Let gardening take you up in the world

Feb 6 2010 by Our Correspondent, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

ONE of the aspects of gardening that has always fascinated me is the vast collection of climbing plants that we have available to us and how we can use these in our own gardens to maximise the often unused and therefore, unproductive vertical space of fences, trees, shrubs, walls and sides of sheds.

With some six different techniques that have evolved over the millennia to lift a plant’s stems up to the sun, let alone the vast range of flowers, foliage, fruits and stems that we can enjoy, it is very difficult to know where to start the search for the perfect climber.

The climbing techniques include twisting stems (for example runner beans), twisting petioles (clematis), tendrils (passion flowers), sucker pads (Virginia creeper), adventitious roots (ivy) and hooks (climbing roses).

Among my favourites are the annual climbers that you can just start from a packet of seed over the next month or two and you can then enjoy a whole summer of colour and, by autumn, they will have faded and died.

Obviously sweet peas are an all time favourite, with their beautiful scent – lots of organic matter below ground and sunshine above ground will guarantee a good crop of flowers from mid-June onwards.

Grow them in the same trenches that you make for your runner beans and you can have flowers and vegetables in the same space.

The black-eyed Susie, thunbergia alata has produced some exciting new hybrids in recent years and is worthy of a place in the garden, trained up the leg of a bird table or climbing up a home-made frame in a container on a sunny patio.

The canary creeper, tropaeolum peregrinum, can be used in the same way, with its bright yellow flowers and its close relative, commonly known as nasturtium, tropaeolum majus will scramble up anything if given the chance – it will also cascade downwards if your circumstances allow for this.

The beautiful Morning Glory, ipomoea tricolor is a typical twisting stem climber and is ideally suited to climbing up a post, a pergola or a wrought iron fence, providing that it can have lots of sunshine.

The world of perennial climbers is vast and it is difficult to know where to start.

Although clematis and climbing roses are probably at the top of most people’s list, there are several excellent climbers that take some beating.

Eccremocarpus scaber, the Chilean glory flower, now in a number of different colours, provide a spectacular show of orange and red tubular flowers from late spring until after the first frosts of autumn – its twining leaf tendrils give it the ability to scramble across fences, shrubs and trees, adding highlights of colour wherever it travels.

Jasmines conjure up images of willow pattern plates, scented teas and highly scented flowers and, given a warm, sheltered corner in full sunshine, you might try the vigorous jasminum officinale with its very fragrant white flowers.

I still enjoy the yellow winter jasmine, jasminum nudiflorum that gives up to six months of flowers over the autumn and winter period, even on a north facing wall.

The Chilean potato tree, solanum crispum is another worthy contender for a warm wall, giving thousands of purple-blue fragrant flowers over the summer – it tends to scramble rather than climb and so will need some help to support itself on a wall.

So, this spring time, take a look around your garden at all the blank vertical spaces and potential climbing frames your garden can offer – a whole new layer of gardening might emerge, giving you extra colour and interest throughout the year.