Millettia taiwanensis help

I just bought this plant. My husband just built my pergola and at first I was going to go with confederate jasmine to cover the top. Then I saw this and loved the color. It is like an electric purple. The guy at the nursery said it would not get invasive like a trumpet vine but it would need to be trimmed back as it would get bushy. Now, although I love it, I am wondering if I made the right choice. I want something that will not get so thick that it will totally engulf the pergola. I also want something pretty and fragrant but not crazily invasive. (I do not care for pastel colors and pinks or blues. Love reds, oranges, purples and yellows.) Will the blooms on this droop down like on regular wisteria? It says it is more of a bush so will I be able to get it to go up the pergola? Do I have to tie it up for support? How can this plant be propagated? I think I may want another if I like it.

My biggest concern for you is that I'm not sure if it's hardy enough in your zone--Plant Files lists it as only hardy to zone 9. I've read elsewhere that it's hardy to zone 8 and root hardy in zone 7. If that's true, the plant should survive your winters but in many years it will die back significantly which may not be quite what you want in a vine that's going to cover your pergola. Hopefully someone who lives closer to you will chime in with some personal experience.

To answer some of your other questions--it will go up a pergola, but you'll have to help it a bit, it is not quite as "viney" as some other vines, but you can definitely train it up something, might just have to spend a little extra time pruning out parts that want to go out and be bushy instead of climbing up. The blooms don't droop quite like real wisteria, but they're still really pretty.

Oops--just noticed that you said taiwanensis not reticulata. The good news is taiwanensis is hardier, but the bad news is it does tend to be more shrubby. So I'm not sure anymore about training it up the pergola, it may work but you'd probably have an easier time if you bought a real vine. Sorry about the mixup!

Ecrane3, thanks for your help. Everywhere I look, they say with the taiwanensis, 7 is good. I am 7b but most people really consider us an 8a. I grow some stuff here that is pushing it even for 8a and it seems to do fine so I think the taiwanesis may too. It says it will stay evergreen or at least semi evergreen. I am not really worried about that though because the only time we are really even out there is in the nice months. However, more than anything, I guess I asked the question to get others opinions of how it will do, if it will look stupid on a pergola and to get someone else's experience with it. I was a little afraid and hoping I hadn't bought myself a major problem. I hear so many nightmares here about really bad plants that go crazy and don't stay put or attract major pests. That and some websites and books say it is a somewhat rare plant to find. I guess I instantly thought 'kudzu' or something.

Yes, taiwanensis is hardy to zone 7. I was reading quickly and assumed you were talking about Millettia reticulata which is more common and is more of a vine than taiwanensis, it is less hardy and you might have problems with it. But the taiwanensis should be fine, the problem I see is that it probably isn't "viney" enough to do a good job covering the pergola. It's definitely not something that's going to go out of control and be invasive, it should be well behaved, I'm just not sure it's the right plant to cover the pergola with because it's going to tend to be a bit more on the shrubby side. No reason you can't try planting it next to the pergola and see what you can get it to do, but you may end up deciding you need a vine too in order to get the look you want.

okay, call me stupid or weird or whatever, but here is the deal. I am a mosquito magnet. I noticed many years back that I will get bit when no one else does and that anywhere where there were a lot of trees and shrubs, bugs tended to be more prevalent. So in buying our first house, I found the one I loved and chose it on the lot in a new subdivision that didn't have any trees or shrubs. Now of course with heat here that will literally melt your dashboard, I find myself trying to fix my stupid mistake. So I do want something that will cover the pergola but yet sparingly. I do not want it to overwhelm it. I love the sun and I still want it to come thru kind of filtered. And of course, I am the obsessive Martha Stewart type, so it can't be too shabby looking. I guess I want the patio in the magazines. So then I had to go out and get some gorgeous lights to string up all around it too. By the time I am done and with all my perfectionists efforts, it will either look really great or like something from sanford & son.

My concern with the M. taiwanensis is that it won't grow tall enough to go over the top of the pergola. Since it's going to tend to be somewhat on the shrubby side, you may be able to get it to cover part of the sides of the pergola if you tie it up, but since it doesn't put out the long twiny branches like vines do, I'm not sure that it'll ever get branches long enough to go over the top. That's why I think you may want something else. Trachelospermum jasminoides which you were originally considering is pretty, but it can be a pretty dense vine so it may provide more coverage than you want, although if you prune it you could probably keep it a little looser. If you don't care whether it's evergreen or not, you might consider some Clematis, that way you can get the deep purple color you like but the vine will do a better job covering the pergola than the Millettia would. You'll have to plant some shrubs around the outside of the pergola though to provide some shade for the Clematis roots.

