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Please help a very novice gardener with a climber
I would be so grateful if anyone could give me any suggestions for a climber that suits these requirements. I'm not even sure one exists but if it does I thought this community would have the answer!
Fast growing, climber for the South facing front of the house to grow up. It needs to be evergreen and ideally have white flowers. We live opposite a dairy and have a real probelm with flies so if it could deter flies that would be incredible or at least not attract them further. If possible it needa to be grown in pots too because the front of the house is gravel.
Is there such a plant?? Any help you can give me would be hugely appreciated, I'm struggling!! X
Last edited: 23 September 2016 20:52:30
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what's under the gravel? if it has membrane then soil underneath it would be better to plant it in the ground as a plant thet will cover a house front will need lots of water . I have brick paving in my front garden but wanted to plant a rose to cover front of house so i have dug up part of it and planted into the soil as a pot however large just wasn't suitable.
Ooh yes it has a membrane then soil, that sounds a much better plan than having to water it all the time. Thank you for your advice. I would love roses but think they may be too slow growing-i've got a lot of ugly wall to cover as quickly as possible!
i planted 'madame alfred carriere' it has white flowers and is extremely quick growing, i planted it maybe three months ago and it has grown about to 7ft already, i got it from rumwoodnurseries.co.uk they sent really healthy plants and they were £11.50 plus p&p , i bought 5 x different roses as it was the same p&p for 5 as it was for 1, they came in 4lt pots & really healthy and came in two days i think & great customer service, very impressed with them. although not evergreen they will have leaves on for enough of the year, my house is also south facing, now i have climbing roses everywhere so i'm looking forward to next year when they are all in flower
Last edited: 24 September 2016 00:00:20
They look perfect thank you so much, just what I was after. Would you possibly mind telling me what length of wall you had to cover ( not sure how many plants I will need)? Also what did you put on the wall for them to grow against? Thanks so much for any help
Last edited: 24 September 2016 01:16:03
well my house is a double fronted victorian house with a balcony on the first floor, i'm not sure how much in metres that is but it has two sets of bay windows plus the front door, at the mo i haven't put up any support as i'm letting it grow and then when i have all the long bendy branches (i know that's not what they are called but i've got sieve brain and can't remember the proper name lol) then i can arrange them in the direction i want them to grow in, it has grown loads and i have cut quite a bit off that was growing either in wrong direction or crossing over other branches, then i am going to use galvanised 'eyes' screwed in to the wall with galvanised wire threaded through them so i can loosely tie in the long bendy branches to where i want them, they are very bendy and you need to train them horizontally as you can, the reason for this is if you let them grow up vertically you will only get flowers on the ends, if you train them horizontally the flowering chemical is all the way along the branch (still can't remember) and then the flowering branches grow up vertically from this, giving you flowers all the way along. At the mo i've tied cut pieces of stockings (as it's soft) around the branches and anchored the down horizontally till i get my husband to put up the supports, you could use a strong trellis fixed up but wires are more discreet, i would put them up as the plant grows in case they end up where you don't want them, depends i guess what look you are going for, pinterest is a great place to get ideas for basically anything.
p.s i'm only using that one rose for the front of the house as it grows really big and will be enough
Last edited: 24 September 2016 01:51:07
Thank you so much, you have been so helpful. I'm going to buy the roses you suggested tomorrow. I really appreciate all the advice you have given me and I will be following it closely! this ia my first stab at any kind of gardening so I'm really appreciative of your help, thank you x
Don't plant the roses too close to the foot of the wall. Plant them a good eighteen inches to two feet away and train them back to the wall. Prepare the soil well, digging in plenty of organic matter.
Also, please don't think that because the roses are in the ground they won't need watering.
Walls create what is known as a 'rain shadow' which is drier than the area around it, and also walls act as sponges and soak up moisture from the soil. Your roses will need looking after, but you will be well rewarded. Enjoy
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Don't know if this thread is closed now but just wanted to say thank you. I followed your advice with the species you suggested and it's thriving. Thanks x
Great to hear that
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.