Pergolas are a beautiful addition to any backyard as the structure provides an outdoor area where you can seek shade from the blistering sun during summer and have a nook to relax. The use of a pergola is versatile but will always maximise your backyard appeal and give character to outdoor living space. While enjoying the elegant lines of a well-designed pergola, a lot of homeowners love the beauty and charm that plants create when placed among the structure or even growing over it. Styling pergolas with plants can also have the nice effect of providing more privacy to users when leaves and blossoms cover the area.

To choose the best plants for your pergola, we have put together some floral options, which will add an aesthetic and personal touch to your outdoor living space and garden.

Climbers

One of the most popular pergola plants is vine as it grows rapidly and emphasises the shape of your pergola. The vine tendrils offer filtered shade, and the nice fragrance of beautiful flowers maximise the overall aesthetic of your garden. Unfortunately, vine also comes with a couple of disadvantages as the leaves produce quite a lot of debris throughout the year and the plant requires maintenance and care such as watering and pruning. But with some maintenance, this doesn’t have to be a big issue.

Colourful Blossoms

A simple collection of potted flowers can make your pergola look more inviting. Whether you place a cluster of pots with different species in each one or use a large pot to group them all together. Colourful blossoms make a big impact. Great choices for pergola enhancement would be begonias, camellias and azaleas as well as impatiens.

Hanging Plants

If you don’t want to take up too much space of your veranda or pergola with potted plants, you can dress up your outdoor area with hanging plants. Position the pots at eye level and let them hang from the rafters. Colourful flowers are fuchsias and impatiens, as well as petunias and geraniums. For people who are looking for an all-rounder, we suggest Australia’s native plant Diuris.

Ferns

Sun-loving plants are hard to care for in a shady place. Thankfully, ferns tend to thrive in darker spots under shady and moist conditions making them perfect for pergola use. The fresh and vibrant green such plants provide a sheer joy to many, and as some of them can grow tall, they also make an ideal organic screen.

Dwarf Fruit Trees

Not many things are as enchanting as an orchard of potted fruit trees especially when they are in blossom and buzzing with bees or dripping with fruit. Dwarf fruit trees bring structure and delicious scent to a pergola. Styling your pergola can not only be easy but so much fun with the beautiful aesthetic as your reward.

Succulents

If you are looking for low maintenance plants for your backyard, you can’t go past a succulent garden. These are a versitile family of plants that are unusual in appearance, but often favoured in backyards as they are easy to look after, even for the most novice gardner. With minimal watering required, you can give them a quick spray of water each week and get on with enjoying your time outdoors. Popular types of succulents include Agave, Echeveria and Crassula.