Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

The first place to go to find a list of potential vines for your privacy screen is our Native Plant Database. Use the Combination Search feature instead of Recommended Species. This will provide a bigger selection with much more choice to narrow down. The volunteers and staff at the Wildflower Center who maintain the database have partners in different regions to help with these recommended species lists based on what is easy to access in local nurseries.
Under Combination Search, select the following categories: CA, Habit – vine, Duration – Perennial, Light Requirement – Sun, Soil Moisture – Dry, and Size – 6-36 feet.

The three plants to consider from this search are:

Calystegia macrostegia (island false bindweed) – herbaceous. Long-blooming white or muted pink flowers and lush, vigorous foliage for trellises, arbors, pergolas, fences Does best in full sun in moist, coastal areas. In drier sites, give afternoon shade. May defoliate during summer droughts, so water during dry spells. Its vivid green, triangular leaves are carried on twining stems that emerge from a woody base called a caudex, hence the common name Woody Morning Glory. Several varieties are recognized, with those from islands often preferred for horticulture, as they have more prominent leaves.

Clematis lasiantha (pipestem clematis) – herbaceous. A strong, woody climber to 20 ft. or more. Bears few-flowered clusters of creamy-white blossoms on the upper portions of the plant. These are followed by light-catching, silky seed plumes. Deciduous leaves are pinnately compound with 3 leaflets. Clematis lasiantha, with its cheery white-and-yellow spring flowers and decorative, silky seed plumes in summer, is a member of the buttercup family (family Ranunculaceae). A widely adaptable, tough, and disease-resistant plant, it is a good choice for native plant gardens within its range, which is from north-central California south into Baja California. It can climb to 20 feet and can take light shade or full sun. It is deciduous and may die back completely in cold winters, but will reemerge in the spring. It does well in normal garden conditions. It is less widespread, more delicate, and less vigorous than the related Clematis ligusticifolia. Well-drained soils of decomposed granite, sand, or clay loam, pH 5 to 8, rich or with minimal organic content.
In very dry, hot areas, provide afternoon shade and mulch to keep the roots cool.

Lonicera hispidula (pink honeysuckle) – semi-evergreen. This species is one of those peculiar twining shrubs sometimes encountered in genus Lonicera. It usually grows as a loose shrub unless its branches come in contact with something it can twine onto, like a neighboring plant or a fence; then the branches will twine up and out while the center of the plant remains a somewhat stout shrub. Some individuals, though, are more generally vine-like and will trail along the ground with little or no shrubbiness, while others will be more consistently shrubby and will hardly twine at all. Lonicera hispidula is deciduous to semi-evergreen and ranges from 3 to 20 feet high, the greatest heights reached by twining. Attractive pink, rose, or purple flowers appear in spring and summer and decorative red berries in fall. Dry to moist woodland soils. Tolerates clay. pH 5 to 7.

Tolerates seasonal flooding. Berries may be mildly poisonous if eaten. Sensitivity to a toxin varies with a person’s age, weight, physical condition, and individual susceptibility. Children are most vulnerable because of their curiosity and small size.