North facing climber?

[Graciefer]

I wondered if anyone could help me.

I have a small terraced back yard and recently had a large fence topped with trellis installed.

I am now planning where I am going to move my climbers to grow up this fence.

Unfortunately my climbers (passion flower, honeysuckle, clementis) arent suited for my north facing rear wall.

I wonder if anyone could recommend a climber that would be suited to this. It will be in a pot and I would prefer it to be flowering, rather than an ivy etc.

Look forward to hearing suggestions.

[Bluestocking]

Hydrangea petiolaris is gorgeous and likes a north-facing wall. Vitis henryana will tolerate it but you won't get all the autumn colour.

[PrimulaVeris]

I've got a honeysuckle and a clematis on a fence which is north facing and doing OK (though technically they shouldn't be)

And a jasmine which is east-facing and in shade, also doing well

[Pannacotta]

Agree on hydrangea petiolaris and some clematis, have a look here for ideas (have filtered)
www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/climbers/plcid.15/vid.186/

[Monkeybird]

we have hydrangea petiolaris - is lovely but quite invasive so be prepared to cut back...

[Graciefer]

Thanks for the suggestions, I will have a look at the garden centre, although not sure if the hydrangea would be suitable if invasive, as my SIL had Russian Ivy growing on her fence and DH hated it, so if it is anything like that he won't agree.

I quite fancy a large rambling rose myself, but we never have much growing roses and not sure if they would be suitable for growing in a large pot.

As I said, I will have a good look around the garden centre, thanks again for your suggestions.

[tootiredtothink]

Hi, Can i invade this thread and ask a question too? I have a north facing garden and would like to have some ivy or some such thing growing up a wall. Unfortunately as the wall is my neighbours (its their garage) i don't think i can nail anything to it. Is there any plant that will climb walls without a fence to growW (does that even make sense??)

[Pannacotta]

The link I gave had all sorts of clombers suitable for a north facing wall.
tootired, ivy and hydrangea are both self supporting, ivy prob your best bet as its evergreen, some of the delicate varigated ones are esp nice to look at.
HAve a look at crocus.co.uk which I linked to, its a great site for info as well as plant shopping.

[Bluestocking]

I love Hydrangea petiolaris and am springing to its defence! It's not invasive on the scale of russian vine (I don't think anything is) and it doesn't need wires or anything, it supports itself with its own dear little sticky pads. I haven't had to cut mine back yet and it's been in my garden for about eight years, but my soil is quite poor so it is possibly not growing as fast as it might in other gardens.

[Pannacotta]

I agree BS, I dont think its invasive either.
I have one in very large pot and it hasnt grown wildy fast, I think it seems well suited to being in a pot, as long as the pot is big enough.

[Tangle]

tootired - if I were your neighbour I'd rather have some trellis or wire on my garage wall than ivy as the aerial roots can do quite a lot of damage to a wall. I don't know what the legal situation is, but if you're trying to avoid upsetting them it might be worth talking to them before putting ivy in.

Graciefer - how big a pot are we talking? I would have thought you could grow a rambler in a pot as long as it was a BIG pot and you gave it lots of TLC in terms of feeding it regularly. I suspect you'd need something similarly large for a hydrangea to be happy (I don't think their invasive as in "try to take over the garden" so much as "can cover the entire building if have enough food and you don't keep them in check"). Some of the climbing roses might do better (cover 3x3 rather than 6x6m), but I'd probably lean towards a clematis. Happy shopping

[tootiredtothink]

Thanks all for your help