The Hardiest Vines to Plant

Zones 2 and Higher

• Vines rated cold hardy to USDA zone 2 tolerate winter lows falling between minus 40 and minus 50 degrees F. These vines survive as far north as Alaska's Prudhoe Bay. Clematis tangutica "Radar Love" growing up to 15 feet high adorns summer gardens with bell-like, yellow flowers. They glow against its dark-green leaves. Feathery, white seedpods follow the blooms. Humulus lupulus "Aurea", a 10- to 20-foot cultivar of the H. lupulus vine with aromatic, beer-flavoring hops, quickly covers its supports with golden-yellow foliage. Its conical clusters of green flowers appear in mid- and late summer. This deciduous pair accepts frigid or mild winter temperatures in Zones 2 through 9.

Zone 3 and Higher

• USDA Zone 3 vines face winters in International Falls, Minnesota, without flinching. Hardy kiwi (Actinidia arguta) emerges from minus 40-degree temperatures to climb from 25 to 30 feet in a single season. Its inconspicuous, mildly scented, white, spring flowers take a back seat to the vine's glossy, deep-green leaves and fall clusters of edible, grape-sized green fruits. Woodbine (Clematis virginiana) grows on pond and stream margins and in moist woods across many of the Eastern states. The 12- to 20-foot vine climbs quickly with tendriled leaf stalks. Its compound, bright-green leaves contain from three to five elliptical, sharply tapering leaflets. This late-blooming clematis illuminates summer-to-midautumn gardens with dense clusters of fragrant, narrow-petaled white blooms. These two vines grow from zones 3 to 8.

Zone 4 and Higher

• Choices for gardeners in Minneapolis-St. Paul and other USDA zone 4 areas with lows plunging to minus 30 degrees include chocolate and porcelain vines. Chocolate (Akebia quinata) vine's three seasons of garden performance begin with deep-green, compound spring-to-fall foliage and cascading clusters of brownish-purple, early spring blooms. University of California - Davis Master Gardener Dorothy Downing describes the flowers' aroma as a, "spicy chocolate-vanilla scent." The 20- to 40-foot Asian native's violet seedpods burst open revealing edible, black-seeded, white pulp. Porcelain (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata) vine with masses of green, grapevine foliage, peaks in fall. The 15- to 20-foot climber's modest, green summer flowers yield to dangling bunches of small, round berries. The fruit emerges with a soft, lilac-blue shade. It becomes progressively showier while maturing to deeper purple and finally to bright porcelain blue. Chocolate and porcelain vines grow to zone 8.

Zone 5 and Higher

• Gardeners across much of the U.S. Heartland experience USDA zone 5's minus 20-degree winter lows. Des Moines; Columbia, Missouri; and Springfield, Illinois all lie within zone 5. Vines for the region include Missouri Botanical Garden Plant of Merit Dutchman's pipe (Aristolochia tomentosa) and hummingbird favorite crossvine (Bignonia capreolata). A dense covering of heart-shaped green leaves nearly obscures Dutchman's pipe's flaring, curving, greenish-yellow spring blooms The pipe vine swallowtail butterfly visits the plant to lay its eggs. Dutchman's pipe grows to zone 8. Spring-flowering crossvine clambers as much as 50 feet up nearby trees. It entices hummingbirds with fragrant, 2-inch, orange-red trumpet flowers against compound, deep-green leaves. The vine clings with sticky-tipped tendrils emerging from its pairs of oblong leaflets. In Zone 5, the autumn foliage is reddish-purple. Crossvine tolerates winters to zone 9.