Climbing Plants for your Pergola

Whether you have just built your pergola from the plans, or have an existing structure to plant up, this is the fun part!

Climbing Plants

Also, I have listed some plants that are only 'frost hardy', for example solanum and the passion flower, yet even in the coldest areas, if protected by a trellis, wall, or sunny structure, they do really well.

Find useful information on each particular species:

Climbing Roses	Clematis	Honeysuckle

Jasmine	Solanum	Passion flower

Wisteria	Grape Vines	Lathyrus Everlasting Sweet Pea

Seasonal Interest

This pergola picture shows the sublimely fragrant 'Aloha' against the gorgeously rich purple of 'The President'.

Plant Support

When tying climbers to the supporting structure, use a method that will avoid cutting into the stems of the plant, especially those that grow with thicker stems, such as roses, solanum and wisteria.

I don't know about you, but I'm always putting things down and forgetting where they are! Now, I use a trug to keep gloves, secateurs, trowel, twine (and anything else I'm using), together and safe.

Anything soft and reusable is good too: soft to protect stems, and reusable to save on expense. As the season progresses, stems are cut down and plants trimmed, so I often find that I reuse many of my plant ties.

Climbing Plant Information

Use this information as a resource. You can always nip down to your local garden centre armed with your planting plan, if it's more convenient.

Keep plant tags safe, as they may come in useful later, often having useful pointers for care and pruning. They also show the height and spread of the plant, which should be given due consideration.

There are also many useful books available.

There are three books, in particular that I would recommend:

RHS - Plants and Flowers

A fabulous book, with accurate, clear pictures. It covers a huge range of plants, showing many varieties of the same species. There are several ways you can use this book:

• Plants for a particular place e.g. dry shade, coastal sites, acid soil.
• Types of plants, in different seasons, sizes and colour ranges.
• An index of all the plants in the book, with varieties and descriptions.

It is well worth a look. I use this as my main reference guide for plants.

Roses - Phillips and Rix

If you need a very comprehensive list of all types of roses, this is the one for you! The Phillips and Rix publications (and there are many of them) always have the most fantastic true to life pictures. They really are very easy to use and I would recommend them to anyone. Some of their books are large and others are pocket size - you can't always tell from the image of the book cover itself.

Other Phillips and Rix books: Phillip and Rix

RHS - Pruning and Training

If there is one area that proves problematic to many people it is pruning and training. It's not rocket science! but for some reason many gardeners are frightened by it.

This book takes the mystery out of pruning so that you can care for all your plants with confidence.

It is a useful guide to training plants over structures and up walls (which is where you don't want to be, when your plants are blowing in the wind, or need a quick trim!) It has very clear diagrams and good pictures.

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