June 3, 2025
Vines and Plants for Pergolas and Arbors
Covering a pergola or trellis with plants is a decorative way to embellish your outdoor living space with greenery, color and even fragrance. With a pergola, the plants will protect you from the harsh rays of the sun – in time – as well as camouflage any nearby neighbor’s view! While it’s hard to choose from among the plants that grow quickly and thrive in Colorado’s climate, here are a few climbing options for our Zone 5 summers and winters.
Climbing Vines Suited for Colorado
1. Passion Flower (Passiflora incarnata)
Showy, purple flowers get hummingbirds to hang out in your garden, busily sampling the bloom-covered vines. The lobed, deep green leaves provide a backdrop that makes the flowers pop.
Size: To 25 feet long
Zone: 5a
How: Plant in a protected site, mulching thickly to protect the roots while the top dies down to the ground during the winter. Passion Flower spreads via roots, so if you’d like to contain it, plant in a large container and move it into the garage for the winter.
2. Five-leafed Akebia (Akebia quinata)
Delicate leaves in five-leaflets make this an unusual vine for jazzing up your landscape. The tender flowers hang in pendulous clumps of wafting, satisfying scent.
Size: 20 feet long or more
Zone: 5a
How: Pop this climber in full sun to light shade; it will clamber up a tree, so periodically loosen it to ensure that it doesn’t gnarl the branches.
3. Honeysuckle (Lonicera species)
Honeysuckle is a favorite of many folks, since they’re showy all summer and attract hummingbirds. The fragrance of honeysuckle is irresistible, too. Look for the Blanche Sandman variety, a jaw-dropper with pink-orange blossoms on golden throats.
Size: 20 feet
Zone: 5a
How: Full sun, even moisture and something to climb are all that it takes to grow Blanche Sandman. Once established, keep it neatly trimmed by an occasional light pruning after the danger of hard frost (mid-May) has passed.
4. Wisteria (Wisteria)
Classic, elegant wisteria (Wisteria species) drapes deep purple flowers on a woody, long-lived vine. Perfumed and showy, wisteria needs permanent support, such as a sturdy arbor or doorway arch.
Size: 30 feet
Zone: 5
How to grow: Because the flower buds swell early, put wisteria in a protected location to keep late frosts from nipping blossoms. Once established, prune them twice a year: lightly in midsummer to remove wispy growth and a hard pruning back to two buds per branch in winter. And don’t let them dry out.
5. Silver Lace Vine (Polygonum aubertii)
If you have a large area that needs screening quickly, try this rampant, sweet- smelling vine. The sprays of white blossoms that coat the plant from summer to fall reach to six inches long.
Size: 20 to 30 feet
Zone: 5
How to Grow: Silver lace vine is easy to care for, as these adaptable plants require very little oversight once established and are not picky about the soil in which they’re grown. However, this vine can quickly become invasive unless growth is contained on a self-standing arbor, trellis or fence.
Give this plant a sturdy support in a carefully chosen area, as it can easily swallow small arbors or trellises.
6. Clematis (Ranunculaceae)
The Clematis, especially the deep purple variety, is a flowering vine that wins a lot of popularity contests. And while there are different varieties of clematis, the experts at Tagawa Gardens in Parker favor two bright blue and purple favorites, the Jackman and the Polish Spirit. Both have bright-colored purple (one royal, one redder and richer) flowers and are nearly indestructible. And if you’ve never grown a clematis before, this would be a great variety to start with!
Size: 10 feet tall and 24 inches wide
Zone: 5
How to Grow: Keep the roots cool by mulching them well. These clematis should be watered to a depth of three inches each week, but make sure the top two inches are dry before watering it again. In extreme heat, it may need to be watered twice a week. Again, when it rains, stop watering. They need full or partial sun to survive and thrive.
Training vines to climb takes very little effort but is sometimes necessary for climbers that need a little nudge. Get Busy Gardening has tips you can follow to train your plants using nails, string, twist ties and plant clips.
Grape Vines in Colorado
Grapes are a yummy summer fruit and if you plant grape vines, you can even use the leaves as wrappers and stuff them for Dolmas! But one caution before you plant your favorite vintage, grape vines can grow up to 115 long. And if you want your vines to produce grapes, pruning is mandatory. For the first couple years, a grape vine will need about an inch of water a week, depending on rain. But older vines rarely need to be watered. They also do best with a full day of sun to produce maximum fruit.
Before planting grapes, figure out just what you want to do with them. Are you a home chef who’d like to make jam? Wine? Or just have them ripen for the family to eat fresh off the vine? Different grapes are grown for different reasons.
Zone 5 grape varieties include Concord, Fredonia, Gewurztraminer, Niagara, and Catawba. There are many others suited to zone 5, but these are some of the most popular.
Concord grape is associated with grape jelly and juice and is also good eaten fresh. Fredonia is a hardier version of Concord and ripens earlier. Gewürztraminer makes a lovely rich, full-bodied wine and is one of the hardiest of the commercial white wine grapes. Niagara is very popular and noted for its delicious green table grapes. And Catawba is a very sweet red grape that is used to make sweet or sparkling wines.
Fast Flowering Beauty in Parker!
It’s time to get growing in the master-planned community of Looking Glass! This new home community in Parker offers family-friendly recreational options, nearby entertainment an shopping, exciting amenities and beautiful models from D.R. Horton, Taylor Morrison, Dream Finders and coming soon, Richmond American Homes. It’s still a good time to buy a home priced from the $600s – with lots of builder incentives and choices.