Climbers: Reaching new heights

Garden designer Kirsty McLean shares her love of climbing plants…

The wonderful thing about climbers is they are timeless. There is a vast array available and planting climbers is an easy way to create colour and growth in any size of space. 

For the romance of roses around the cottage door, there’s a huge selection of wonderfully scented roses to choose from! My favourites are, Rosa New Dawn, The Generous Gardener, Gertrude Jekyll, and the thorn less Zepherine Drouhin. Roses prefer neutral to acid soil, a pH of around 6.5, but are happy on the margins, so it’s worth testing the soil with a simple home kit beforehand. 

If you’d prefer a more contemporary look, then it’s more about what the climbers are climbing up that creates interest. There are some really decorative screens available to support climbers, or you can create shapes by how you arrange support wires.  Something as simple as arranging vertical support wires to train the plants can be really effective and provide a natural screen. 

Creating focus through 3D structures, like arches and using these to support climbers can be really successful. Creating stylish contemporary shapes in aluminium/metal or wood and clothing these with climbers can look fantastic!

Wall shrubs can be used as climbers. These aren’t natural climbers and require pruning and training to climb, whereas climbers naturally want to. Whether you want scent, evergreen leaf, screening, flower, or all of it, there’s a huge variety to choose from!

Before choosing your climbing plants, it’s important to assess conditions for growing, how exposed the situation is, whether it’s a sunny or shaded location, windy or sheltered etc. This will help you choose the right plant for your spot. 

Not all climbers just flower in summer. Winter flowering jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum) is a shrubby climber, while Lonicera purpusii ‘winter beauty or fragrantissima’ is a shrubby honeysuckle that flowers in winter with the most heavenly scent.  Great for overwintering bees! There are many great summer flowering honeysuckles too, my favourites are Belgica, Serotina and Halliana. For winter leaf, Pyracantha – a thorny plant known for its flaming autumn berries, flowers in May and June.

For a very sheltered shady spot, try evergreen Trachelospermum jasminoides. I have this growing in shade and it loves it!  The blooms are wonderfully scented too. There are hundreds of varieties of Clematis, which are divided into three groups – spring flowering Group, such as Clematis Montana Fragrant Spring Group 2 (flower May/ June) The President or Clematis Niobe and late summer (Group 3) Clematis Viticella or Jackmanii. There are a couple of evergreen Clematis that can grow in North-east
Scotland in a very sheltered spot, Armandii or Cartmanii, but I have found them to be a bit tender on the whole. Plant clematis deep (where the stem is in the pot should be approximately, 6cm below soil level when planted) in early spring, or early to mid-autumn in a sheltered spot where roots are kept cool and moist. For interesting leaf, look at the pink and silver tipped Actinidia Kolomikta.

We all in love a Wisteria.  If you have a very sunny, sheltered wall, it can do well in these climes. Interestingly, Wisteria Sinensis (Chinese Wisteria) grows anti-clock-wise and Wisteria Floribunda (Japanese Wisteria) grows clock-wise. 

For shady spots, try Hydrangea petiolaris, but be careful about position as it climbs on its own suckers like ivy. There are some very beautiful ivies such as Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) and Chinese Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus Henryana); both lose their leaf, but will grow happily in full sun or partial shade.