A popular use of clematis is to add colour to plain structures such as walls or fences. Similar planting techniques can also be used to train clematis into trees.

To achieve good coverage select more vigorous plants from the "Patio and Garden" section of the catalogue. Pick more vigorous cultivars that grow beyond 2M (e.g. Avante Garde, Bonanza, Galore). Taller cultivars from the Regal® (double) group are also useful (e.g. Josephine). Garland® cultivarsmay also be used, and flower profusely but, being of thinner foliage, may require a companion plant such as ceanothus. To cover a very large section of a wall or fence i.e. 8M+ extremely vigorous traditional varieties including early flowering montana or later flowering jackmanii can be considered. These may be grown as companions to the longer/repeat flowering forms suggested above.