Climber recommendations please

[bario1]

Hi there,

Can anyone recommend a plant that will climb and cover an ugly East-facing wall at the back of my garden? It's fairly sheltered and shady with a lot of tree canopy overhead... can anything grow under these conditions?

Thanks.

[chris]

Climbing hydrangea?


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[bario1]

Looks promising, thanks Chris!

[Raybon]

Yes, had exactly these conditions, lace cap hydrangea grew perfectly well. Will need watering if near other tree roots though................

[Raybon]

......many a clematis will tolerate shade. Look 'em up!

[mothhawk]

Honeysuckle is a plant of woodland edges, so it's happy to be in shade and grow to the light.

[Ja9]

Passion flower.think they can tolerate shade if you get a hardy variety

[Nicos]

There is also a winter flowering honeysuckle available which has tiny flowers, but lush green leaves.
We had that growing with a 'normal' honeysuckle and the fencing was hidden all year.

might be a good idea to have 2 or 3 different plants so there is a bit of a variety in flowers throughout the year.
We also had winter and summer flowering jasmin growing together which did OK in semishade.

[BertieFox]

Passion flower, even Passiflora caerulea, might be a bit of a challenge, on an east facing wall in Edinburgh, unless you benefit from the warmth of a built up part of the city. If the main purpose is to hide the wall, what would be wrong with one of the very attractive variegated ivies which you can now find?

On the Chelsea preview on TV last night, someone said that using climbers to cover a fence or wall is a mistaken choice, as most of the growth comes at the top leaving bare stems lower down. So perhaps hedge plants in front of the wall are a better option.

Thinking about it, that is exactly how my passion fruits grow (all the leaves at the top) which I grow against a south facing wall.

[bario1]

Ivy would be fine, whatever will quickly and densely cover pebbledash and doesn't need too much looking after!

[Ja9]

Ok hadn't noticed that you were in Edinburgh,sorry. Having said that our Passion flower was a bit of a thug until minus 16 one winter. Ivy good idea as long as you don't mind it wrecking the wall, but I quite like them.