Archive for February, 2010

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Planting trees (and shrubs too…).

Friday, February 12th, 2010

An old gardening book of mine quotes the owner of a large country estate (one which boasts an impressive collection of rare trees) as saying that he paid: “a shilling for the tree and a pound for the hole,” the pound being the cost of the labour involved to dig a sufficient hole. This quote has always stuck with me, and generally runs through my mind pretty much every time I plant anything larger than a bulb.

Prunus incisa - a pretty flowering cherry that makes an ideal garden tree.

The simple fact is that, once planted, trees and larger shrubs will likely never be moved, and, if all goes well, will remain in place for decades or even centuries to come. Aside from mulching, the only chance that you will ever have to improve the structure of the ground where they will grow is at the time of planting. Bearing that in mind it has to be well worthwhile putting in the time and effort to ensure your spindly sapling will one day grow into a mighty tree (or shrub…)

Although it’s possible, with care, to plant at any time of the year, by far the best seasons are  late autumn and the early spring, when the plants will be dormant and will suffer far less shock than they would in the growing season. The ideal weather is cloudy, cool, windless and most definitely frost-free, so if necessary delay planting until suitable conditions occur.

It was long thought by many that the most important factor in tree planting was the fertilisation of the ground, with the addition of composts, manures and so on. Research has now shown this to be not the case; in fact the fertilisation of your planting hole is actually likely to prove harmful, or even fatal to new trees, the emphasis instead is all on the preparation of the hole itself.

Planting hole preparation - the most important job of all.

Generally speaking the bigger the planting hole the better. The aim is to break up as large an area of soil as possible, not in terms of depth, but rather width, because it’s here that your tree will be making it’s initial forays into it’s new soil.

How big is big? Certainly the planting hole should be considerably larger than the root ball of your new tree and none of the roots should have to be bent or curled to fit in.

It’s important to plant on the same day as you dig the hole as exposure to the elements will kill off many of the beneficial micro-organisms, and in particular the fungi that are present in the soil. Microrrhizal fungi are amongst the most essential members of the subterranean community as far as plants are concerned, and most trees actually derive much of their nutrition not directly from the soil, but rather from these fungi with whom they set up a symbiotic relationship.

Mound planting - to help trees establish on wet ground.

It’s often necessary to be a bit flexible with your planting location too. If you dig down and find standing water or a layer of bedrock, for instance then it’s best to stop right there and consider a new spot.

Having said that trees can be planted in wet sites by mounding soil up above ground level. We’ve taken this approach is a seasonally wet patch of our garden where we have succeeded in establishing a number of Acer palmatum by planting each one on a large mound as much as 60cm above the natural ground level.

In very dry locations you can take the opposite approach and plant in a dip so that any rain-water that happens by will be diverted to the roots of your tree. Be very, very wary, though, of creating a sump that collects water all year round, roots need oxygen as well as water so this is a quick recipe for a drowned plant.

Staking - short and sweet.

Before reaching for the tree, the next step is to consider staking. Unless your new arrival is on the short and stocky side then it’s often necessary to secure by tying to a stake. This makes sure then tree isn’t rocked – or even uprooted – in the wind and will allow it to properly establish at the roots.

Stakes should be short but sturdy – always thicker than the tree itself. It doesn’t matter if the top of the tree moves around (within reason), in fact it promotes thickening of the trunk, and if you stake too high you will end up with a perpetually spindly trunk that may never be able to support itself.

Securely drive the stake into the planting hole on the side of the prevailing wind and make sure you have a good, durable tie to hand – preferably rubber or plastic to minimise rubbing – and long enough to secure the tree but still allow for some movement and flexing, again to encourage strengthening of the trunk.

A rootbound pot-grown tree.

Once the hole is prepared you can unwrap or un-pot your tree or shrub and take a good look at its root system. My experience of planting many thousands of trees and shrubs is that unless the roots are relatively free and open then establishment will be delayed, often for several years. This is particularly key if your tree has been pot-grown.

If the roots are looking bound-together and have spiralled around the inside of the pot, and a gentle shaking and teasing won’t budge them, then the best remedy is to soak or hose away some (or even most) of the compost to try to free the roots without breaking them.

