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Ready To Plant?
Use climbing plants to transform your stucture into a beautiful garden feature. Whether you have just built your pergola from the plans or have an existing structure to plant up, we are now ready to do the fun part!
Hard-landscaping of any sort - walls, pergolas, fences, patios - look bare until the plants go in but when these structures are clothed in colourful and scented climbing plants, the transformation is amazing!
This is the part where you can really be creative, giving your structure a unique, individual style, with different colour combinations and scents. If you find plants with both, all the better. Colour and scent are the two main considerations when choosing your climbing plants so take a look at the species below,see if there is anything you fancy and let your imagination run free.
There are links to online purchases, within each category but you could just as easily go to your local garden centre and find the plants, as most of them are readily available.
Climbing Plants
There are only a few species of climbing plants here. That was intentional. I have kept the list to climbing plants that I know will grow well in most gardens, as they have been tried and tested. Even so, within each species there are many varieties to choose from - thousands, in fact.
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 seems to do really well.
Roses
Clematis
Honeysuckle
Jasmine
Solanum
Passion Flower
Wisteria
Grape Vines
Plant Support
Some of these climbers are self-clinging, others will grow through trellis, which will then support the plant and some will need to be tied to the trellis with twine or garden. All may need a little help at first.
Seasonal Interest
If you have chosen a plant combination for colour, make sure the plants flower at about the same time! Also, try to choose a range of plants that will give interest at different times of the year and that flower for a reasonable length of time.
Climbing Plant Information
Apart from the information given in the links above, there is a wealth of information to be found, both on the internet and also in books.
There are three books, in particular, that I tend to use for information on plants, which I would recommend. The links below will take you straight to the relevant webpage. If you think you might like to find out more before you buy your plants, take a look and see what you think.
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 etc.
* 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 it 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 picture of the book itself.
For other Phillips and Rix books click the following link -
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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