Looking for advice on choosing a climber please

Hello wise people,

Hoping for some advice. We would advice on finding a climber to go up a brick wall, there is already a trellis there for it. But there are quite a few limitations:

• It gets not very much sun
• It is a bit of a wind tunnel between our house and this brick wall
• We'd like something that would be year-round attractive evergreen leaf cover over an otherwise high boring brick wall
• So the attractiveness would be mostly in the leaves, rather than any flowers it might have in season
• Not something like ivy or virginia creeper with suckers onto the brick
• Not thorny or bushy - people have to walk past it, with not much of a gap. We had to remove a high rose for that reason (which was happy in the location).
• we are in South Derbyshire, so few weather extremes

Grateful thanks for any ideas.

 

How about an evergreen Lonicera (Honeysuckle?

 

Welcome @soonguy !

My vote also goes for evergreen Lonicera, Henryi is my favourite. It's a vigorous twiner and is likely to reach the top of the fence this summer. It is a tough plant and will stand pretty much anything. There are different varieties with lovely flower colour but flowering is not very spectacular in the shade- but you'll get some.

Only downside with Lonicera is that it tends to rush up and the lower stems can get bare and boring.

Morrison's usually have a good selection of climbers for a £1 or so, worth having a look if you have one nearby.

 

How about clematis Freckles? Seems pretty evergreen and flowers in February - it was hardy in rural Notts

 

Another vote for honeysuckle here. There are many varieties, including one that bears edible fruit (I think it's commercial name is honey berry).

The only word of caution when you go shopping is to bear in mind that while most honeysuckles are climbers, a very few are not, and form bushes instead, so just check the labels before buying.

Apart from honeysuckle, it really depends what look you're going for, and if you have a theme for the garden. I personally love honeysuckle but it looks quite wild and natural (it is after all native to the UK, albeit not the cultivated varieties). I like this look as I maintain what I casually call a townies idea of natural in my garden, but if you are going for something more formal, you might want to consider something else.

EDIT: Nearly forgot to add, it will take a little while for many perennial climbers to really get going. It might be a good idea to look at some faster annual climbers to go with it. The faster annuals providing cover for this year while the slower perennials have a chance to get going.

 

They is probably not to much to pick from . Maybe a trachelospemum but that depend on what you call not much sun light .

I've been planting a Garrya today today , they can be trained as a wall shrub and will take full shade winter early spring flowering, could grow a clematis up it like little nell or one of the many others for Summer colour. Tempted to do that myself now .

 

I know you said not Ivy, but you can train Hedera colchica Sulphur Heart or Hedera canariensis Gloire de Marengo on a trellis so it doesn't cling to the wall. A friend did exactly that in UK, and after a few years it formed a superb, free-standing, narrow hedge.

 

And if you want any cuttings I've got about 25 million of them, or did have before it was chipped or binned.

 

Thanks so much everyone for your helpful thoughts. And does anyone have any sort of view about the suitability of jasmine?

 

Jasmine is gorgeous, and can be easy to grow. It doesn't cling to brickwork so I think it ticks that box. Be careful when choosing a variety though as some have different requirements to others, and the winter variety grows quite bushy. Not exactly prickly, but it does send out fairly rigid side shoots.

 

Hi

Its the wind tunnel is the main concern as when it very cold imagine most climbers would struggle to survive

how about a shrub that grows flat against the wall doesnt cause any damage is evergreen and has white flowers in the spring and red berries over winter and is tough looks great 12 months of the year

Cotoneaster horizontalis

 

IME, Jasmine needs lots of sun to flower well, especially Jasmine officinale, the sweetly-scented summer jasmine.

 

Thanks again everyone, very grateful.