My Favorite Climbing Plants

Clematis Montana with simple white flowers.
Copyright © BC Ballard - Creative Commons License

The clematis has many varieties. The flowers come in all sizes and colours and you can usually find one to suit any soil and conditions. Some varieties are evergreen and others deciduous. There are the relatively small and simple flowers of the vigorous Clematis Montana shown here, then look at the first picture on the page showing Clematis 'Dr Ruppel'. You could be forgiven for not realising they were related.

You have to avoid clematis montana in some positions as it can spread extremely fast. It grows thick and is sometimes given the name of the 'mile a minute' clematis because it grows so quickly. Cut it back hard when it spreads too far or grows too thick. It's almost impossible to kill with hard pruning - I know this from the experience of hacking one back with gay abandon twice every year until we moved. It just laughed at me and carried on growing.

Other varieties need a gentler approach and more nurturing. When you buy a clematis, check the conditions it likes and when it needs pruning.

One added bonus with many varieties is, that when the flowers finish, you get an 'old man's beard' effect from the seedheads - see the picture below.

A Climbing Rose, very similar to the one we had.
Copyright © Kurt Stueber - Creative Commons License

On the side wall of our last house, we inherited a beautiful white climbing rose. Judging by its original main stem, it was very old but it grew new stems and flowered profusely every year. This meant we spent a lot of time looking after it. We tied in new stems, cut out old ones, kept deadheading it and, of course, we had to feed it. Every spring we gave it a special treat - a good dose of well-rotted horse manure.

In the 19th century, climbing and rambling roses were probably at their most popular. Now they are ideal for decorating a pergola, arches, old trees or a house wall.

Climbers have much less supple stems than ramblers and they have smaller trusses of flowers but the individual blooms are usually larger, 3 to 5 inches in diameter. Pruning is easier too because the flowers are borne on mature rather than new wood. Many varieties also have repeat flushes of flowers during the summer.

Ramblers have long supple stems but are prone to mildew and only flower for a short period in June and July. They are more suitable for pergolas and arches rather than for growing against walls as the lack of air circulation makes mildew more likely. The flowers grow in large trusses are are about 2 inches in diameter.

Old wisteria vine espaliered onto a wall near the Smithsonian Museum, Washington, DC
Copyright © Catface3 - Creative Commons License

Wisteria are grown for their fountains of hanging, fragrant flowers. They are most often seen grown against the walls of old houses although people do grow them on pergolas and other structures.

They will grow in most soils but poorer soils should be prepared with plenty of well rotted manure. Wisteria needs protection from cold winds and the flower buds can be damaged by frost. Nothing is ever easy, is it?

I've never grown a wisteria although I have wanted to do so. We didn't have anywhere suitable for one in our first garden after we left London. In our second one, we had the same problem. The wall with the climbing rose would have been ideal for a wisteria but we couldn't destroy that beautiful old rose.