Climbing plants cleverly conceal buildings with foliage and flowers

Press, 27 April 1989, Page 30

Climbing plants cleverly conceal buildings with foliage and flowers

Vigorous and easily trained, with widely varying foliage and flowers, climbers can be grown to conceal unattractive buildings and provide privacy and shade. Climbing plants have much less woody or ■supporting tissue in their stems and branches than other perannials. They are too tender or lax to remain unright without support. As climbing plants occupy vertical and not horizontal space, they

are valuable additions to any garden, particularly urban gardens where space is usually limited. Most climbers can be trained to assume almost any shape or to fit any space. Sprawling climbers, both ramblers and trailers, will spread their branches along the ground, climbing through or over bushes that are in their path. Such plants make excellent ground cover for large areas or steep banks where little else will grow.

There are many species suited to covering arches and pergolas, or for growing in positions where they will protect patios and verandahs from hot summer sun. The smaller less vigorous species of climbers can be grown in hanging baskets from which their branches will hang down. They also do well tumbling over small walls or rocks in a rockery. Vigorous, deep-rooted climbing plants show the effects of neglect more rapidly than most other plants. If planted in wrong positions or left unpruned and uncared for, they can break down fences, harbour vermin and strangle shrubs and trees. The manner in which the plant climbs, its ultimate height and its rate of development should all be considered when selecting a vine. There are climbers which cling by sending out sucker pads or aerial rootlets. Sucker pads cling to such surfaces as brick, stone or timber. Virginia Creeper, with spectacular autumn colouring, climbs by this means. Aeroal rootlets are brush-like and grow from the plant stems. These rootlets find their way into cracks, crevices of walls and rockeries. English Ivy

climbs by this method and eventually forms a network of branches that are strong enough to support a man’s weight. Not all ivies are as strong as this and there is a wide range of smaller, more elegant species and cultivars. Climbing Fig and the colourful Campsis (Chinese trumpet creeper) are all examples of plants with aerial roots. The most numerous of the ornamental and edible vines are twiners, climbing plants which twine their stems around a support. Some develop strong, ropelike stems, for example, Wisteria, grown for their beautiful, pendulous spring flowers. Jasmine is a rampant twiner and its stems will run along the ground and root readily if left unattended. Twining plants must be given a support that is not too thick for. them to coil around. If they have pendulous sprays they should be trained over arches or pergolas.

Another group of climbers bear threadlike tendrils which twist around objects as in Clematis. Another group has long slender stems which respond well to training, tying and support. Bougainvilleas, potato vine and climbing roses are examples. All climbing plants need pruning, especially the removal of old wood to make room for stronger, new growth. Self-clinging climbers can be sheared off in late winter to prevent them from becoming too thick and keep them tidy. Climbers grown for the quality of their foliage are best pruned in late winter, then fertilised and remulched to encourage new shoots. Some vines need little or no pruning except to remove old or dead wood. These include some of the clematis and hoyas. The hoya is a special case because flowering occurs on the spurs that remain after the old flowers fall, so they should never be removed. Flowering vines fall into two pruning categories, those which flower on new wood and must be pruned in late winter or early spring, and those which flower on the previous season’s ripe wood and so must be pruned after flowering.

Bougainvilleas, climbing hydrangea and the pototo vine (Solanum) must be pruned in early spring. A large number require pruning after flowering — jasmines, roses and wisterias. Climbers are usually panted as permanent fixtures, so take time to prepare the soil, making sure the root ball is moist and that the hole is adequte to take the spread-out roots, and of course, fasten them to a support.

GARDENS