davek
Do a search on trumpet vine on this forum. It's a beast not something you'd want anywhere near a home or building. It's beautiful but very aggressive.
Try one of the native honeysuckles, they're not as hard to control and there are different colors/varieties so you can have different color flowers. I was told that a variety Goldflame will flower all summer, I think it's one of the natives.

Thank you chazparas. It would be 60 feet from any buildings so that wouldn't be as much of an issue. My original thought actually involved a couple different varieties of native honeysuckles, so I may end up going in that direction in the end.

Well, I just did the recommended search and the idea vanished with a puff of smoke when I read "Under 2 concrete driveways" and "75 foot runners". I want to run out and pull it up without even having bought it. :-)

No climber is perfect.

I will repeat facts I and others wrote: there are very few if any easier and as drough and heat resistant climbers with the spectacular summer display Trumpet vines offer... and among the easier to tame!

Runners are a problem only for some not looked after enough or abandonned gardens. Only it is a necessity to cut sprouts yearly if needed.

On the contrary Honeysuckle are untamable.
You can believe a professional gardener experience.

Best advise you can get is find in a location similar to yours an arbor you would like to duplicate.

Rutten, Dave,
I can only speak of my experience with the trumpet vine. One of the most beautiful ones I've ever seen was at Fountaine Bleu (sp) in France, it climbed a fence and just overflowed with flowers about 15 feet up. It had huge flowers, must have been one of the hybrids, the monster I had in Brooklyn was no comparison in flower size. Almost had me considering planting it again!

I spoke with a friend who is curator of a plant collection at the brooklyn botanic gardens in NY. Our native U.S. honeysuckles are not as untamable as the asian varieties we are so used to seeing here, they however lack the scent of the asian varieties. Like the asian honeysuckles and trumpet vine our natives are very attractive to hummingbirds, they come in various colors and are not prone to aggressive over-growth.

Getting all the runners from a trumpet vine is easy if you stay on top of it, but they do sprout where-ever a root comes near the surface, by near I mean within a foot of the surface! My experience here.

You could also plant different annual vines but if your zone is like mine you'd have to start them indoors to really see many flowers. Rutten's idea of seeing what other's have growing on arbors in your area is a great one.

One the the most beautiful vines I have ever seen on an arbor is wisteria. There's just nothing like those cascading purple blossums. BUT it is also a monster. A friend who has it covering his patio pergola literally has it with stems as big around as a small tree trunk and it has totally destroyed the trellis wall that covered one side of the structure. Still incredibly pretty. If I were lucky enough to have space for an arbor I'd probably plant grapes. But then I like food more than flowers.

Alys
I love wisteria! I keep mine trained to a standard form. I've got a three year old one now, new home new opportunities! I've seen them in the Brooklyn Botanic gardens in NY so large they are like tree trunks one is hollowed out in the middle it is so old! They require a very strong support if allowed to vine, eventually their weight will pull most structures down, maybe not in our lifetime but over the years they get heavy! But they are gorgeous!
I recently put up 3 - 4X8' trellises with a different grape on each. I like having things to nibble on while working out in the gardens.
Happy Spring y'all!

My wisteria and non native honeysuckle are easily contained but the campsis radicans is not. It has nothing to do with it being in an abandoned garden but a vine that reseeds easily and sends out numerous runners under decks, pools, brick and concrete many yards away from the "mother" plant is too hard to control, at least for me. Not to mention it's incredibly difficult to kill. It can be a lovely vine once established and it does attract hummers but I wish I'd never planted it.
Karyn

I had read it was aggressive, but until searching as suggested I wasn't aware of it's spreading habits. I wouldn't have any qualms about containing it in my own yard, but it would be planted within 5 feet of my neighbor's property. He's elderly and knowing him, I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate something popping up in his little garden or elsewhere. It's a chore for him to do basic gardening and yard care, and he even had a tree removed in his backyard so he wouldn't have to deal with the leaves.

I've read of native honeysuckles that were less invasive than either the trumpet vine or the Japanese types, so it's likely the direction I'll take. Once the weather becomes more spring-like again(I was wondering how the arbor would look in winter: Now I know :-) ) I'll tour the neighborhood to see who has what as suggested though.

I appreciate all the replies. To everyone experiencing our current winter spell, here's to getting back in the saddle soon.

We bought our house last year and the late owner had planted the trumpet vine. He had 3 vines twined poles so that they would look like trees. Their vines (trunks) are at least 10 inches around. Then there is one that he started to twine up a pole, but it caught onto a huge tree and now it is up the pole, the tree, all the telephone and electric lines, all over the neighbors roof (which it has nearly destroyed) and heading over to his neighbors house. It is a beauty to behold, that is true, but messier than the devil in fall when the trumpet flowers start dropping all over. I have a girlfriend whose wisteria is doing the same thing. So my recommendation is that if you choose a trumpet vine or wisteria, first of all, train it the way you want it and watch it daily (coz they have a way of getting away from you quickly). Keep it trimmed the way you want before thickness sets in. And if you want a vine that you can just sit back and enjoy, try clematis!!

Trumpet vine is from the Devil.. He always makes something beautiful , and just as you start enjoying that beauty, it reaches out and grabs your neck. Ive had experience with this vine, and it wasn't pleasant.

Honey suckle.