Ivy selection

LoL! I keep having to chop it back from the wall!

i did sort of wonder about trying some up my new trellis - before that I had thought about getting them to grow up the wire-mesh fence to provide a living screen. Prob with that is that there's graet chunks of wood on the lower fence, previous tenant's idea of privacy screening, so the plants would have to start about three feet up the fence to have any chance of something to hang on to. I've kept them clear of the walls, no doubt the council would object if I grew them up the walls.

Nice blog. Reminded to get some more Ivies for winter interest.

Hi Fran Ivy is ok for a while but allowed to grow unchecked it is
A twiner that sticks itself into brickwork and twists round trellis. Your pots look really nice and healthy. They are better dangling than climbing. I have one in a pot on a chimney and twined in a globe and then it dangles. There is some growing uninvited in odd places but it gets clobbered

I'm never sure if ivy should be cut back, or when, or how much - so, as usual, I work on the principle that the less I meddle, the better they'' be!

Lovely selection Fran. I once made the mistake of liking ivy when we lived in Essex - I expect the tiny piece I nicked from the nearby playing field has overtaken the entire house and garden by now!!! Oooops!

lol Nariz. In one way I'm glad things are in pots, at least they're controlled to a certain extent. I've heard of trees being brought down because of the weight of the ivy climbing up them, and I'm sure it doesn't do brickwork much good to be climbed up, nice though it looks.

Yes it does look nice over PART of a house. There was a house on my estate that had been covered in Ivy which was killed (looked awful - brown and crispy for a whole year) then removed from the house and the state of the brickwork was incredible! Large gouges everywhere! It must have cost a bomb to repair by the men who spent ages up ladders filling in grooves, then rendering the entire side from chimney to base! I avoid Ivy in all its forms now. :o(

I've seen wire mesh to be bolted on to walls at a few inches distance for plants to climb up, I suppose that would protect the buillding to some extent, but then there's all the holes you have to make to put the bolts in ... I think I'll stick to me pots.

Good thinking! ;o)