The best vine to choke it all?

[Zane]

I have given up the fight with the hackberrys beteween my neighbors fence and mine. They win! They can grow. That being the case, what is the best vine to just cover the fence and the hackberrys too? I do want it to be an evergreen.

[Kathe Kitchens]

Try crossvine. It's evergreen and has pretty flowers. Pretty darned hardy, too.

[senegaltictac]

Trumpet vine is good too. Crossvine or trumpet will grow and cover everything in reach or sight.

[Kathe Kitchens]

Agreed trumpet vine is good too but it isn't evergreen and it's aggressive and spreads, much more so than crossvine in my experience.

[SteveGr]

Sorry I don't have an answer for you.

I do have this advice for you though, stay away from the trumpet vine unless you want it taking over your entire yard. I had some spring up in the yard at an old house & it eventually was in every flowerbed & every corner of the yard.

[senegaltictac]

This very true about trumpet vine. You can tell where many old homesites were throughout the south because the trumpet vine and old variety day lilies are still there even though the house has been gone for 40 years.

[Enzyme11]

If memory serves, the Dirt Doctor likes or once liked a combination of crossvine, Carolina Jessamine, and clematis (I could be wrong on the clematis or maybe there's a particular variety of it that works best) to give a maximum time for flower bloom, if you want flowers with your vines. Maybe he'll chime in on this topic; this three-vine suggestion should be in one or more of his books if you have access to them. This particular three-vine combination should work well for you in N. Texas, but I wouldn't guarantee that it would work for the forum members in Winnipeg.

[Zane]

I really like the idea of a three vine combination. I don't care for trumpet vine anyway. What do you think about pink honeysuckle in combination with crossvine and caronlina j?

[Enzyme11]

Here's the link to one of the Dirt Doctor's published pieces on vines:

http://www.dirtdoctor.com/radio.php?id=330

From that, the three-vine combination I referenced is crossvine (evergreen; spring bloom), Carolina Jessamine (early spring bloom), and sweet autumn clematis (late summer bloom). It seems that native coral honeysuckle could fit in there also, and hyacinth bean with those great purple and green colors is great if you don't mind that it's an annual. I can't say whether hyacinth vine would reseed itself under proper conditions because I've grown it only in places where reseeding would have been difficult. Maybe blackberry (thornless, if you don't want the thorns) would work, but I think bb tends to be invasive. As to what these vines would do to the hackberry trees, that's another story.

[Kathe Kitchens]

Oh yes, hyacinth will reseed itself very well. There's also a white variety if you'd like to add that in. Sprinkling in some white will really bring out the color of the other vines' flowers. Sounds like you're going to have some beautiful vines in your yard...hopefully they will just cover the hackberry trees and give you a beautiful bunch of blooms all growing season, taking turns entertaining you!