Vine for pergola in S. Cal

[Paul Minotto]

I have an outdoor space connected to the house in souther California that receives sun in the late morning to the late afternoon.  I’d like to create shelter by planting a vine on suspended wires forming a pergola over the space which faces east.

 Can anyone suggest appropriate plants for this?

The vines would be planted on the roof, something like this:

Hanging-Garden.jpg

Another option would be to have the vines growing up wall and then over the space.

[Jamie Chen]

What sort of vine? Perennial or deciduous? Flowering okay, or just green leaves?

[Paul Minotto]

I’m open to anything really.   My main concern is that it would flourish and grow enough to filter out the sun.

[Jamie Chen]

I think you should speak with the client; vines with flowers or seasonal leaf drop necessarily create a mess that needs cleaning up. Would they be fine with this? Flowers are lovely, of course, so many people are fine with cleaning up after flowers. Or maybe they have pollen allergies, so no flowers are the way to go. 

Anyway, Bougainvillea are classic SoCal plants. ‘San Diego Red’ or ‘Barbara Karst’ are common choices for color. Purple flowers: Clytostoma callistegioides. Red trumpet flowers: Distictis buccinatoria. Fragrance: Lonicera japonica ‘Halliana’

[Paul Minotto]

Thanks Jamie.  

I’ll look into your suggestions.

[Rob Halpern]

Jamie makes excellent points.

I would add that vines can require a lot of maintenance to keep them looking good and prevent them from consuming the Universe. Are the clients prepared for that?

[Rob Halpern]

One more point: your illustration indicates a rather small planter for this vine of which much is expected. The limited soil will both limit the vine and ry out very quickly

[Paul Minotto]

Thanks Rob.  Maintenance is not a problem.  

I was worried about the moisture issue as well since the roots are on the roof.  

Maybe it’s best to have the vines in the ground and grow up the wall to the pergola, though i’d rather keep the walls bare.

If there is irrigation built into the planters that are integrated with the wall as pictured, would that solve the problem?

[Rob Halpern]

Well, they will require irrigation but they also must be large enough to allow sufficient root growth to support vines as large as you want.

[Paul Minotto]

ok thanks for your suggestions.

[Nathaniel]

I work for a So. Cal nursery and out most popular vines are Star Jasmine or Bower Vine.

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