Native Plants

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Wednesday - January 28, 2009

From: Denton, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Vines
Title: Native vines for pergola in Denton, Texas
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

We ve built a pergola under our Post Oaks and Winged Elms. The soil is sandy, as you would expect with post oaks. Are there any native vines, hopefully with a pretty flower, that I might coax into growing up my pergola? I would water well until established, but after that, I wont water often out of respect to my post oaks.

ANSWER:

Here are a list of vines with colorful flowers that should do well on your pergola in Denton, Texas.

Lonicera sempervirens (trumpet honeysuckle) is evergreen.

Lonicera albiflora (western white honeysuckle) is usually a deciduous shrub, but will act like a vine as well.

Bignonia capreolata (crossvine) is semi-evergreen.

Clematis pitcheri (bluebill) is deciduous.

Passiflora incarnata (purple passionflower) is deciduous.

Passiflora lutea (yellow passionflower) is deciduous.

Wisteria frutescens (American wisteria) is deciduous. if you pick this one, make sure that you are getting it, specifically, and not either of the two non-native invasive species, Wisteria floribunda (Japanese wisteria) and Wisteria sinensis (Chinese wisteria).

You can see other vine choices for Texas by doing a COMBINATION SEARCH in our Native Plant Database and selecting 'Texas' from the "Select State or Province" option and 'Vine' from the "Habit (general appearance)" option.