Grab your chance to reach for the stars
Climbers add a dazzling extra dimension to any garden – and here’s our guide to the very best (which you can plant right now!)
EARLY spring is the key time for blowing cobwebs off the spade and to get planting outdoors. Trees, shrubs, perennials and many other ornamental plants will establish readily in warm, moist soil. Over the next few weeks, weather will improve and the plants will burst into growth, adding months of interest to our gardens.
As many of us are spending more time at home, while other activities are reduced, it’s worth concentrating on improving our plots. Whether you are filling gaps in a display or creating a new bed from scratch, adding a few fresh faces will ensure our gardens are the perfect places to take a break from the news.
Parts of the garden that are worth paying particular attention to are boundary walls and fences, along with upright features. Sadly, these vertical surfaces are often stark naked, making gardens less inviting places to spend time. The good news is they are easy to transform by introducing climbing plants to the scene.
There are masses of climbers that will cling, twine or use tendrils to scale structures, elevating any kind of space with their attractive flowers, foliage or fruit. Some species don’t just have captivating good looks but produce blooms with a heavenly perfume that will almost sweep you off your feet.
Climbing roses, honeysuckles, trumpet vines, clematis and potato vines all thrive in sun. For my money, you can’t beat common passion flower (Passiflora caerulea) for glamour, with its 4in-wide white flowers with a central boss of purple, white and blue filaments, followed by bright orange fruit in autumn.
In shade, there are far more adventurous options than evergreen ivies. Schizophragma hydrangeoides ‘Moonlight’ boasts silver marbled foliage and large, flattened heads of white flowers, while Pileostegia viburnoides has long, leathery leaves and clusters of creamy flowers from late summer.
Honeysuckles are a must for those wanting scent, especially varieties closely related to our native woodbine ( Lonicera periclymenum). Among the best are L. periclymenum ‘Graham Thomas’ and ‘Serotina’. Avoid at all costs Lonicera x brownii ‘ Dropmore
Scarlet’ – its scarlet flowers are virtually unscented.
One of my favourite scented climbers is star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), a fastgrowing evergreen for sun or partial shade with masses of white flowers that will fill the air with a heady perfume over summer. ‘Pink Showers’ is a fairly recent introduction with equally sweetly scented pink blooms. Some climbers are too vigorous for containers, but there are plenty of compact ones that are happy with a restricted root run. ‘Summertime’ and ‘Warm Welcome’ are climbing roses that only grow to about 6ft, while the 21 varieties of clematis in the Boulevard series from Raymond Evison get no taller than 5ft.
Get them going in pots that are at least 18in wide, using multipurpose compost with added John Inn es. Mix in some controlled-release fertiliser granules to feed for the next six months. Plants are perfect trained up obelisks, mushroom-shaped metal tuteurs or fan-shaped pieces of trellis.
Planting climbers in the ground is easy. Dig a hole that’s the same depth but twice the width of the rootball, about 1ft from supports – prick the sides and base with a fork to encourage rooting. Place the plant in the hole and slowly backfill with soil, firming down with your fingers to eliminate air gaps. Clematis needs different treatment. Set rootballs 2in below the surface of the soil to keep roots cool, preventing stems from flagging in warm weather. It also acts as an insurance against clematis wilt disease – if stems are infected they can be cut to the surface, allowing healthy shoots to sprout from below the ground.
Untie the plant from its original stake, then push some canes into the soil close to the rootball, angling them gently towards supports. Tie each stem to a cane with twine. Finish by spreading a 2in layer of bark mulch, garden compost or leafmould around the plant, to lock in moisture.
The vigour of climbers depends on the variety. Some will romp away quickly to fill supports, while others are a little slow to get going. So don’t worry if growth is a little on the modest side this year.
Some have a heavenly perfume that can almost sweep you off your feet