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'Clematis mesh'
Astraeus
Posts: 336
We have this space at the west-facing end of our garden.
I plan to cover the vertical gaps and the unattractive fencing with climbers, basically to clothe the entire back boundary with planting. I'm undecided between a combination of pyracantha Orange Glow (which we have and which need a home after losing their last one because of landscaping), viticella Bill McKenzie, clematis Emilia Plater and lonicera delavayii or Belgica. The horizontal run is 9m and the fence height is 1.8m.
No matter which climbers we choose, our priority for now is getting a suitable support system in place. I am inclined to go with the Gripple system, spaced approximately 250mm vertical (which would be on the line of the 'front' horizontal panels) but then I saw that Taylor's advocate for a clematis mesh system. Would the Gripple system work as well as mesh for this purpose? I worry that the mesh will be unsightly when the plants are not covering it whereas the Gripple system is thin enough to ignore.
EDIT: It isn't clear from the picture but there is a planting bed at the base which is approx. 50cm from front to back. And, don't worry, we will paint the fence before anything else!
I plan to cover the vertical gaps and the unattractive fencing with climbers, basically to clothe the entire back boundary with planting. I'm undecided between a combination of pyracantha Orange Glow (which we have and which need a home after losing their last one because of landscaping), viticella Bill McKenzie, clematis Emilia Plater and lonicera delavayii or Belgica. The horizontal run is 9m and the fence height is 1.8m.
No matter which climbers we choose, our priority for now is getting a suitable support system in place. I am inclined to go with the Gripple system, spaced approximately 250mm vertical (which would be on the line of the 'front' horizontal panels) but then I saw that Taylor's advocate for a clematis mesh system. Would the Gripple system work as well as mesh for this purpose? I worry that the mesh will be unsightly when the plants are not covering it whereas the Gripple system is thin enough to ignore.
EDIT: It isn't clear from the picture but there is a planting bed at the base which is approx. 50cm from front to back. And, don't worry, we will paint the fence before anything else!
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I've also got panels of plastic green or brown mesh tied to a couple of my wooden fence panels - primarily for a pink jasmine which I'm trying to train horizontally instead of vertically and ditto for an unknown clematis and a honeysuckle. The mesh does make it easier for the clematis to twine round but as you say, it does look a bit unsightly when it's bare. Probably it wouldn't be so noticeable if you matched the mesh to the fence colour!
With that space, what would people plant in which order?
At the moment, I think I'll cover the European fence panel on the right with two pyracantha. It's then which order to place three or four climbing plants along the rest of the fence. Should I go clematis, honeysuckle, clematis, for instance? Or two clematis followed by a honeysuckle? I don't have any experience with climbers so tips on what might work well would be very welcome!
I do like a winter flowering evergreen clematis for that reason, something like 'Jingle Bells' or 'Freckles'. My mature 'Freckles' is covering about 2-3 metres at the moment.
To help cover the fences whilst your permanent climbers are growing you could try some annual climbers like 'Morning Glory, Sweet Peas, or Cobea scandens.
I know my pyracantha will need to be trained carefully along wires and pruned judiciously. I know the pruning requirements of the three groups of clematis but I don't know which ones twine and which ones don't. The same is true of honeysuckle. That's causing me some concern about whether, for instance, it would be wise to plant up a fence with a group 3 and evergreen clematis and a honeysuckle given the different type of pruning required at different times of the year.
Ideally, I can see that I'd want a honeysuckle for wildlife and a long year of interest (either delavayii, which is semi-evergreen, or Belgica, which flowers early), two clematis (one blue for summer colour and one yellow (Bill McKenzie) for autumn colour with seedheads). There'd be some overlap in flowering with the clematis and blue and yellow would match nicely. They'd all be visually separate from the pyracantha, which I'll train to form a wall 'within' a pergola. But, on top of those, I'm not adverse to a winter-flowering clematis too. To what extent would all of these intertwine? If I spaced them out correctly (each has between 1m and 2m width), would they intermingle nicely after a few years?
I'm all at sea when it comes to climbers. Truly.
There actually would be a situation where a G1 could live by itself. I do wonder whether I'd be better off having two G3 clematis alongside one another, in contrasting colours, so that I can prune them in late winter and then train them together through the year. Something like Polish Spirit and Emilia Player to offer a nice bit of contrast. If I did that, my only point to resolve would be what to plant to give an evergreen backdrop. That could well be a lonicera delavayi.
For now, I'm utterly overwhelmed by the choice of clematis! Blekitny Aniol, Emilia Plater, Forever Friends, Etoile Violette, General Sikorski - if only I had the space!!!