15 White Flowering Vines That Turn Plain Fences and Pergolas Into Cascades of Soft, Snow-Colored Blooms

White is the color that stops you in your tracks. It’s the brightest, purest shade in the garden — and when it appears on vines, something magical happens. Walls turn into waterfalls of star-shaped blooms. Arbors glow like they’re dusted in moonlight. Pergolas transform into curtains of soft, fragrant snow. Some vines look exotic, some feel wild and untamed, and others explode with such huge blossoms that they resemble drifting glaciers or billows of whipped cream.

And what I love is how white changes with the seasons. In spring it feels fresh and clean, like the garden just woke up. In summer, it cools everything down — it’s like a visual deep breath. In fall, it softens all the warm colors. And in winter? It blends right in, almost like a natural layer of snow.

It’s no wonder white-flowering vines are the crown jewels of moon gardens — they shimmer at dusk, glow under the stars, and pull the eye even in low light. We went looking for the best, and found stunning climbers in every possible shade of white: ivory, pearl, cream, and pure snow — one for every season, every style, every garden.

So here they are: 15 white queens of the climbing world — each one different, unforgettable, and breathtaking in its own way.

And we’re starting with a true rarity… an exotic passionflower that wears winter’s color better than winter itself.

1. ‘Snow Queen’ Passion Flower (Passiflora caerulea ‘Snow Queen’)

Let’s start with exotic royalty, ‘Snow Queen’ passion flower! Its large and pure white blooms will brighten up your garden with their unusual candid beauty all the way from the beginning of summer to late fall. Reaching 5 inches across (12.0 cm) and very showy, they are like white sweetly fragrant stars climbing and sparkling on your trellises, arbor or fence.

The petals open and then they reflex as the bloom matures, while a crown of filaments give you a bright effect of starlight rays! The reproductive organs, so decorative in this genus, form a pentagon of fleshy green anthers and they are set off geometrically and chromatically by stamens with purple dots! On the vine, you will also get lush, dark green palmate leaves that complete the ensemble giving you a perfect contrasting backdrop for the luminous floral display.

‘Snow Queen’ passion flower is a recent cultivar, winner of the Best New Climber Award at the National Plant Show in 2007. Perfect to drape walls and fences, but also pergolas and arbors in a variety of informal garden styles, from exotic through Mediterranean and city but even cottage.

• Hardiness: USDA zones 8 to 11.
• Light exposure: full Sun or partial shade.
• Flowering season: early spring to late fall.
• Size: 10 to 20 feet tall (3.0 to 6.0 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: well drained and loose, medium humid loam, clay, chalk or sand based soil with pH from mildly acidic to mildly alkaline. It is drought tolerant once established.

2. Climbing Hydrangea (Hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris)

Imagine white lace draping your walls, or growing over your fence… This is the effect you get with climbing hydrangea. And you will enjoy it from late spring to frost! The fragrant clusters of small blossoms look like clouds, they are quite open and they are about 8 inches across (20 cm).

But they also have a special, and interesting twist… the little blooms in the middle are very small, almost like snow flakes, and they are fertile. Look closely and you will see traces of pale greenish and yellowish hues. But all around them, like floating in the air, you get bigger, fully white blossoms. These are sterile, but they put in quite a show!

Scattered all over the mid green, deeply veined and pointed foliage that forms a dense backdrop, these sweetly smelling bouquets of lace like flowers look just perfect for a wedding day!

Climbing hydrangea is a natural species from Asia and winner of the Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society, quite cold hardy and suited for an airy, light and natural looking wall, pergola or fence. It is best for temperate style and traditionally inspired styles, like a cottage or English country garden, or a shady even woodland spot!

• Hardiness: USDA zones 4 to 9.
• Light exposure: full Sun, partial shade or full shade.
• Flowering season: late spring to late fall.
• Size: 30 to 40 feet tall (9.0 to 12 meters) and 5 to 6 feet in spread (1.5 to 1.8 meters); easy to prune back.
• Soil and water requirements: fertile and organically rich, well drained and medium humid loam, clay or sand based soil with pH from mildly acidic to neutral.

3. Moonflower (Ipomoea alba)

Guess why this vine is called “moonflower”? Well, to start with its pure white, very large blooms are silky and fully white, and up to 6 inches across (15 cm)! A very showy variety of Ipomoea from tropical America, it also has another theme with our satellite, or sister planet…

The buds stay closed all day long, but as soon as the Sun sets, they quickly unfurl, displaying a flat, sift looking pentagonal shape that looks like sails in the wind, and… It will also fill the air with its sweet and strong fragrance!

