Choosing Vines for Arbors, Trellises and Gazebos in the Northern United States

One of the great pleasures of home ownership is being able to do some beautiful outdoor landscaping. Creative landscaping not only adds beauty but also increases the value of your property. Simply by adding a few trellises, arbors or even a gazebo, you can add much beauty to your home by planting some vines to enhance this architectural addition to your outdoor landscape. Depending upon the architectural style of your home and your own personal taste, there are a wide variety of plants that can add so much curb appeal to your front yard and a peaceful, relaxing atmosphere to your backyard. With more and more people deciding to remain close to home instead of driving long distances for a peaceful, romantic vacation spot, many are opting to create their own peaceful havens in the confines of their backyard. Before you buy any plants and vines to accent your arbors, trellises and gazebos, you will want to determine your hardiness zone. A hardiness zone will tell you what your average high and low temperatures are in your area so you can choose the plants, based on the hardiness zone charts that are found in most flower and garden catalogs. You can type in your zip code and find your hardiness zone:

Type In Your Zip Code Here
You can also view a hardiness zone map HERE.

Once you have determined your hardiness zone you can look through all those beautiful mail order catalogs that come to your home and choose plants that are appropriate for your area. By choosing appropriate plants for your zone, you will not be likely to lose those plants to a killer frost in your area.

For those of you who live in colder climates such as zones 2, 3 or 4, here are a few excellent vines for use on those trellises, arbors and gazebos. You will find Virginia Creeper to be a hardy climbing specimen to add grace and beauty to your gazebo and arbors. These vines produce a dense covering in the summertime and turn into some very spectacular colors in the fall of the year. Englemann Ivy will produce a beautiful effect for you in zone 3, and Boston Ivy would be a grand addition to your arbors and trellises in zone 4.

You can also choose from grape vines, climbing honeysuckle, hydrangea and trumpet vine, depending on your hardiness zone.

You will need to be careful about planting trumpet vine, however. It tends to be a very aggressive climber. I planted some on a trellis on the south side of my home in Indiana and before the end of summer, I was on a step ladder trimming this vine back to keep it from going up to the roof! It is truly a spectacular vine with its bright orange trumpet shaped flowers and the hummingbirds love it as well.

The showy Clematis Vine is always a very good choice for most hardiness zones. These vines are sure to attract a lot of attention and provide you with many compliments as they grow, bloom and grace your arbors, trellises and gazebos. They are always a welcome addition to any landscape. You can choose from the many colors and varieties of the Clematis Vine and choose which plants are appropriate for your hardiness zone HERE.

You will find clematis vines in colors from white, blue, pink, purple, mauve and more. The clematis vine is not as aggressive as the trumpet vine and you are guaranteed to get a lot of compliments about this flowery show-off vine!

These are just a few of the choices you have to help accent your arbors, trellises and gazebos. You can truly create a backyard paradise that will cause you to want to stay home instead of traveling to distant locations to enjoy the beauty of nature.

Sources:
http://www.northscaping.com/InfoZone/IS-0137/IS-0137.shtml
http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html?
http://www.homeofclematis.net/variety.htm