Rising stars

Get to grips with the best climbers

YOU can reach new heights in the garden with clever climbers.

They are superb at covering walls and fences and will scramble over pergolas and cling on to wigwams in beds and containers.

If you are after a quick colour fix that won’t break the bank, then try summer-flowering annuals and tender perennials.

These fast and temporary plants can be grown from seed on a warm windowsill.

Sow them now to get strong vigorous plants ready for popping outdoors when the risk of frost is past.

Fragrant sweet peas are tough and terrific climbers that use their twining tendrils to grab any nearby support.

The pretty blooms come in almost any colour and most have a delicious scent that can turn a sunny path into a perfumed corridor. Sweet pea seeds have the hardest of coats so it is a good idea to soak the seed overnight before sowing.

Cheery

Start them off in pots in an unheated greenhouse or cold frame and plant them out in May, putting in the supports at the same time. Nasturtiums will need no coaxing to scramble up a trellis and can be sown directly in bare ground. Its cheery flowers come in sunset shades and some have variegated leaves. Flowers and foliage are also edible and are especially good in salads. The unripe seeds and buds can be pickled and used as a substitute for capers. Canary creeper, another member of the nasturtium family, has yellow flowers that resemble feathery birds which flutter above palm-shaped leaves. It can be grown up trellis and will disguise unsightly areas. The same can be done with morning glory. By midsummer it will produce a succession of lovely trumpet blooms, each one lasting only a morning – hence its name. There are purple, crimson and striped varieties too. A close cousin is Ipomoea lobata, which has clusters of small red, yellow and white flowers that resemble a Spanish flag. Use it to create an exotic hideaway beneath a pergola, also adorned with eye- catching Cobaea scandens. It has lavender and green flowers that resemble cups and saucers. The purple bell vine and black-eyed Susan are not as rampant, so grow them in baskets and hang them from the rafters.