"Chookie" wrote in message
news:ehrebeniuk-


The problem is that the OP lives on the Gold Coast, and deciduous plants
often
stop being deciduous when the climate is as mild as that.

Now that I didn't know.
I didn't notice the OP saying that until you mentioned it, only noticed that
they said both heat and cold can be a problem.

Here on the Mid North Coast of NSW (Forster), our summers are quite warm,
and winters aren't too cold. Last year we got a few heavy frosts, but the
days still turned out to get to around 14-18degs cel.
I know other years we would be lucky to get 1 or 2 frosts. Still, our
deciduous plants are "deciduous".

I moved to Lithgow for work for 6months (very cold!!), and decided to get
into bonsai there. I dug up some naturally growing Chinese Elms, and bought
a Japanese Maple "bonsai starter" (overpriced seedling).
Moving back here, the first winter none of the elms lost their leaves, but
then the next 2 winters since they have. It seemed they had to adapt. Same
thing happened with the Maple, but it did lose a few leaves the first
winter, just not all. I put this down to it being from a Nursery, where it
was protected under shadecloth, so it didn't take as much to adapt.

So in theory, if the OP buys a deciduous from their local Nursery, then it
should lose it's leaves.
I would be interested to hear if anyone from the Gold Coast, or the warm
climates has deciduous plants that don't lose their leaves. It's something I
never knew.

If they can't get hold of something deciduous, then I guess some options
a
1) Put up shadecloth in Summer, take it down in winter
2) Using potted trees or shrubs, move them to block sun in summer.
3) As chookie said, something like a passionfruit vine. Yeah, it will block
the sun in winter, but at least in winter you can put more clothes on to
keep warm.:-)

Good luck

--
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I favour a climber over pergola too, but recommend strongly AGAINST
bougainvillea as it's both aggro and thorny -- not at all fun to cut back.
The newer cultivars aren't supposed to have these problems, but I would
still
treat them with caution.

A passionfruit vine?

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

The most consistent empirical proof from history is the doctrine of human
depravity. -- Chuck Colson