Well, lets see I guess. I don't know either because I am fairly new to gardening. I bought my house about a year ago and before that I never lived anywhere where I really could garden. Hopefully it will get up there. Yesterday, I finally planted it and started to tie it up. When I took the stakes out of the pot, I noticed there were 2 roots in there so I was able to split the plant. It was a really big one. I never get pot sizes right but it was the big pot you could fit a gallon milk jug into. Anyway, as I unravelled the tangled mess, I found several really long sections that if you held them straight up, they reached right to the top of the posts/pergola. All they had to do was grow another 6-12 inches and they would be over the top. The pergola is 8 ft. high and 10 by 12 ft. square. Maybe if it works and does get up there, I will put in some pictures. I don't think Dave's had any pics of the taiwanensis so it would help.
Oh and when I looked at information on the thing, it did say is was kind of a shrub or vine. I don't see how anyone could use it for a shrub. When I took the stakes out the whole thing flopped to the ground.

Hi, ga_peach. This is my first time on this forum, and I am mainly a rose lover, so if you are not, my feelings won't be hurt if you ignore this.
My husband built a pergola for me, too. It is dripping with a romantic rambler rose. If I had another pergola, I would plant these - (1) an orange/apricot rambler, certain to make its way all the way up the structure http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/pl.php?n=6109&tab=10 AND
(2) a charming sky blue clematis to vine up the rose stems http://www.clematis.com/html-docs/varieties/Ramona/ramona.html, all
with (3) your pretty electric-purple shrub at the base of the plants, one of each plant on either side.

Ecrane is right...that species will not climb your pergola. If you want it to, you need to find the reticulata.
The reticulata would be great for what you want. It is no where near as aggressive as a wisteria. It is only called wisteria, because the blooms kinda look like wisteria, but is not an actual wisteria species.

Mine is very well behaved, and very seldom needs trimming.

If you like yellow, Carolina jessamine is nice, and might even be evergreen for you. They are not overly aggressive, and are usually considered a managable vine, but for comparison, they are still more aggressive than the reticulata...

Based on your description, I wonder if the nursery had the plant labelled right--if it really is that viney I think you might have the reticulata instead. I've had both and taiwanensis was definitely shrubbier and I can't picture it going up over a pergola. M. reticulata is also much more commonly available so it wouldn't surprise me if that was it instead.

I just walked outside and took a picture of my Millettia... something or other. I thought it was taiwanensis, but based on the above I'm now guessing it's reticulata. The trellis is 7 ft. tall. It is a bit viney, but not invasive. It has beautiful deep purple flowers with a gorgeous fragrance. It dies right back to the ground. Whatever it is, I love it!

I tried to do a shrub rose in the garden. I do like roses but I don't seem to have much luck with them, don't like the maintenance with them and hate the thorns. I think I will have to just love everyone else's cause I am a rose dummy.

And for the millettia, I guess I will just have to wait and see which it is and what it does. I just know that so far some of the branches or whatever are about 8 ft. long. At the base, it does look sort of shrubby in that the branches are hard and thick but then they thin out as you go down the length and they become more flexible like a vine. I really like the color and think I would still be happy with it even if it died down and came back. I think even if it didn't work for the pergola, maybe I could put it on my trellis. (my hubby who gets very excited at the idea of a reason to use tools built me a 9 ft. trellis.) I am kind of rethinking it for the pergola though. The smell is very strong. I get migraines and too strong of a fragrance will kill me. I am not sure yet if it is a little too strong or not. I like it but it seems like maybe more of it will be too much and since the thing is still a baby, I can only imagine how strong the smell will be when it really gets big.

Anyway, how can one tell if it is the millettia R or T? I will try to post some pictures of it. Maybe that will help.

I forgot, what will be the noticable difference between the two. If it is reticulata will it just die back in the winter as opposed to being semi evergreen?

I think it'll depend on what sort of winter you have--the taiwanensis shouldn't die back to the ground unless you have a really severe winter. The reticulata might not die back in a mild winter, but in a normal winter it may, and I suppose a really severe winter could kill it completely. Other than that, I think the biggest difference is how shrub-like vs vine-like it is, the length of the branches suggests to me that yours is more viney rather than shrubby and is more likely to be reticulata because of that (although both species are going to be shrubbier than some vines are).

Although I'm really not sure anymore--I just looked up taiwanensis on Lazy S's Farm website since that's the only place I've ever seen it for sale, and they say that in the south it can be more vinelike but in the north it tends to be shrubbier. I think it's still less viney than reticulata, but since you're in the south it may be harder to tell which is which. Here's their website, you'll have to scroll down to the entry since I can't link to it directly
http://www.lazyssfarm.com/Plants/Vines/vines.htm

that is exactly what mine looks like but, then again I don't see much difference between the two from the pictures.

I can't tell the difference from pics either, I've had both of them (although not at the same time for a direct comparison) and besides the shrubbier/vinier thing which I did notice on mine, the only other thing I can think of is that the leaves on taiwanensis seemed a little smaller. But probably not enough of a difference to tell from a picture, you'd have to see both of them.