Next mound up a small amount of the top soil that you’ve previously removed into the centre of the planting hole until the tree sits with the base of it’s stem/trunk at the natural surrounding ground level. This level is really crucial. If you plant too deep, with the trunk collar under ground level, then the bark at the base of the tree will almost certainly rot off and the tree will be killed. Too high and the roots will be exposed, severely weakening, and probably destabilising the whole plant.

Then, breaking up all large clumps of soil that you’ve dug out, and crumbling everything into as fine a tilth as possible (again to allow quick and easy root penetration) quickly infill the rest of the planting hole and gently press in with your hands – not with a big stomping, root and air crushing boot! – then water thoroughly to let the soil settle into the hole.

The only material that goes back into the planting hole should be that which came out – or if it’s very poor or stony, other topsoil from as near as possible to the planting hole.

Why not take the opportunity to add lots of juicy well rotted manure or compost to feed the tree? The breaking down of this type of material completely changes the soil chemistry near the tree roots. It robs the soil of oxygen for it’s own decomposition, kills most of the beneficial, but very delicate fungi, and creates excess moisture that leads to root rot. Fertilisers also promote excess shoot and leaf growth, but do nothing for the root system, and will leave the tree with a desperate imbalance that may result in massive die-back as time passes.

Betula nigra - the river birch: well mulched, grass-free and thriving.

Finally it’s important to protect the new tree from competition for water from weeds, and particularly grass – vital if planting in a lawn or field. So once safely planted and staked the planting hole should then be mulched.

We use purpose made mulch mats, which fit flat over the planting hole and give years of protection as they slowly decompose. Well composted bark or garden compost is another, and more attractive alternative for the garden, but be sure to leave the trunk itself mulch-free or you’ll invite basal bark rot once again.

All that then remains is to keep well watered during dry spells, particularly for the first few years, and top up with an annual mulch. Then, sit back and enjoy the fruits of your one-days-labour for many, many years to come.


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Garden Tips

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Wicked weather over most of the country has left many of our evergreen shrubs battered and tattered. When and how should they be tidied up? Not yet, and carefully, is the short answer.

Some shrubs have split branches which, surprisingly perhaps, can be bound up with insulating tape or similar and may ‘heal’ themselves. Others with frost tinged shoot tips – many of the cistuses, hebes and ceanothuses and foliage plants such as pittosporum and bay – must be left for a while; there is more nasty weather to come, we are told. It may well be that once these dead tips are removed in April, early shrubs will have their flower power much reduced for this year. However they can be pruned properly in June to encourage new shoots that will flower in 2011. Hebes (that flower later) may fare better, but for those that are badly maimed this may be the year to renovate them completely, pruning them hard back (not before May) and sacrificing this year’s flowers.

One thing we can tackle with vim and vigour this month is rose pruning – all those traditional bush roses and lanky Modern Shrubs (e.g. English Roses) can be reduced by two thirds, the dead, oldest and skinniest wood removed completely. My tip? Start by crouching right down and look at the bushes from below to identify the shoots that should come out, and observe how the basic structure looks. You are aiming to produce a balanced ‘candelabra’ shape with dormant buds (in the leaf scars) facing outwards and as few crossing branches and ‘dog-legs’ as possible – hard to achieve if you just fiddle around pruning roses from the top downwards.


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New Garden Arch

Monday, February 8th, 2010

February

Well it is certainly a pleasure getting out into my garden again after all the cold and frozen weather.  I had a few projects that I was itching to do.  Firstly the snow had broken the support to a very old Clematis Montana, which had in turn squashed the shrubs in the rest of the border. The Clematis was in dire need of a haircut as it had become a rather unsightly tangle.  I had also been given a lovely arch  for Christmas made from galvanised steel which I wanted to use to replace a slightly rickety black plastic arch already in the garden.  So this was the perfect opportunity to change everything round.

Old arch relocated in garden

Old arch relocated in garden

I enlisted the help of my husband and by the end of a tiring but satisfying day we had dismantled the old broken arch, constructed the new arch and taken down and re-erected the black plastic arch tying in the now much smaller Clematis as we went. I now need to buy some more climbers for my new arch.   I had thought to use  Climbing Roses and Honeysuckles but then I thought about using it for vegetables instead I can’t seem to make my mind up at the moment so I think a wander round RHS Wisley  or West Dean Gardens near Chichester will give me some inspiration and a lovely thing to do on a bright day.

