Forum home Plants
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Climbing Hydrangea Support (see pic)

2

Posts

  • Ivy2Ivy2 Posts: 73
    Interesting @thevictorian

    Does it damage your wall in any way?
  • We had one on a boundry wall. Bit of pruning, deadheading etc. Very reluctantly dug it up as the wall needed to be demolished. 
    Southampton 
  • @Ivy2 Just remembered you asked about damage. Our wall coming down had nothing to do with any plants.
    Southampton 
  • RubyRossRubyRoss Posts: 124
    Hope you don't mind me jumping in but I'm a little alarmed by comments that suggest a climbing hydrangea isn't suitable for a smaller space. Last year I planted hydrangea anomala petiolaris 'Miranda' (red circle) to self-cling on this wall. It's planted in a stone trough. The edge of it is about a foot from the wall and the depth goes down to ground level. Before that I had planted pileostegia viburnoides (red rectangle) but it didn't cling to the wires I put in so I'll have to take it out at some point. I know that gets big too.




  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,719
    edited March 2023
    RubyRoss said:
    Hope you don't mind me jumping in but I'm a little alarmed by comments that suggest a climbing hydrangea isn't suitable for a smaller space. Last year I planted hydrangea anomala petiolaris 'Miranda' (red circle) to self-cling on this wall. It's planted in a stone trough. The edge of it is about a foot from the wall and the depth goes down to ground level. Before that I had planted pileostegia viburnoides (red rectangle) but it didn't cling to the wires I put in so I'll have to take it out at some point. I know that gets big too.




    Please feel very free to jump in...everyone contributes.
    I am the one who posted pics to show just how large it CAN get.
    It can of course be pruned to keep it as you want.

    Just a couple of thoughts.
    1. Hydrangea A. P. Miranda is the one with variegated leaves.
    Variegated plants are never as vigorous as those with plain green leaves.

    2. By planting it in stone trough you are in effect treating it as a bonsai.
    With confined roots it will never be so rampant.

    3. Yours is still just a baby...it only got planted in 2022.
    It hasn't as yet even got established properly.
    I wonder if it will be happy in a trough.
    Please report back in 5 years to tell us all how it is doing.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=hydrangea+anomala+petiolaris+'Miranda'&client=firefox-b-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjMiKfSgcf9AhUKbcAKHUnDCXMQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1280&bih=595&dpr=1.5
    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • thevictorianthevictorian Posts: 1,279
    @Ivy2 it has done no damage whatsoever to the house brickwork. It does leave little brown aerial rootlets if you strip it back, in the the same way ivy does, but if the brickwork is sound to begin with, I don't think they will cause any issues. Ours has made it past the gutters on more than one occasion but again not done anything. The new growth is quite soft and pliable so you have quite some time to get to it before it hardens off.

    I will once again echo the advice given before that these are a glorious large plant and look best in the situations where they can romp away and cover a large area but they are very manageable as well. The one thing to remember is they need enough space where they can protrude out from the wall which is where the flowers will come from. Ours sticks 2-3ft out from the house (more is some places) and the flowers are on the end of this. If you prune at the wrong time or try to make them to compact, they won't flower (they flower on the previous years growth).
    Height wise they are easy to control, you simply bend this growth down or chop it off. 
  • thevictorianthevictorian Posts: 1,279
    @RubyRoss I agree that by being planted in a trough it will probably do well for a while but I don't think it suits long term care. They have lots of shallow spreading surface roots in my experience and the trough will limit it's availability to water. If it can find it's way down through the bottom of the trough then you may be ok but if not I think it might outgrow it's conditions.
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited March 2023
    I have a H. petolaris on a north wall.  I keep it one bricks-worth away from my windows.  Twice a year I have to prune it to stop it rooting on the window sills and frames.  It can really damaged paintwork.

    I have seen one grown on a low wall, but allowed to stretch above.  It can be self-supporting for an extra metre plus.  And extend out  by about a metre too.  That might suit the poster's situation.


    Looking at SilverSurfer's pics 4 & 6 makes me ask a general question.  Why do many climbing plants find their way under eaves and into roof spaces?  I am thinking speciifically of ivies.  One would have thought that they would tend to avoid moving towards the dark.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    H. petiolaris clings by rootlets (as previously stated) not by twining, so it will want to cling to a flat surface and if it gets above the wall, I think it will make its way onto the fence behind in preference to the wires or being self-supporting. It's no coincidence that all the pics show it growing on walls.
    Wires suit twiners like clematis, or things like roses that are tied in but don't twine or cling (they'll hook into trees etc with their thorns but need tying in to wires/trellis on a wall or fence).
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • RubyRossRubyRoss Posts: 124
    Thanks @Silver surfer and @thevictorian Excited to see what I will have to report in five years
Sign In or Register to comment.