As morning comes, the blossoms close again, leaving you with the foliage. You will have this enchanting and dynamic spectacle from mid summer all the way to late fall. While during the day, you will still enjoy its dense, lush, heart shaped and mid green leafy foliage.

An exotic looking climber, moonflower will also suit non tropical or Mediterranean designs perfectly well, in fact, any informal garden would benefit from the presence of this vine on its pergolas or over fences and walls. It’s not cold hardy but it’s fast growing, so, in cooler regions, it is grown as an annual.

• Hardiness: USDA zones 9 to 12, it can be grown as an annual in colder regions.
• Light exposure: full Sun.
• Flowering season: mid summer to late fall.
• Size: 10 to 15 feet tall (3.0 to 4.5 meters) and 3 to 6 feet in spread (90 cm to 1.8 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: average fertile, well drained and evenly humid loam, clay, chalk or sand based soil with pH from mildly acidic to mildly alkaline.

4. White Japanese Wisteria (Wisteria floribunda ‘Alba’)

Here is an oriental queen of the snow and a really spectacular, even iconic flowering vine for your garden, ‘Alba’, or white Japanese wisteria. The long clusters of very fragrant white flowers that hang from the branches and wave in the wind are about 24 inches long (24 cm) and they come in huge numbers all the way from late spring to mid summer, creating a curtain of whiteness and purity that transforms any green space.

She will be a real protagonist with its impressive floral show, attracting butterflies and pollinators, while the bean like pods will last into the winter season. The dense but finely textured foliage, mid green and consisting of elegant pinnate leaves is no less attractive.

This variety has won the prestigious Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society, and you can admire it in the Japanese Bridge of Claude Monet’s historical Garden of Ginverny in France.

Fairly cold hardy, ‘Alba’ white Japanese wisteria will need a strong wall, arbor or pergola to sustain it, and it will suit absolutely any informal garden design, including oriental and exotic.

• Hardiness: USDA zones 5 to 9.
• Light exposure: full Sun or partial shade, south or west facing.
• Flowering season: late spring to mid summer.
• Size: 10 to 20 feet tall and in spread (3.0 to 6.0 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: fairly deep, moderately fertile, well drained and medium humid loam, clay, chalk or sand based soil with pH from mildly acidic to mildly alkaline. It is drought tolerant.

5. Fern Leaved Clematis (Clematis cirrhosa)

Here’s a climber with white blooms for your winter garden: fern leaved clematis, a close relative to the more common warm season varieties. And it has flowers that are naturally as candid as it gets: about 2 inches across (5.0 cm), they will start blossoming during the cold months, usually in December, and continue all the way till the end of March.

They are rounded and cup or saucer shaped, with broad, soft looking petals, with slightly dented edges. They will nod brightly and beautifully from the vines displaying their tuft of long white stamens in the middle.

If you want a little variation on the theme, Clematis cirrhosa var. balearica has tiny purple spots to draw your eye in. The evergreen foliage is quite glossy, deeply dented and of many shapes, from broad to pinnate and fern like… And it has strong green, from bright to deep, as well as copper and purple shades in it!

Fern leaved clematis is an exceptional climber for the generosity and timing of its blooms. It is by far the best choice if you want white blossoms on your pergola or fence in the middle of winter…

• Hardiness: USDA zones 7 to 11.
• Light exposure: full Sun.
• Flowering season: winter and early spring.
• Size: 10 to 13 feet tall (3.0 to 4.0 meters) and 4 to 5 feet in spread (1.2 to 1.5 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: average fertile, well drained and medium humid loam, chalk or sand based soil with pH from mildly acidic to mildly alkaline.

6. White Potato Vine (Solanum laxum ‘Alba’)

‘Alba’ is a cultivar of potato vine with very attractive white flowers. Opening in large and round clusters all the way from the start of summer to late fall, they have rhombic, or diamond shaped petals that are joint till their mid line. The overall shape is that of a start with a large center and five triangular rays…

You will notice the small golden yellow stamens in the middle, that form a little cylinder, and the longer stamen coming out from between them. But this is not all you get; they also have a sweet scent of jasmine!

What’s more, if you live in a warm climate, this climber may well bloom all year round! The shiny purple black round fruits that follow are very decorative too, but inedible. Being an evergreen variety, its small but glossy leaves will stay with you all through the year!