My new garden arch

The second job I wanted to tackle was to cut the bank to the side of my house. This was because I had noticed masses of Snowdrops pushing their delicate little heads through the soggy leaves and tangles of brambles and old grass. Now I know that they are there I will strim this area in the Autumn but as we had moved here in December it was a job that required my trusty shears and the upmost patience so as not to spoil them. As I cleared the bank I also noticed that there were also daffodils ready to take over when the snowdrops fade. With these tasks completed I can now turn my attention to the rest of the garden.

I must get to grips with where I want to sight my Vegetable garden I may use a border that runs through part of the garden by my new arch this year as there are many plans afoot to change certain areas of the garden.  So watch this space.  I think that this should work for a while, it may be small but the soil is well dug and nicely worked so not too much digging for me as it had already been cleared. There were some very, very old and mainly dead lavender bushes in it and it was a joy to have them removed. I can sow some Broad Beans this week and plant some onions and garlic as well alittle late as I like to plant  them normally before Christmas but the soil was too frozen.


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Making a wildflower garden.

Monday, February 8th, 2010

The wildflower meadow - ablaze with colour.

Over the last 15-or so years there’s been a major shift in gardening tastes, with the emphasis moving ever more towards natural, ecological and wilder-looking gardens, and for many the ultimate goal is for a least a patch of their plot to emulate a real floral habitat.

Along with the ever popular woodland garden, undoubtedly the number 1 environment that most gardeners would like to invite back home is the wildflower garden. The appeal of swathes of colourful flowers growing harmoniously in a meadow, or at least a mini-meadow, is pretty powerful and evocative, and for many sums up what they like most about the British countryside.

So far so good, but it’s crucial to realise that a wildflower garden is not simply a piece of land that’s been left to it’s own devices. If you were to try that out in your own garden you would quickly find the whole thing running riot, enveloped in thick, choking weeds and scrubby interlopers whose wind-borne seeds would waste no time in taking root.

Cornflower - one of the quintessential British wildflowers.

The simple reason for this is fertility. Gardens, particularly those that have been tilled for generations, are, relatively speaking, extremely fertile bits of land that can play host to a vast array of plants. Wildflower meadows, by contrast, are notoriously impoverished of nutrients. The flowers that we all admire succeed there because they are pioneers that have evolved to exploit niches that would cause any self-respecting shrub to curl up and wither.

What all this means is that to successfully re-create that wildflower meadow in your garden is going to require some planning, work and ongoing maintenance.

Wildflower gardens can be as small as a dedicated bed or as large as a full-blown meadow, so firstly decide on the boundaries of the area that you will be working with, and also consider how it will work in relation to it’s surroundings – i.e. the rest of the garden and the hard landscaping/buildings etc. You will need a site that is, to all intents and purposes, in full sun, ideally with a southerly aspect.

Greater Knapweed - one of the best of all butterfly and bee attracting wildflowers.

Then, every vestige of whatever is currently growing in this defined area has to be completely removed, and that means the seeds in the soil too. In practice this is best achieved by whipping out the first two to three inches of topsoil. This is also the area of maximum fertility in the soil, so you’ll also be dramatically reducing the quality of the soil – which, of course is exactly what’s called for.

Alternatively consider removing an old piece of lawn. Areas with old turf can make ideal wildflower beds, since the soil beneath the grass won’t have been cultivated and will therefore be pretty impoverished. Either way once you’ve got back to the bare soil you then want to gently turn over the very surface, really just the top inch or two, and no deeper, just enough to give your incoming wildflowers something to get their new roots into.

Birds Foot Trefoil - a foodplant for many butterflies & moths.

Although it’s not essential, if you have the time and patience a good option at this point is to cover the entire area with plastic sheeting for a period of 3 months or so, which will effectively cleanse many (though not all) of the weed seeds that your new cultivation will have brought to the surface.

Your preparation efforts should be geared towards a spring planting, so that your new arrivals can get an immediate start into growth. As for what to plant, it’s absolutely crucial that you consider your soil type and moisture levels. Lots of the country’s finest wildflower meadows occur on dry chalk grasslands, which is fine if you happen to garden on similar soil, but don’t expect the same plants to survive if you have a damp, acid soil site. Try to take inspiration from the natural habitats around you, and consider the range of plants that are likely to succeed where you are.

Selfheal.

