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Saturday - May 14, 2011

From: Georgetown, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Shade Tolerant
Title: Shaded Trellis Plants for Georgetown TX
Answered by: Brigid & Larry Larson

QUESTION:

What native plants work well on a trellis that will be placed in an area that remains shaded most of the day?

ANSWER:

We have a few good candidates for you. We did a search on the Recommended Species for Central Texas and then narrowed the search looking for vines that tolerate shade well. It does depend a bit on just how shady your site is. Full shade is considered less that 2 hours sun a day and partial shade 2-6 hours of sun a day.

When I choose full shade, the search gave me two familiar species, the Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper) and the Parthenocissus heptaphylla (Sevenleaf creeper). These will climb your trellis and tolerate shade well. Be aware that the Virginia Creeper is a bit on the agressive side, but then check out it's lovely fall color in the picture below. Of course, you can follow the same search process if you’d like a herb or some other appearance.

Parthenocissus quinquefolia Parthenocissus quinquefolia Parthenocissus heptaphylla

When I instead selected partial shade, then there were eight candidates. We've had Lonicera sempervirens (Coral honeysuckle) on our trellis and enjoy them. There were also a few species of Clematis. Good choices would be Clematis pitcheri (Purple clematis) or Clematis texensis (Scarlet clematis).