Winner of the Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society, ‘Alba’ white potato vine is an informal looking but showy vine for trellises, walls, fences etc. in gardens with a natural style, from temperate to exotic, coming from Brazil originally.

• Hardiness: USDA zones 10 to 11.
• Light exposure: full Sun.
• Flowering season: early summer to late fall, all year round in warm countries!
• Size: 25 to 30 feet tall (7.5 to 9.0 meters) and 5 to 6 feet in spread (1.5 to 1.8 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: average fertile, well drained and medium humid loam, clay, chalk or sand based soil with pH from mildly acidic to mildly alkaline.

7. ‘Rambling Rector’ Climbing Rose (Rosa ‘Rambling Rector’)

There are many varieties of climbing roses with flowers of our color, including natural species like Rosa multiflora, and evergreen rose (Rosa sempervirens), but ‘Rambling Rector’ gives you a snowy spectacle like few, if only in late spring and early summer.

This heirloom cultivar, in fact, explodes in a profusion of cupped, semi double blossoms that can literally cover a wall, cream white in color, and with a very strong musk fragrance! Its arching stems also produce a cascading effect of whiteness, like a fountain of snow, almost covering the whole foliage.

The leaves are pointed, like its thorns, and mid green in color. Then, of course, you will get the red hips that will add a touch of vibrancy and fiery warmth to your garden till late in the season. It is a winner of the Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society.

‘Rambling Rector’ is a large variety introduced in 1912 by Daisy Hill Nursery and it has been a classic white blooming climbing rose ever since. And in fact it gives you that wedding day effect in natural and traditional looking gardens, over pergolas, fences, trellises or walls.

• Hardiness: USDA zones 5 to 9.
• Light exposure: full Sun or partial shade.
• Flowering season: late spring and early summer.
• Size: 15 to 20 feet tall and in spread (4.5 to 6.0 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: fertile, organically rich, well drained and evenly humid loam, clay, chalk or sand based soil with pH from mildly acidic to mildly alkaline.

8. Asiatic Jasmine (Trachelospermum asiaticum)

My favorite variety of jasmine is not actually a real jasmine, but it is really fabulous! The fragrance of its white flowers can be smelt from a distance, and in summer it will look like it has snowed out of season! In warm climates, you can expect smaller but similar displays at other times of the year too (spring and fall).

Each head has 5 long narrow petals, like the blades of a propeller, and it is about 1 inch across (2.5 cm), but you will get so many that you will be blown away. A classic in Mediterranean gardens, worthy winner of the Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society, this variety has very glossy, elliptical and pointed leaves that will not drop in winter, as it is an evergreen.

Asiatic jasmine is often used to climb over whole walls, even to transform the façade of a building into a vertical garden, a prairie of green with an explosion of white flowers, but you fan equally use it to frame your gate, or to grace your pergola, or over an elegant looking pagoda. Or you could even have it as ground cover!

• Hardiness: USDA zones 8 to 10.
• Light exposure: full Sun or partial shade.
• Flowering season: summer, sometimes spring and fall too.
• Size: 13 to 30 feet tall and in spread (4.0 to 10 meters), about 6 inches (15 cm) tall as ground cover.
• Soil and water requirements: fertile, well drained and medium humid to dry loam, chalk or sand based soil with pH from mildly acidic to mildly alkaline. It is drought tolerant.

9. ‘Snow Queen’ Large Flowered Clematis (Clematis ‘Snow Queen’)

You can also have showy clematis flowers in white in spring, summer and fall, with the mind blowing cultivar ‘Snow Queen’. It belongs to the large flowered group of this popular climber, and with full merit: the blooms are 8 inches across (20 cm)! Yes, they are huge! 8 long and pointed petals give it an impressive star shape, with small but intriguing irregularities that add a dynamic touch to the floral display.

The stamens are purple, fine and delicate, and the blossoms opens with a slightly cupped shape, with faint, delicate undertones of pink or violet, but they will mature to a whiteness as pure as it gets! They will come in two waves, once in late spring, then again in summer, and stay on till later in the season. The leaves are green, quite elegant and attractive, and they will drop in the fall.

A show stopping white flowering climber, ‘Snow Queen’ large flowering clematis can be a real candid protagonist anywhere you grow it, but, given its impressively large blooms, maybe it’s best to have it in a focal position, like on your gazebo or pergola, where everybody can see it and gape…

• Hardiness: USDA zones 4 to 8.
• Light exposure: full Sun or partial shade.
• Flowering season: late spring to fall, in two waves.
• Size: 6 to 10 feet tall (1.8 to 3.0 meters) and 3.3 to 6 feet in spread (1.0 to 1.8 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: average fertile, well drained and evenly humid loam, clay, chalk or sand based soil with pH from neutral to mildly acidic.

