We are going to need a location. Depends on how cold it gets.

LOL. Sorry, I should have given you more info! I live in Southern California. It is a mostly full sun area. Since the vine will be grown over an area where food is prepared, I need to be somewhat careful of bees and mess.

I prefer an evergreen vine so I'm looking at bower vine. I read it grows well in containers. Anyone have experience with it?

Star jasmine grows beautifully where I live but the bees love it and it has a milky sap when it's cut so I'm not sure that would be smart over a concrete countertop.

I have also been looking at trumpet vine. Bougainvillea gets pretty messy and climbing roses have to be cut back in winter so I ruled both out.

Thanks for input!!

Large vines in containers in full sun take a LOT of frequent watering. Hope you have an irrigation system rigged up!

Any flowering vine will shed its flowers, the more flowers the messier. Passiflora may do well for you since they have fewer but very striking flowers

Also, flowers attract bees. You migt want to look for a short bloom season.

Yes, contractor added an irrigation system that goes up inside the containers. I'm not worried about some bees, but the masses that jasmine attract concern me. Bower vine doesn't seem as bee active. I'll check out the vine suggested...never heard of it! But I'm still learning as I go

I agree on the Passflora.

Do be aware it tends to attract Carpenter Bees but they are generally not a problem. They are very large and intimidating looking,and their buzzing is kind of loud. But compared to honey bees they are very docile, they just want to get out of your way. Not aggressive at all. I have never even heard of anyone being stung by one. And there will be more like 2 to 4 of them at any one time, compared to hundreds of honey bees.

I find them interesting to watch and they're kind of endearing.

Yes, I don't mind them at all. Thanks!

I had a Golden Chalice vine growing across a similar structure over my driveway in Venice, but I planted it in the ground. It is evergreen, makes flowers all year, which are large and last a fairly long time, and the vine is easy to maintain and makes almost no mess, since the flowers are huge and not so numerous. It grows extremely well in zone 10, or in coastal SoCal. Not sure why you want a planter instead of planting it in the ground, however.

Pandorea sounds like a good idea. So does Hardenbergia. Not sure how well either does in a container though. Hardenbergia is messy when it blooms but it blooms early. I don't think you will be dining out that early.

Thanks so much! I'll check these out.

Skip the pots..you will never get good vine growth for years that way. Plant something like Solandra maxima in the soil closest to the poles. Get them in 10-15 gallon pots,they should reach. Or Easter Lilly vine,Beaumontea grandiflora . Cup and Saucer is blue niceness..

If not that vine then whatever you choose. But,put it in the ground.

Potted vines up the posts are relatively easy to grow and maintain. Once you want them to proceed to the flat/over, you're in for a lot more maintenance. Many need to be tied in place and pruned regularly, so you have moved into ladder territory. With the counter structure underneath, that gets trickier to reach and clean up is more involved. Is the visual payoff going to be worth the extra work? Potted shrubs and hanging pots can be beautiful too, and much easier and less time-consuming to maintain.

Lol. All new territory for me...guess we can give it a go and if it is too difficult can use shrubs. I'll update with pics from time to time. Thanks everyone!

Another plant for you to consider for the pots would be Jasmine humile 'Revolutum'. It is an evergreen that blooms off and on all year with bright yellow flowers, so there will be some cleanup, although the flowers do hang on for quite a while before dropping. The reasons I am mentioning this plant is that I have grown it in pots for at least six years, and it takes SoCal heat like a champ. If it should ever wilt (rarely), a drink bounces it right back into shape. The foliage is a nice-colored green on canes; that means you just need to generally wire, or tie, them in one or two places on an 8' post, and they support themselves. The fragrance is nice and light, and the hummingbirds like the flowers.

Thanks gyr falcon. I'll check it out!

Look for 20" - 24" deep containers. I would avoid any vine that lists at 30 feet.

Hardenbergia is one I avoid like the plague. Even the parking structure got rid of it before 5 yrs. I do like lavender trumpet vine because it's easy to cut back. And it's terrific with colors I like (peach, hot pink, purple etc.). You might check out Mandevillas.

I would avoid any vine that lists at 30 feet.

Irisgal, just to clarify. You are referring to the Solandra / cup of gold vine with this statement, correct?

I went on a garden tour, they had a structure just as you have and planted grapes, one on each side. Looked nice. They are deciduous, so there is some clean up. I think the vines were in the ground, though.

All the Solandra here are grown as shrubs. I'd like to actually see one grown as a vine!

We considered both grape vines and roses but we're hoping there is some evergreen vine that meets our needs. Flowering is preferred and some bees and mess are fine. We are just trying to avoid the masses of bees and the milky sap of some jasmines. In ground planting isn't really an option due to the need to walk behind the barbeque. We should have thought it out better but live and learn.

So far we are looking at Lady Di Bowervine which fries all over our freeways so it must be hardy and heat tolerant. I read it does well in containers. We are also considering Mandavilla but have seen it get quite scraggly.

This weekend I'm in Scottsdale visiting relatives and there's a beautiful vine all over. Anyone know what it is?

Close up

Are you sure it is a vine? It looks like Tecoma stans, possibly one of the clear yellow dwarfs. There are various yellow-flowering trumpet vines, but that does not appear, to me at least, to be what is in your photo.

Also, there will be considerable mess when those seeds and pods drop.

I suppose it could be a trailing shrub? It was gorgeous. On lots of walls all over town.

That one could be reaching for sun (there seems to be a tree in the background). Or it could be some type vine/sub-shrub as you said.

Tecomas generally are shrubs. Tecoma stans is a beautiful, very long-blooming plants (my species T. stans and T. x 'Orange Jubilee' are never out of bloom, unless I cut them way back). The 'Bells of Fire', 'Mayan Gold' cultivars bloom for about 10 straight months for me. The 'Bells of Fire' looses its leaves for a few months though. Great plants; heat and drought tolerant. Not generally arbor-covering material, T. 'Orange Jubilee' maybe excepted, but not ideal for that use.

I've seen Solandra grown over a medium pergola at the Embarcadero in San Francisco,and kept flat against a wall at Flora Grub nursery. It was the variegated S.maxima to boot. I like Beaumontia..big glossy leafs. White flowers on an arbor. Sounds nice to me.

Look up passion vines. Many varieties. Beautiful flowers.

I bet it's a crossvine. It stays evergreen too

While it is true that brolimom may have seen crossvines and/or cat's claw in Scottsdale, the foliage and flower shape of the yellow-flowering plant in the photo is not consistent with those vines.

Gelsemium sempervirens --- is this it?

Slightly different but similar! I think we are going to try a white Bowervine on it. I'll update in a few months and see if it survives summer! Thanks again everyone for your help.

Yellow catsclaw is deemed a freeway plant..since around here that's only where you see them. Not a long bloom season. But the brutal conditions of the freeway don't help I'm sure.

But if it is a short season bloomer...you have many months of a generic green vine to look at.

Bowervine might be the same way. I did grow the purple bower. Again,a few weeks in a year of heavy bloom..then just shiny green leafs the other 48 or 49 weeks a year.

It’s been over a year since my post so I thought I’d update this.

I wound up using trumpet vine in the pots. It’s worked out well. Not blooming right now, but it gave us big purple flowers this summer.

It has filled in on the sides and I’m hopeful that the next few years it will go over the top of the trellis.

Thanks again to everyone who helped me! It’s very appreciated!

Thanks for the update. Lavender trumpet vine is one of my favorites.