When it comes to the planting itself you can buy wildflower seed mixes and broadcast them over the whole area. The seed tends to extremely small, almost dust-like, and it can be useful to mix it with fine sand to ensure you get a good even coverage. Rake the soil over very gently after sowing, and keep it all watered if you’re planting in a dry spell. You can also buy small plug-type plants – although this is obviously impractical on a larger scale – and it’s often best to combine both approaches to get a good diversity of plants as well as a quick establishment.

Red Fescue - ideal for quickly filling in bare patches.

If you are planting a large area then you’ll also want to incorporate low growing creeping grasses such as Fescues. These will help to cover the area quickly and prevent the establishment of couch grass and other nasties.

Once everything is up and growing then keep an eye out for invading weeds – nettles, docks, and other broad-leafed weeds can arrive, but if your soil preparation was good then they won’t survive long. Also, make very sure that no fertilizer/compost run-off reaches your new wildflowers, or you’ll likely be back to square one.

When the wildflower garden is fully established then long-term maintenance consists mainly of mowing (at the very highest possible setting – or better yet strim or grab a scythe) in mid to late autumn, by which time the perennials will have started dying down and the seed heads from the annuals will be ready to return back to the soil.

If you’re lucky enough to have a large area to dedicate to a wildflower garden then think about leaving mown paths that will allow you to get right out into the midst of the action. Surrounded by the hum of bees and hoverflies, what could be better on a warm summers evening.


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Unusual Spring bulbs.

Friday, February 5th, 2010

Aside from the merry gambling of new-born lambs, the appearance above ground of brightly coloured flowering bulbs must be the most widespread, well-understood and potent symbol of a British spring. Hedgerows and grassy banks throughout the land play host to snowdrops from late January onwards, whilst carpets of bluebells dominate the finest mixed woodlands in May.

Camassia cusickii.

Some time in between these two native wildflower spectaculars many gardens also erupt into colourful life with their own spring bulb displays. These are, for the most part, almost entirely dominated by the “Big Four” – Daffodils, Crocus, Tulips and Hyacinths. There are, however, other spring bulbs that, whilst perhaps a little less well known, are neither expensive nor difficult to obtain, and are generally no more tricky to grow than your average Narcissus. Most importantly though, all of these are extremely garden-worthy and will bring variety, depth and much added interest to any garden in springtime. So without further ado, let’s introduce these bulbous understudies in alphabetical order, and see if we can’t elevate a few of them to centre stage in the garden.

Camassias are large-flowering natives of damp grassland in the US. They are tough growers and the perfect choice for that slightly dodgy, poorly drained damp spot in the garden, where they will naturalise readily, doing particularly well in heavy clay soils. They vary from the metre tall Camassia cusickii to the 30cm C. esculenta, all featuring densely clustered, widely opened star-shaped flowers of white, electric blue or rarely, blush pink.

Chinodoxa forbesii 'Blue Giant'.

Next up are the Chionodoxa, AKA Glory of the Snow. These 15cm tall little beauties from Turkey are amongst the earliest of all spring bulbs to flower, with the first blooms brightening the grey days of February and continuing for a month or so. Naturalising easily in sunny areas of the lawn or amongst border shrubs, they boast strappy-petalled flowers of pale to vivid blue along with others of pure white. C. forbesii ‘Blue Giant’ is one of the finest of all, with bi-coloured flowers of bright blue with a white centre.

Colchicum – lovingly known as naked ladies for their habit of flowering on bare stems before the leaves emerge – are essentially Crocuses on steroids, and are usually associated entirely with autumn flowering. Actually, though, most of the 50-odd species flower in spring, and a few of these are ideal subjects for alpine beds and rock gardens. C. kesselringii is one such, with white Crocus-y flowers streaked with violet, whilst Colchicum szovitsii is perhaps the pick of the bunch, with large, cup-shaped flowers of pure white.

Fritillaria pallidiflora.

I’ll confess here and now that before returning to garden in North Devon I was long obsessed with Fritillaries. They seemed to me to be amongst the most intricate, perfect and beautiful of all flowers. Indeed they still do, but the majority are best grown in alpine conditions, which is not something that we have in abundance down here. There are, though, a handful of species that are just as easy to grow, and, with their nodding bonnets of white, purple, yellow and chartreuse, are far more unusual than any Tulip. Fritillaria meleagris – the deep purple checkerboard flowered Snakes’ Head Fritillary – is a rare British native wildflower whose natural habitat is damp grassland where it self-seeds and spreads very pleasingly. In the garden it is just as happy in semi-shade in a regular border.  Other shade-loving Frit’s include F. uva-vulpis, with gorgeous burgundy flowers tipped with canary yellow, the creamy F. pallidiflora, the jade and maroon F. acmopetala and the near black flowered F. elwesii. Sun-lovers include F. michailovskyi and the large and very beautiful primrose flowered F. raddeana.

