Climbers for small gardens: short on space? These quick growers will help
Short of space, but want a great display? The only way is up, says Anne Swithinbank
FOR tiny gardens and intimate courtyards, growing plants upwards makes the best use of space. A soothing outlook of greenery and flowers full of insects and birds replaces bare fence panels and walls. Hardy, long-lived wall plants can take their time to get going, so to fill gaps while you wait, fall back on speedy annual climbers grown from seed or young plants. They make an abundance of growth smothered in colourful flowers in just one season, often peaking towards the end of summer and into autumn. There are neat-growers like Chilean glory flower (Eccremocarpus
scaber) with blooms like small firecrackers, or wildly exuberant clambering nasturtiums. We once filled a long expanse of bare, south-facing fence with bizarre decorative gourds all raised from one packet of seeds.
‘Pop-up’ landscapes
These quick climbers are perfect for creating ‘pop-up’ landscapes in your borders. Rig up an installation of hazel poles or bamboo canes into wigwams and obelisks, to cloth with morning glories or black-eyed Susan. They’ll add height and dimension for a season, are taken down in autumn and put up again the following year in a different arrangement. Easier still, let existing shrubs act as climbing frames, but be aware that vigorous leafy characters like cup and saucer vine might swamp them.
Follow in Darwin’s footsteps
In Britain we treat these quick fix climbers as annuals because they die off in the chill of our winters, but many are perennial by nature. It is hard to grow them without following in Darwin’s footsteps and developing a fascination for the way each type clings and climbs. Most grow naturally in woodland or scrub where competition for light has helped them evolve to rise fast on thin stems using other plants as supports. At last, reaching the sun-bathed outer canopy, they flower and set seed.
Both tendrils and twining stems reach out and grab. Responding to touch, cells on the inner, attaching side become less turgid than the outer, causing a bend. Twiners are mysterious, as almost all coil either clockwise or anti according to type and cannot be persuaded to change direction, even when grown north or south of the Equator. All are easy to grow, but don’t start them too early, as they falter in cold temperatures.