Grief, my eyes! Can't see a thing.

However, there are a good few smaller vines which grow as annual seeds (although at least one is a perennial in my area - such as mina lobata, eccremocarpus scaber, orange black eyed Susans - thunbergia alata, the obvious sweet peas, the red MG quamoclit, climbing nasturtium or even red runner beans.

The daintier MGs may work also...but I find they bloom frustratingly late in the season.

eta - just noticed you want white or blue...which does away with all my suggestions apart from sweet peas (and they are the least appropriate for growing up a single pole) Ah well - the perils of posting before reading properly.

I likely wouldn’t.

-The poles already have the weight of the lights

-Why draw added attention to the poles

-Morning glories are green much of the summer here and get killed by frost after a few weeks of bloom

-If the MG go to seed they may require a lot of weeding to remove for several years

I would be more inclined to replace the poles with something in a color or style that I could live with in their own right.

There are white flowered runner beans and Moon Flowers. But I can't even see the poles properly so don't take my opinion as worth anything.

Yea, sorry about that -- I don't have a better pic.

I wonder if I could buy some sort of electrical tape or darker brown tree wrap and wrap the white part of the poles with that. Or, just spray paint the whole darn pole (but I'm afraid to get on a ladder, and I know DH will balk and not do it for me).

I would stain or paint the poles even if the color is slightly different. The color will pop out less than the white and the difference will not pop out at you once covered with vines. The white will still pop out even when mostly covered. I must need cataract surgery because I can not see the poles in the picture.

^^ No, it's really hard to see in the pic, from a distance the pole blends in with the house - but the white part is visible (and what drives me nuts - I can see the white from my view inside the house, too, it sticks up above the deck).

How big diameter are the poles? Could you slide copper pipe over them? It would make the poles sturdier and uniform in color. The shiny copper rapidly turns brown and visually virtually disappears. I have used copper pipes many times here, both on its own to construct things and as a sheath to hide rebar when I’ve used that as a support.

^^ ooh, I hadn't thought of that. Will have to look into the expense of it.

I enjoy the lights above the patio, don't have anywhere else to string them from to drape across the patio sitting area.

Man that tested my mature vision...if you look at the deck from left to right you'll see what looks like a white stake on the left side of the pic. That is the bottom of the pole. If you follow that up you'll see the lights to the left of that awning (?). I agree with woody that some sort of sleeve would likely be best.

tj

This an attempt to show the picture in a larger form.

You will have to click on the picture to see it larger. Houzz is messing with how our inline photos are shown, and they are now essentially just inline thumbnails that have to be clicked on.

ZM

I don't think this picture is much better Zen. I still can't see anything that looks like a pole. If you mean the the thin tall thing to the left that kind of blends with the color of the house. I can see what looks like the beginning of a white pole near the ground and then it sirt of fades out. It that's the pole it looks awefully thin. I'm not sure any vine would have an easy time trying to scale that. Could we get a measurement, circumference? Morning glories, I only grow Ipomoea quamoclit for the hummimgbirds. I made the mistake of planting the normal kind years ago and I'm still paying the price lol! Nice homestead btw. If you don't like your pink deck why don't you stain it? I like Mara's idea.

^^ It's a Trex deck, so can't be stained. Was here when I moved in. I'm stuck with it for now until I can cough up the cash for a patio. I checked out the price of copper piping at Home Depot, it's not very expensive, I'm seriously considering that idea. Sounds like the vine idea is a no-go.

how about coming out into the lawn a foot or so .. and sinking a couple 4 x4 or 4 x 6s .... with 2 x8s across ... and build a wall ... lol ... so you can use that for both lighting and trellising ??? .. sort of one side of a pergola??? ...

it would take a real life long passion to go with a pergola roof which would have to attach to the house ... i dont know if i would go that far ...

plus.. with your lot size ... i dont really know why you need a patio ... go sit in the lawn ... if you were to entertain out there.. you could set up all the tables on the deck.. but the peeps would most likely end up on the lawn ...

just thinking outside the box you presented ...

ken

look at what are more like one wall.. rather than the multimillion dollar 'rooms' ....

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=pergola+wall+at+side+of+deck&t=ffcm&iax=images&ia=images

Hi Jay,

" I don't think this picture is much better Zen. I still can't see anything that looks like a pole. If you mean the the thin tall thing to the left that kind of blends with the color of the house. I can see what looks like the beginning of a white pole near the ground and then it sirt of fades out. It that's the pole it looks awefully thin. I'm not sure any vine would have an easy time trying to scale that. "

I think you are right about what is supposed to be the pole, and its unsuitability for a vine like a morning glory climbing it. I enhanced the photo with an added arrow pointing at what appears to be the pole.

Click on the photo to see it full size. As I said before, the photos here on Houzz now appear as inline thumbnails that you need to click on to restore their actual size.

ZM

Why would I want to build a wall and block the beautiful view I have?

I have grown Morning Glories up a piece string running from the ground to the top of a pergola about 8 feet high, and it all did just fine. So there that. But I agree that the white will still shine through. If I were you, I’d spray paint it. When you’re sewing and you can’t quite match the color of the thread to the fabric, they tell you to go one shade darker and it won’t stick out. So that would be my advice to you. Spray paint half a shade darker than the house, then try the morning glories if you want to (but only if you love Morning Glories).

I can see the poles but I can't figure out what their function is other than hold a string of lights. It looks like there is also a table, umbrella and chairs. Can you put the lights under the umbrella and eliminate the poles?

I found this online:

mxk3. Faith is right. I forgot that I've grown morning glories up string and wire before. Sorry about the earlier comment! I'm currently swamped with out of control, boring morning glories. All the warnings are true! Picture a kudzu forest in miniature. I like the half shade darker idea too. I do grow the Ipomoea quamoclit every year for the hummers. It can self seed a lot also, but it's easily managed.

Get thick pvc pipes 4in or so and put several around your deck (paint them)

then string more lights between the “posts”