Every garden needs a couple of show-stoppers like the sumptuous Clematis florida 'Flore Pleno,' which prefers a sheltered spot to unfurl its creamy, 5-inch flowers.

One of my most compelling garden memories is of a huge and bountifully blooming wisteria that dripped its purple blooms down through an arbor, warm rain intensifying the heady fragrance. An entire meeting of librarians was huddled beneath it on an April morning at Duke University in North Carolina. There is something about looking up into a plant, being nearly surrounded by its leafiness and bloom — I've grown at least one wisteria in every garden I've had since. I wonder how many of us were plunged irrevocably into plant love because of a pumpkin vine or a climbing rose.

A vine's charm lies in its lush liveliness, the juiciness of energy barely contained. We want the look, just not the reality of dealing with all that vigor. Which are least troublesome to grow, but still deliver on the job of softening and adorning the garden? All the vines discussed below are hardy perennials in our climate. None are fussy, need spraying or will eat your house (as long as you pay them a little mind).

Now In Bloom Annual vines seem to grow a foot a day once the weather heats up. Ipomoea lobata, or Spanish flag, climbs to 15 feet. It has red stems and curved, tubular flowers in shades of yellow to bright orange that attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

• What vine could be more irresistible than a clematis? A wise gardener advised me never to plant them singly. If you're going to all that trouble of digging a clematis hole (deep, well amended) go ahead and plant at least two vines in it. To be especially effective, plant the evergreen Clematis armandii with a deciduous variety so that when the starry, white or pink flowers of the C. armandii are done blooming in springtime, a summer-bloomer will flower against its green leaves.

If you have space, Clematis montana blooms in May and needs little pruning. I grow one to cover a big old pine, where it spangles the branches with its baby-powder-scented flowers. Small-flowered clematis like the delicate C. viticella and C. alpina species and cultivars are ideal for urban gardens because they can use trees and shrubs as scaffolds without engulfing them. C. tangutica grows up three lilacs in my garden, but it has now jumped over to a sourwood (Oxydrendrum arboreum) tree as well. In summer, its delicate yellow bells lace the lilacs with color, and in autumn the seed heads, first silky then puffy, decorate the tree's red leaves. But nothing provides more bang for the buck than the large-flowered show-offs; every garden needs at least one flashy vine like C. florida 'Flore Pleno' with its ethereal five-inch double flowers.

• A more subtle choice is the climbing hydrangea (H. petiolaris) which coats a fence with its snowy summer flowers. It can get large, crawling far up old Doug firs in the Washington Park Arboretum, but is also easily contained to more modest girth. Akebia quinata needs lots of trimming, but is worth it for the handsome foliage and little flowers that perfume the April garden.

• And what would a garden be without at least one climbing rose? My hands-down favorite for long-blooming, no-diseases color is the multiflora rambler 'Ghislaine de Feligonde,' with apricot flowers that fade through yellow to cream. Nearly thornless, it can scale a two-story house, but mine grows quite happily contained in a large pot, politely mingling with clematis.

• Need a vine that will put up with shade and damp feet? Parthenocissus henryana, called the silvervein creeper for the handsome silver markings on its splayed leaves, climbs up the north side of my house in total shade. Here it provides a lovely backdrop for hydrangeas, especially in autumn when it turns vivid red. I do have to cut it off the chimney, which it easily covers each year, before we light the first fire in fall.

Valerie Easton is a horticultural librarian and writes about plants and gardens for Pacific Northwest magazine. She is the co-author of "Artists in Their Gardens" from Sasquatch Books. Her e-mail address is vjeaston@aol.com.