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Climbers to cover a brick wall
I am looking to plant some evergreen climbers which will eventually cover this north facing wall. What advice can the experienced offer me? A few additional factors/challenges to consider ...
1. Near the bench on the left is concrete slab circle which the darling wife would like to keep but means I can't plant anything directly between it and the wall, so plants that plug that gap by growing left and right would help
2. Looking for a plant that which require little maintenance once established.
3. Have young children so don't want anything with fruit that is poisonous.
4. Would love a rose climbers but despite being a south facing garden, the wall I want to grow is north facing so does that mean its a no go ?
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Rosa 'Mme Alfred Carriere' is perfectly suited to a north facing wall. It would look great there. If you train the main branches as near to horizontal as possible the side shoots will produce lots of blooms.
it will be best to fix strong wires to the wall for training the roses before you plant them.
There are other roses which would also be happy there. Take a look o the Classic Roses website.
Alpina varieties of clematis would flower well there. They are blooming now, so would give you colour before the roses begin to flower.
None of these are evergreen, but you can't have everything
Last edited: 01 May 2017 09:06:54
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thank you dovefromabove - I'll definitely take a look at these.
If you are prepared to fix vine eyes and wires to the wall, there are a few evergreen clematis which also might suit, such as Clematis cirrhosa var. purpurascens 'Freckles' which is completely hardy im my garden. Because of the heat retaining properties of the wall, some of the other semi-evergreen clematis will probably be fine, too. I've used this company in the past - a link to their evergreen varieties:
http://www.taylorsclematis.co.uk/clematis-evergreen-clematis/
Thanks Bob. I had already decided vine eyes and wire was the way to go so will look at Freckles and the other evergreen clematis. Is any wire particular better than others for this type of project?
Galvanised wire is best. Screwfix have a good range of wire, turnbuckles (for tensioning) and vine eyes and the prices are good, too. I always use 2.5mm wire as it will take the heaviest of loads (eg armandii clematis.)
Thanks Bob. I was thinking a plant every metre or so - does that sound about right?