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Bougainvillea alternative

geejaypgeejayp Posts: 5
Hi all,

What would you suggest as a hardy alternative to Bougainvillea? I love the look of Bougainvillea but want something hardy. It is to grow over an archway.

Grateful for any suggestions.

Posts

  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    No suggestions.  But use this year to look around for, and read up on, flowering climbers you like.

    There is no substitue for Bougainvillea or the climate it likes.
     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."
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    The OP has come here for advice, telling them to go away and get advice elsewhere is not very helpful.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • thevictorianthevictorian Posts: 1,279
    Is it the big flowery brachs/flowers you like? If so then perhaps a climbing rose would work as a suitable replacement. I'm not a rose guy but there are some very knowledgeable people on here that might be able to suggest one in the colour of your choice. 
    A clematis is another option and some have big impressive flowers, again people can advise on the best one if you'd like to go that route.
  • PlantmindedPlantminded Posts: 3,580
    Sweet Peas remind me of Bougainvillea.  There are perennial varieties which might suit if you don't want to replace annuals.  They lack the thorns of Bougainvillea and have the best scent of any flower!
    Wirral. Sandy, free draining soil.


  • geejaypgeejayp Posts: 5
    Thanks for the suggestions. Some Weigela have loads of flowers, can they be trained over an archway? Presumably they are much slower growing than a Bougainvillea.

    Which type of rose is most suitable for an archway? Lots of flowers over a long period, ideally!

    What about campsis radicans? 
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Campsis radicans can be slow to get going but once it’s happy it wants to take over the world … you’d need something along the lines of Marble Arch to cope with its ambition 😉 



    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Butterfly66Butterfly66 Posts: 970
    I’d don’t thinkI would choose perennial sweet peas. In my experience they don’t cope with rain at all, it spoils the open flowers and many of the unopened buds die off without opening. Also their biggest crime is having no scent at all - I don’t think there are any varieties with scent?
     If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero
    East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
  • PlantmindedPlantminded Posts: 3,580
    Yes, you're right @Butterfly66, I'd forgotten that the perennial varieties are unscented, so not suitable, as you say, a crime!
    Wirral. Sandy, free draining soil.


  • floraliesfloralies Posts: 2,718
    Honeysuckle?
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    Campsis aren’t hardy everywhere either, depends where you live. People are always surprised that I can’t grow Campsis, Plumbago, Bougainvillea or Oleander because I live in Spain. but that’s because I have cold winters in my northerly mountain location.

    There are a hundreds of roses that are suitable for training over an arch. You will need a repeat flowering rose rather than a rambler, the majority of which produce a mass of flowers in one go and that’s it. Do you have any particular colour preference?
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
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