Vines That Grow in Full Sun

Honeysuckle vines flourish in full sun, generating flowers that attarct hummingbirds.

Look out your window into that sunny expanse where your fence or stone wall sits. Now imagine it has a gorgeous, lengthy vine complete with lush foliage and pretty flowers draped all over it, growing with abandon. This is a distinct possibility if you landscape with the vines that thrive in a full sun setting where they receive as much as six hours of sunlight during the course of the average day.

Types

The trumpet honeysuckle is a flowering vine for full sun, coming in cultivars including Blanche Sandman and Alabama Crimson. The bougainvillea vines are a group of 14 sun-loving species hailing from South America. Alba and Prolific are Chinese wisteria species that are close relations to the Japanese and American wisteria vines; all do very well in full sun. Moonflower, jicama, purple wreath, American bittersweet, glory flower, cup and saucer vine, Carolina yellow jasmine and ornamental yam are full sun vines as well.

Geography

Full sun or not, some vines are not suitable species for cold weather regions while others have few problems growing in the cooler of the U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones. An option for USDA zone 3 is the Kentucky wisteria cultivar called Blue Moon, while American bittersweet is a native full sun vine for this zone. Zone 4 candidates include trumpet honeysuckle; the wisterias establish themselves well in areas as chilled as zone 5. Only hot climates support purple wreath, cypress vine, moonflower and ornamental yam.

Features

Colorful berries are a valued ornamental feature of vines such as trumpet honeysuckle and American bittersweet. Attractive and often fragrant flowers are highlights of many of these vines, including the wisterias, honeysuckles, bougainvilleas and coral vine. While some of the vines will grow in partial shade, they produce more flowers when in full sun; bittersweet is an example of this. Rich, green foliage that covers a structure or grows thick enough to serve as ground cover is an important part of vines. Carolina yellow jasmine's is evergreen, turning shades of yellow or purple in cold winters.

Uses

Some of the smaller full sun vines, such as purple wreath, work as container plants and are suitable for use on porches, trellises and fences. Hanging from pergolas and arbors are possible uses for the wisterias, but the Japanese and Chinese varieties require a stout structure to develop on since they have great bulk when mature. The longer vines like bittersweet, growing to lengths of around 20 feet, are versatile in that you can train them onto different structures, including fences, walls and posts, or use them on the ground to disguise unseemly rock piles or stumps.

References

• Missouri Botanical Garden: Bougainvillea Group
• Missouri Botanical Garden: Wisteria Macrostachya Blue Moon
• Missouri Botanical Garden: Celastrus Scandens
• Missouri Botanical Garden: Gelsemium Sempervirens
• University of Connecticut Plant Database: Lonicera Sempervirens
• Missouri Botanical Garden: Petrea Volubilis