10. Vanilla (Vanilla planifolia)

An orchid (yes!) a climber, a queen of the kitchen, and also a white beauty: vanilla! Vanilla flowers are lesser known than its fruits, but… With five long, waxy petals that form an open star, usually with a pale yellow line in the middle, just brushed on, they also have a long, tubular labellum, which opens in a trumpet shaped mouth, with a few dots of yellow too.

Sometimes they can take on green shades though, and they will start in early spring and continue a till June, usually. They are about 3 inches across (7.5 cm), and each head only lasts one day, but you will get them in quick succession.

If they get pollinated, you will also see the green pods developing, and they will ripen into dark brown, spicy vanilla pods. Areal roots will dangle from amid the fleshy broad and pointed, very glossy green leaves, like those you find on other orchid varieties.

You will need to live in a very warm country to have vanilla draping your arbor or over your garden fence, but if you are so lucky, and especially if you have an exotic and tropical garden, it is quite easy to grow!

• Hardiness: USDA zones 11 to 12.
• Light exposure: partial shade.
• Flowering season: early spring to early summer.
• Size: 8 to 10 feet tall (2.4 to 3.0 meters) and 4 to 6 feet in spread (1.2 to 1.8 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: grow it in a basket with bark based epiphyte growing medium, and keep it evenly humid but never wet and never dry.

11. ‘Jamaica White’ Bougainvillea (Bougainvillea spectabilis ‘Jamaica White’)

Do you want white blooms all year round? The best vine you can grow is ‘Jamaica White’ bougainvillea. Flowering repeatedly all through the year, you will have this candid color non-stop in your garden. And at times, the while vine turns like as white as a mountain glacier!

Yes, because it can blossom so profusely that you can’t see the leaves any more. The actual beauties are the three, regularly shaped bracts that surround the tiny, cream colored and tubular flower inside. Strong, vigorous and fairly fast growing, it will also offer you lush, evergreen and deep green foliage, heart shaped and very decorative indeed!

Bougainvillea is a classic of the Mediterranean region, usually coming in warm colors, but for a different, wintry and snow white effect, ‘Jamaica White’ is a spectacular cultivar you can grow to hide whole walls, or keep it in check on gates, pergolas, gazebos etc.

• Hardiness: USDA zones 10 to 11.
• Light exposure: full Sun.
• Flowering season: all year round, most conspicuously in summer and fall.
• Size: 13 to 26 feet tall (4.0 to 8.0 meters) and 8 to 13 feet in spread (2.4 to 4.0 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: well drained, lightly humid to dry loam or sand based soil with pH from mildly acidic to neutral. It is drought and salt tolerant.

12. White Honeysuckle (Lonicera albiflora)

A vine variety of honeysuckle with white blooms is Lonicera albiflora, a.k.a., white honeysuckle… While others are shrub, or candid beauty will climb up with its small but very elegant creamy blooms… These have the same, unusual shape of other species, with a broad backward curling petal at the top, and two thinner ones at the bottom that look like ribbons…

The long, extending snow colored stamens extend outwards, inviting insects and pollinators in to feed. The floral display will appear at the tips of the branches, scattered all over the plant in spring, then take a rest and come back fall..

They will take on butter shades as they mature, just before wilting. Orange red berries will take their place and they will instead attract birds to feed on them. The dense foliage backdrop has broadly oval, green grayish leaves with a very light fuzz on them.

White honeysuckle really suits a natural looking, even naturalized area; whether you want to drape your back fence, or to give a wall a “countryside” look, this variety is really good!

• Hardiness: USDA zones 7 to 10.
• Light exposure: full Sun or partial shade.
• Flowering season: spring and fall.
• Size: 3.3 to 10 feet tall (1.0 to 3.9 meters) and 3 to 8 feet in spread (90 cm to 2.4 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: average fertile, well drained and medium humid to dry loam, clay or sand based soil with pH from mildly acidic to mildly alkaline. It os drought tolerant.

