Climbing plant recommendations please

Hello,

One thing I would like to do this year is start greening my alleyway. We live in Vancouver, BC. I thought I would start with a couple of pots of climbing plants on the south facing side of my garage. This faces onto the alley and has the large garage door, and I'd like to train the plants up the side of the garage and over the top of the garage door. I'm looking for recommendations for something that ideally fits all the following criteria:
* fast growing
* full sun/somewhat drought tolerant
* evergreen (could compromise on this)
* hardy perennial
* big impact (interesting, unusual foliage or flowers - lots of green/biomass quickly)

I'm considering hops for their interesting foliage and what I perceive to be weed like growth/hardiness, but I'd love to hear other options.

Also interested to hear about / see photos of trellising options. Because this are will face our alley we don't want to start with an expensive investment into a trellising system.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions!

 

Hops arn't evergreen.
If deciduous is acceptable, then, as an utilitarian, I'd suggested hardy kiwis, kiwi berries, grapes, magnolia vines or passion fruits.
If you prefer beauty of flowers, then climbing hydrangeas, clematises, rambling roses, wisterias, bugenvilleas or honeysuckles.

 

You may also want to consider Akebia quinata aka the Chocolate vine.

These plants are extremely fast growing, aggressive climbers - so much so that they have been known to smoother and kill shrubs and small trees that they get into. But placing them in pots would help control their tendency to spread horizontally. They are listed as semi-evergreen depending upon how harsh the winters are but you said you could compromise on this. This plant will handle temperatures down to about zone 5a or -29 °C. They will also grow in either sun or shade.
The impact you are looking for will be in the form of the abundant small, lightly chocolate-scent flowers (hence the name). If you can get a grouping of different varieties I can almost guarantee you will then be rewarded with edible fruit in September: up to 10cm long, these squat purple things will create that impact. Oh, and the fruits are edible.

https://bambooplants.ca/product/chocolate-vine-five-leaf-akebia-quinata/

Some of my plants are growing up a metal pipe (part of an old tunnel greenhouse) that has been loosely wrapped with chicken wire - they will climb anything.

This plant can be found at most larger, local garden centers such as Gardenworks, Triple Tree or Phoenix Perennials

 

Evergreen honeysuckle would certainly fit the bill. It is reliably evergreen and hardy in Vancouver, has sturdy and attractive reddish brown stems, grows quickly and has attractive leaves. pretty (non fragrant) flowers followed by blue/black berries. Ours has never shown any sign of insect pests or disease. We have it growing just as you describe, up beside our garage door and then along above it, though some is also resting on top of the roof. Ours is paired with a fragrant deciduous honeysuckle, but the evergreen one is so much more vigorous that it is a constant battle to keep it from taking over.
See the website here for more photos and info.

They are a twining climber whose stems twist around things rather than holding on by small tendrils, so supporting them is quite simple. A sturdy post or a couple of thick bamboo 8-10' bamboo canes tied together would be enough to get it started vining upwards to the roof for the first year or two. But within a couple of years you'd need to add a sturdy permanent support for the part growing horizontally above the garage door. Ours has posts in front of the garage on either side connected a joist run horizontally along the front, but joists front & back with periodic cross members of 2x2 or 2x4 would have been better. The vines up there are mainly lying horizontally and twining around each other (don't try to wind them around your wood frame). Like wisteria, once it is old enough the honeysuckle stems will help to provide support for the plant.

My main concern is that you are talking about growing a large, vigorous vine in a pot. A fast growing large plant in full sun needs a lot of root mass to provide nutrients and water to all those leaves. Also the roots need to be kept cool, which the most affordable (large black plastic) pots will not do if they are sitting in the sun. You would need the equivalent of a half barrel to support the kind of growth you are looking for. The area in front of my garage door is all paved so the vines were planted in an in-ground bed just around the corner and trained over to the post in front of the garage. We have also made some cheap supports for our clematis plants.

We live in SE Vancouver; so feel free to private message me if you want to come over and take a look.

 

The tempting « fast growing » is in my experience not a good idea

please NO IVY

maybe a couple of pots of the more upright boxwood (buxus)

curly willow in a very solid pot?

 

That looks really nice

 

I love the spring flowering evergreen clematis (Clematis armandii) for ticking all the boxes you list. Much tidier than the honeysuckle as well. There is a white version (my fave) and a pink.
https://landscapeplants.oregonstate.edu/plants/clematis-armandii

 

We are planning to get that evergreen clematis for the north side of the garage, but I don't think it would do well on the full sun south side of the garage facing the alley. I got a chocolate vine and it is growing vigorously, so we'll see how that works out. Appreciate all the recommendations everyone!

 

clematis are generally « feet in the shade … head in the sun »

Rather like Rhodo plants here at coast

 

The problem with "feet in the shade" is getting the plant started. I have failed numerous times to establish a C. armandii in a side yard that gets shade most of the day at the level of the soil. But I have seen many grown in full sunlight. Remember, C. armandii is a clematis of a different sort, evergreen and tough!