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Climbing plants
Chris Downie
Posts: 1
in Plants
Hi I have just put a wooden arch up in my garden and would love some climbing plants for it my only concern is wether the roots would be ok as when I dug the holes I hit very little soil my plan was to fill the 1 foot holes with compost? Could anyone suggest plants that would work? Heres a link to some pics. The arch is west facing as you look at it in the photo http://i963.photobucket.com/albums/ae111/chrisrm02/1C506D98-EE7F-4017-B85D-F708B72FA9F8.jpg http://i963.photobucket.com/albums/ae111/chrisrm02/A990C76E-0EE2-4F58-9B86-3276EF7A89EA.jpg http://i963.photobucket.com/albums/ae111/chrisrm02/36D2885F-7DB8-418B-A406-C57860EF32FA_1.jpg
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That rather depends on what is under the soil. Are you talking rock or tarmac?
I would think a permanent plant will suffer trying to grow in that it does look very dry, if there concrete around the post it will dry it out even more, they might be something but nothing comes to mind . Personally I try some sweet peas - morning glory - mina lobata - cup and saucer - climbing nasturtiums something annual seeds are relative cheap.
Make sure you dig out a good 2x2x2 ft hole - that's a big one, but it rewards you; get in some decent top-soil and mix it well with some rotted leaf-mould (black gold!); plant a mixture of roses with clematis growing through them. Use blood fish and bone because roses love acidic soil and clematis prefer alkaline soil. BF&B is a good balanced feed. I planted Arthur Bell climbers last year and they took off like a rocket - more than 15 feet in the year from pot-grown specimens. With clematis, the world's your oyster, but make sure you u/stand the pruning needs for the different types: types 1, 2, 3. You can discover which is which easily. I grow the ones where you cut everything back to 9" every spring. Roses, despite the old-wives' tale that they "do well in clay" actually prefer an open root run.
Photos can be deceptive but those holes don't look a foot deep. I'd remove a couple of slabs and make a proper planting hole.
In the sticks near Peterborough
I didn't know roses like acidic soil? Mine are in alkaline clay and they are growing really well - good job plants don't read books! I do put a decent planting mixture in and an annual mulch of well rotted horse manure though.
Roses grow in a wide variety of soils, but they don't like drying out or being waterlogged. They love manure and are greedy feeders so extra rose food is necessary for good roses. 1 foot isn't deep enough, 18 inches would be the minimum.
By the way, I couldn't download the photo. If you press the spacebar after putting in the link it should print the link in bold to make it accessible without having to copy and paste.