Growing flowering vines on a stucco wall at full sun provides a gorgeous vertical backdrop to your garden and also a visual treat for your neighbors. Vines grow by twining about a support, or clinging using tendrils or aerial rootlets. Only vines that cling with rootlets successfully climb stucco walls using additional help, but they leave marks when removed and also make wall maintenance hard or impossible. Vines also decrease air flow to walls and increase moisture retention, which can cause damage. But sometimes the advantages outweigh the risks when it comes to covering your house walls in blossoms.
Trumpet Vines
Trumpet vines are competitive vines that climb stucco walls with ease. Named for their trumpet-shaped blossoms, these statues spread through underground limbs, called suckers, and also self-seed. Two varieties that are less invasive than some other are trumpet creeper (Campsis x tagliabuana), which grows in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 5 through 9, and also Chinese trumpet creeper “Morning Calm” (Campsis grandiflora “Morning Calm”), which grows in USDA zones 6 through 9. Trumpet creeper has orange-red to reddish summer blossoms and grows 15 to 25 feet tall and 6 to 12 feet wide. “Morning Calm” grows 20 to 25 feet high and 6 to 9 feet wide, and bears yellow-throated peach blooms in late summer.
Vining Hydrangeas
Vining hydrangeas cover stucco walls at delicate, pale flowers. Climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea anomala petiolaris) is shrubby till it becomes established, when it creates long, climbing stems. Hardy in USDA zones 5 through 9, climbing hydrangea creates 50- to 80-foot stems, and white, lace cap summer flowers. Japanese hydrangea vine (Schizophragma hydrangeoides) is far restrained, growing 15 to 30 feet tall. Bearing flattened, lace cap heads of fragrant, creamy summer flowers, Japanese hydrangea vine grows in USDA zones 6 through 9. This vine establishes slowly, taking around seven years to flower prolifically.
Cross Vines
Flowering best in full sun, cross vines cling to stucco walls using branched tendrils tipped with adhesive disks. Cross vine “Atrosanguinea” (Bignonia capreolata “Atrosanguinea”) features dark green leaves around 6 inches long and trumpet-shaped dark purplish-red spring blooms. Growing 15 to 30 feet tall and 6 to 9 feet wide, “Atrosanguinea” is attractive to hummingbirds. Cross vine “Tangerine Beauty” (Bignonia capreolata “Tangerine Beauty”) is known because of its tangerine spring flowers. This vine grows 20 to 30 feet tall and 6 to 9 feet wide. “Tangerine Beauty” and “Atrosanguinea” both develop in USDA zones 5 through 9.
Yellow-Flowered Vines
Yellow-flowered vines light up a stucco wall in sunlight. Yellow trumpet vine (Macfadyena unguis-cati) clings to some surface, and bears bright yellow, trumpet-shaped spring blooms. Also referred to as cat’s claw, this vine grows 20 to 25 feet long and is semi-evergreen. Gold Cape honeysuckle (Tecomaria capensis “Aurea”) features bright golden-yellow tubular spring flowers that hummingbirds love. Growing 12 to 15 feet tall and 5 to 7 feet wide, gold Cape honeysuckle is evergreen and responds well to pruning to control its size. Both yellow trumpet vine and gold Cape honeysuckle grow in USDA zones 9 through 11.