Ipheion ‘Wisley Blue’.

Amongst the smallest, but also the cutest of Spring bulbs are the Ipheions. Perfect for container growing, but also ideal for the front of borders or on rock gardens where they will vigorously increase. Ipheions have grass like foliage and flared flowers, rather like a widely opened Tulip, but in rose pink, white, and, an array of blues. The baby blue of Ipheion ‘Wisley Blue’ is my personal favourite.

Leucojums, the Snowflakes, are also favourites of mine. These over-large Snowdrop relatives are terrific for naturalising in grass or beneath shrubs in semi-shade in the border, where they will push through from late Feb, just after their smaller cousins have peaked. After some botanical jiggling there are now just two species in the genus and the 60cm tall European native L. vernum is the one to grow for Spring flowering.

Nectaroscordum siculum.

Alliums have now become one of the mainstays of the summer garden, but a close relative, Nectaroscordum siculum, can bring some of that same charm and elegance to the late Spring garden too, with lovely, loose umbels of white and burgundy stained flowers, each like a miniature Gladiolus. The seed heads are also highly attractive and sit atop the metre-plus tall stems well into autumn.

The Grape Hyacinths, Muscari, must be the most widely grown of these less usual spring bulbs, and there can’t be many gardeners who aren’t already familiar with the densely packed little blue or white flowers spikes of M. armericanum and M. azuream. M. latifolium varies the theme with twin-coloured flowers of bright blue and near black, whilst M. ‘Comosum’ heads off in a whole different direction with open-topped flowers of purple that look like a baby lavender. Best of all though has to be the sulphur-yellow flowered M. macrocarpum. This really needs a sunny, well-drained spot in the garden, but rewards with a powerful fragrance as well as the delightful flowers.

Ornithogalum nutans.

Ornithogalum is a large genus of Hyacinth relatives with representatives across southern Europe and Africa. O. arabicum, the fancifully named Star of Bethlehem, is one of the best for British gardens, with large stems reaching 80cm, supporting a mass of white star-shaped flowers. My pick, though, is definitely O. nutans, a shorter species, to 20 cm or so. This sports flowers of the palest jade, edged with white and is a great naturaliser in grass or the border. Another similar Hyacinth relative is Puschkinia libanotica, an extremely easy, vigorous and free flowering bulb with blue-veined white star-shaped flowers produced in March and April.

Scilla Peruviana.

The final genus I want to mention are the Scillas, or Squills. These are all bright blue flowered species, with an array of white flowered cultivars in support. They range from the teeny-tiny S. siberica, which excels in shady borders, through the March flowering, mid-sided (15cm or so) S. bifolia, which is ideal for naturalising in grass, to the giant flowered Mediterranean S. peruviana. With it’s buds of intense violet, this last species is a real show-stopper and given a bright, well drained spot it might just prove the highlight of any late Spring garden.


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Gardening in the shade.

Monday, February 1st, 2010

One of the hot topics that always seems to rear it’s head at various gardeners question time events – both organised and of the more spontaneous, “Can I just ask you…” variety – is what to grow in the shade.

Acer palmatum - almost full grown & under shade.

Most gardens have at least some shade, and many have little else. Small urban gardens, in particular, are often overshadowed by the buildings that surround them, whilst others are hemmed in by rows of ageing coniferous hedging.

Where I garden, however, we have a large site that catches the western sun, and we spend much of our time trying desperately to create shade – why so, you may ask? Whilst the quintessential “English Cottage Garden” was made up largely of sun worshippers, the fact of the matter is that the majority of temperate plants – those would be the ones hardy enough for us to grow in our gardens – have actually evolved specifically to grow in shade.

Until fairly recently pretty much the entire northern hemisphere was forested, and, aside from the loftiest of trees, all the plants were pretty much denizens of the forest floor, or at least it’s dappled edges. What this means to us gardeners is that there is a veritable cornucopia of shade-loving and shade-tolerant plants from which to choose, so to those who have shady gardens I generally start by saying “lucky you, with so much choice!”

Acer griseum - the paper-bark Maple.

