiful at the moment, and come fall it's a traffic-stopper. Not evergreen, of course, but it grows so densely that I can't see through the fence in winter, either, thanks to the cascade of stems.

Marty