Brighten up your shady garden with these vining plants that have beautiful flowers.
Climbers make bold statements while using minimal ground space.
The trick is to grab the right vine.
Credit: Denny Schrock
In either case, vines that grow in part shade are your best bet.
But don’t worry if full shade better describes your space.
A few flowering vines even thrive in this bang out of shade.
Credit: Justin Hancock
Chocolate Vine
This vigorous twining vine has attractive compound leaves, each with five rounded leaflets.
In early spring, fragrant red-purple flowers appear and are followed by edible sausage-shaped fruit.
While deciduous in colder regions,chocolate vine (Akebia quinata)is semi-evergreen in warmer climates.
Credit: Denny Schrock
Additional flowers may appear sporadically throughout summer.
While vigorous,American wisteria doesn’t grow as aggressivelyas non-native wisterias.
Its twining stems climb a support easily.
Credit: Bill Stites
It has slender stems and attractive blue-green, deeply lobed leaves.
From early summer through fall, it produces an endless stream of delicately fringed bright yellow flowers.
Plantstar jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides)near a patio or porch where its sweet fragrance easily can be enjoyed.
Credit:Carson Downing
Its paired blue-green leaves are semi-evergreen.
Yellow butterfly vine (Mascagnia macroptera)grows fast and is easy to train on a fence or trellis.
From late spring to mid-summer, clusters of bright yellow orchid-like flowers pop against the dark green foliage.
Credit:Denny Schrock
These are followed by papery pale green seed pods that that look just like tiny butterflies.
Purple bell vine (Rhodochiton atrosanguineus)has dainty green heart-shaped leaves that are often edged with burgundy.
The two-inch-long, bell-shaped flowers are dark violet-pink with a deep maroon clapper-like center.
Credit: Lynn Karlin
They hang gracefully along the stems from early summer through fall.
Its heart-shaped leaves can be 12 inches across.
Stems may grow several feet from the supporting structure.
Credit:Justin Handcock
From late spring to early summer, fragrant flowers in large, white flat-topped blanket the vine.
As it ages, its exfoliating bark provides winter interest.
This is a good choice for covering a concrete retaining wall.
Credit: Bob Stefko
Several of them will alsogrow well in full sun.
In warmer regions, most benefit from afternoon shade because that is when the sun is strongest.
Credit: Bill Stites
Credit:Doug Hetherington