Moving through the virtual forest canopy (now represented by the side of our neighbours house) let’s start at the top, with the big stuff. It’s true that there aren’t many full-size trees that are entirely happy in full shade because of course they would ordinarily be the ones creating the shade. Instead there is a world of understory trees. These are the ones that have evolved to fit beneath the giants, and have learned to live in their shadow. In all but the largest gardens these understory-ers will fit the bill of garden tree very well, with the added benefit that they’re unlikely ever to get so big as to uproot the house foundations.

Acer’s are widely represented across all of the temperate world, and the familiar Japanese Maples – Acer palmatum, japonicum and shirasawanum come in a multitude of forms and make ideal and extremely beautiful garden trees. The genus also includes Acer grisium, with glorious peeling bark, and close relative Acer trifloum with jaw-dropping autumn colour. A touch larger growing, but still in scale, the snake-bark Maples – Acer davidii and it’s kin – have beautifully striped and patterned bark as well as decent autumn tints.

Cornus kousa - the Chinese Dogwood tree.

Understory trees with good flowers include Cornus kousa, C. florida and their hybrids, with large, showy floral bracts of red pink and white, and the Rosebud trees – Cercis canadensis and C. siliquastrum. These have fascinating pea-type flowers that emerge directly from the wood of the branches in early spring before the trees have leafed out.

Magnolia virginiana is a mid-sized North American species that, unlike it’s more familiar Asian cousins, flowers happily in shade, as does Viburnum sieboldii, which also produces showy red fruit in autumn.

Moving downwards in our virtual canopy we arrive at the shrub level, where we’ll find a truly vast array of eager shade lovers. Rhododendrons and Camellias are well known, and most require at least semi-shade to succeed.

Illicium floridanum - the all-spice bush.

Some of my favourite less well-known shade-loving shrubs include Enkianthius spp., all with beautiful little hanging-lantern flowers of cream and red, Magnolia relative Illicium floridanum with exploding star-shaped flowers of the deepest maroon red, and the Lantern Tree, Crinonedrum hookerianum, with attractive very dark green evergreen foliage that serves as a foil to its bright scarlet flowers.

Magnolia wilsonii is surely one of the most beautiful of all flowering shrubs and just loves the shade – it’s also one of the few Magnolia species that fruits well in this country with a cascading display of vivid orange fleshy seed pods in autumn. Euonymus species are also excellent for seed and fruit, and native E. europaeus ‘Red Cascade’ combines this with bright red autumn leaf colour.

Magnolia wilsonii - can you live without one in your garden?

Many of the finest and most garden-worthy bamboos require shade too, and though they’re actually grasses rather than shrubs, they certainly fulfil the same kind of role in the garden. If I had to choose just one it would have to be Thamnocalamus crassinodus – beautifully delicate foliage and blue-white powdered canes, a real show-stopper.

Beneath the shrubs the possibilities are almost limitless. I’ll cherry-pick just a few. Ferns come in a vast array of shapes, sizes (even colours) and most will thrive even in deep shade. The Ostrich fern – Matteuccia struthiopteris - is one of the most dramatic.

With often stunning foliage as well as beautiful flowers Epimedium are extremely fashionable and beautiful little woodlanders that should be in every garden. Bergenia spp. – so called Elephant’s Ears – may actually already be in every garden…completely bomb-proof shade lovers with great flowers and foliage. Polygonatum – Solomon’s Seal – are another large-ish genus of elegant shade-lovers, whilst Hellebores, Digitalis, Cyclamen, Heuchera, Vinca and shade-loving Geranium including G. macrorrhizum & G. phaum are widely available in most plant outlets.

Schizophragma hydrangeoides - perfect for clothing shady walls.

Two final mentions. Firstly, for the toughest, driest darkest and most inhospitable corner of your garden can I suggest Rubus calcynoides, the delightful creeping raspberry, with its decorative evergreen foliage and usefully spreading habit.

Secondly, finding good climbing plants for shade can be tough. Clematis and Honeysuckle will certainly grow well enough, but both tend to be leggy and poor flowering in shade.

Much better options are the fabulous Akebia quinata, with its chocolate/vanilla scented, splayed-cup flowers of deepest maroon, the crimson flowered south American twiner Berberidopsis corallina and Schizophragma hydrangeoides, a self-clinging evergreen Hydrangea relative with handsome foliage and flowers of white or pink.


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