I have an ugly chain link fence bordering my property which I want to cover with an evergreen climber that is NOT IVY. Mostly shady, it will get some afternoon sun - Would evergreen clematis work? Any ideas?

I agree with Debbie on this one. Vines, by their nature, rarely cover the whole fence. Even an evergreen is typically going to ramble where it wants to and leave part of the fence bare, maybe indefinitely.

SHADE and EVERGREEN is also difficult, though not impossible. Clematis however, especially the evergreens, don't like to stay in shade much. They will grow in shade, till they can find some light. Then they will rush toward the light, and leave the shady spots a tangle of mostly bare stems. Again, if your looking for fence coverage, not ideal.

Two native vines might be able to help you out, but they each have their problems; Lonicera hispidula (Hairy honeysuckle) and Rubus ursinus (Trailing Blackberry).

Lonicera hispidula, the California or hairy honeysuckle, is a rampant rambler that does well at hiding chain link fence, but tends to prefer a sunny edge to true shade. Without seeing your spot, hard to say if it will be happy or not. It does have small, almost round more or less evergreen leaves and clusters of trumpet shaped light pink to creamy yellow flowers with a nice light fragrance, if the aphids don't totally arrest their development. It also tends to prefer to drape itself over shrubbery and be more horizontal than vertical, even acting as a groundcover. However, if you have enough light for it, it may just be the best choice for an evergreen, self twining vine.

Rubus ursinus, the native trailing blackberry with the incredible little sweet tart wild blackberries, is an unusual thing to recommend, but I have gotten it to work in full shade under conifers to somewhat cover a chain link fence. A couple of caveats though; one of it's nicknames is "devil's shoe laces", and it comes by that honestly. It likes to drape over things and act as a groundcover more than vine, and can form very dense spreading mats of small wiry stems(usually less than a half inch across) covered in tiny little tenacious prickles. These prickles penetrate the skin, especially around the ankles, easily and quickly, and tend to infect at the drop of a hat. And since they are a blackberry, you have to TRAIN them onto the fence, they won't climb it on their own. In other words, you have to handle those prickly stems to weave them in and out of the fence. Doable, armed with gloves, but fairly high maintenance. If your willing to deal with this though, you can have an absolutely incredible vine for that chain link. In flower, these are spectacular, covering themselves in pure white star like flowers, followed even in shade by some of the best tasting native berries. They fruit well on fences too, and the fence will make the berries much easier to harvest than the same vine sprawled over the shrubbery or as a groundcover. They are quick to establish and can cover under ideal conditions a significant part of the fence in the first year. But they are high maintenance.

Both of these vines, btw, will tend to turn purple dark in the winter.

As I said, I would tend to agree with Debbie though, if you have room, try shrubs. They will be much easier. I would recommend a mixed hedge of things like Oceanspray (Holodiscus discolor), red-flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum), salal (Gaultheria shallon), Evergreen Huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum) and sword fern (Polystichum munitum). Shrubsa don't necessarily need to be evergreen to cover the fence and hide it well, either, especially if they are densely stemmed like the Oceanspray.

I am interested in doing this as well. What all do you do to maintain your chain link fence? I'd assume weaving branches every couple of weeks and some light pruning, but I'm pretty new at all of this.

Is anyone familiar with Wintercreper? I've heard it's an evergreen that would work well here. I also heard someone say that star jasmine is evergreen here and I'm really intrigued by that.

Greenmann -- I like your idea of a mixed hedge of local forest plants. I'm having trouble imagining what something like that would look like. Have you seen any photos of anything similar?

Cedar, I don't really have an example for a chain link fence, but I do hedgerows of natives all the time, which is essentialy what I am advocating here. It's basically a mixed hedge of natives *shrug*.

When we moved to our first house, 30 years ago, the neighbor behind us had already established a kind of fence/hedge. He transplanted many, many wild vine maple seedlings to his yard, and many, many of them died. but of the 3 that remained, they magnificently drooped over the ugly wood fence, Then his mom came to visit from England, and brought roots of her favorite hardy geranium and planted them along the base of the fenceline. We were beneficiaries of their natural spreading tendancies. Then,we added some rhododendrons to the mix and punctuated them with transplants of near by ferns and trillium which provides us a quiet, attractive, year round look with minimal effort. The ferns get pruned each January, as the new curled heads are fun to watch, and the branches over a year old are not attractive, but that is the only maintainence required.