13. ‘Dorothy Eckford’ Sweet Pea (Lathyrus odoratus ‘Sweet Pea’)

Enjoy masses of white blooms all through the season with a low maintenance, low commitment annual climber: ‘Dorothy Eckford’ sweet pea! Just sow the peas in late fall or early spring, and by late spring, you will have a real waterfall of lovely and highly scented snow white flowers, with the unusual, decorative shape of all the members of the Fabaceae flowers, with a top banner, side wings and that wedge shaped keel in the middle!

And they will keep your garden filled with pure light all through summer as well, and through fall. In fact, till frost! A large variety, each head is an impressive 2 inches across (5.0 cm) – quite a lot for this species. The fresh looking, bright green foliage that accompanies it concludes the brightly reinvigorating effect of this cultivar, and winner of the Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society. If you prefer a more elaborate effect, ‘White Frills’ with its frilly (of course) petals, is your best choice.

Just grow ‘Dorothy Eckford’ sweet pea in an informal garden, and it will easily cling to any light support, including a wires, nets, and of course gates and trellises, and you will have fragrant white blooms galore till the end of the season!

• Hardiness: USDA zones 2 to 11 (annual).
• Light exposure: full Sun or partial shade.
• Flowering season: late spring to frost.
• Size: 5 to 6 feet tall (1.5 to 1.8 meters) and 1 foot in spread (30 cm).
• Soil and water requirements: fertile, humus rich, well drained and evenly humid loam or sand based soil with pH from mildly acidic to mildly alkaline.

14. White Coral Vine (Antigonon leptopus ‘Alba’)

Meet ‘Alba’ the coral vine cultivar with white flowers! There are also natural varieties with our color, but this will guarantee the purity of the blooms. Like in pink or red varieties, they will come in dense trusses with their closed petals, forming little lanterns all through your summer months – if you live in a temperate region.

But if your garden is in a warm place, these white beauties, like pearls on strings, will keep coming all year round! This is a strong and fast growing exotic tuberous vine, and it is also evergreen in USDA zones 9 to 11. This way you will enjoy its arrow shaped, crinkly bright or even pale green leaves in winter as well. Each is about 4 inches long (10 cm), and they form a dense curtain where the floral display can spike out and catch your attention.

Particularly suitable to coat walls, white coral bells will grow fast enough to give you a large floral display on its first year, and in fact you can grow it in any natural looking garden even in cold regions, just treat it as an annual!

• Hardiness: USDA zones 8 to 11, you can grow it as an annual in zones 2 to 11.
• Light exposure: full Sun.
• Flowering season: summer, all year round in warm regions.
• Size: 8 to 10 feet tall in a single season (2.4 to 3.0 meters) as a perennial, it can reach 40 feet tall (12 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: average fertile, medium humid to dry loam, clay, chalk or sand based soil with pH from mildly acidic to mildly alkaline. It is drought tolerant.

15. Common Jasmine (Jasminium officinale)

The last snowy queen on our list is a worldwide classic: common jasmine! The buds are pinkish, long and with a capsule like end, and very decorative in themselves. Then, only the last part, the capsule actually opens, revealing 5 candid and pure white petals, that open like a star at the end of a tubular base.

Each is about 1 inch across (2.5 cm) and they come in small clusters of 3 to 5, and quite frequent on the branches of this world famous bushy climber…again and again… In fact, the floral display will start in late spring and only stop at the end of fall!

And of course, these sweet blossoms will fill your garden with the enchanting fragrance of this much loved plant from Asia! The foliage too is quite attractive; it is dense and finely textured, thanks to the semi evergreen pinnate and mid to dark glossy green leaves, divided into 7 or 9 leaflets.

Common jasmine will grace pergolas, fences, arbors, gazebos, walls with its snow white flowers and fragrant essence all through the season, but you can also use it as ground cover, let it hang from containers or even let it sprawl under shrubs like a scented flowering carpet!

• Hardiness: USDA zones 7 to 10.
• Light exposure: full Sun or partial shade.
• Flowering season: late spring to late fall.
• Size: 15 to 30 feet tall (4.5 to 9.0 meters) and 7 to 15 feet in spread (2.1 to 4.5 meters).
• Soil and water requirements: moderately fertile, well drained and medium humid loam, clay, chalk or sand based soil with pH from mildly acidic to mildly alkaline.

Enjoy the Freshness of Snow White Blooms on Vines in All the Seasons!

So, if you want white flowers, like snow flakes, with their bright and candid beauty blooming on your trellis, gate, pergola, wall or arbor, you need not worry about the season, because there is a climbing vine for all tastes, all garden styles and even all seasons!