Is there a climbing flowering vine that is both deer resistant and not favored by bees?

Question

We are building a sitting area with a bench and a few chairs, and I would like to set up a trellis (47" high x 60" wide) with some sort of perennial climbing flowering vine behind the bench. This is both to block the view behind the bench with a wall of green and flowers, and to provide a beautiful backdrop for the bench itself. The latter is probably the more important goal.

We live in SouthWestern PA and have a large number of deer so we would like a plant that is deer resistant. We also would like to be able to use the bench without fear so I would like something unpalatable to bees. We had originally planned on Wisteria, but upon doing some research found that it doesn't meet either of these points.

Is there a climbing flowering vine that won't attract bees or be eaten by deer?

Answer 1

Firstly, even if You were to populate an entire garden with plants that never produce flowers, it still wouldn't prevent yellow-jackets, wasps or hornets from flying in and possibly building their nests nearby because nectar isn't the only food source for them. You see, come spring all the way through summer, wasps need protein to support the hive and the queen and that protein comes in the form of other insects and pests that are present in almost every garden. Come autumn, they shift their attention to sugar for the winter and in doing so through out the growing season, they help pollinate plants and get rid of harmful insects. So see them as pest eaters for that's what they really are. What you can do, however, is minimise the number of these annoying stingers by making sure your garden isn’t a wasp magnet or in your case, choosing the right climber and caring for it correctly. If your willing to compromise on flowers, then choose a fruitless grapevine that is of course attended to for pest infestations. However if flowering is a must then choose a climbing rose. There are a few things wasps are particularly not fond of. Red flowers (wasps aren’t attracted to warm red colours). Marigolds (many insects don’t like the smell). Closed and double-flowered plants such as roses (too hard to access). Flowers that don’t produce much nectar such as Geraniums. Flowers that bloom before wasp season. So from the list, red colour + roses and you get a climbing rose that would probably work best given the criteria.

UPDATE

The OP has found a paper that discusses pollinator flower color preferences and has asked that it be added to this answer. The paper, titled "Pollinators show flower colour preferences but flowers with similar colours do not attract similar pollinators" is from the National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine and was published in 2016.

Answer 2

If you want a plant that bees don't bother to visit, buy something that has double flowers - these are often sterile and don't produce pollen, so they're no use to bees. As for deer resistant, that's another matter altogether; Trumpet Vine and Wisteria are not terribly attractive to deer, but they are both attractive to bees. Finding something that fulfils both objectives is, I fear, going to be impossible... If you decide on a rose (even though they're not necessarily deer resistant) choose one that has flowers with as many petals as possible - for instance, the climbing variety 'James Galway' (https://www.gardenia.net/plant/rose-james-galway-auscrystal) is densely petalled and that makes it much harder for bees to access any pollen, and therefore less attractive to them. Check the height and spread of any rose before buying though, to make sure it has the appropriate height and spread for your purposes.