north facing climber

Ha, well that narrows the field a bit!

Probably best to go with a Clematis such as Hagley Hybrid which is a variety that does well in that aspect. It has pale pink, quite large flowers and needs cutting hard back in late winter/spring to about a foot from the base.

Others could be the various Clematis viticella forms which have a large range of colours and flower from mid summer to autumn. Same pruning regime too.

I had the ideal answer till I got to the not white flowers bit.......Hydrangea petiolaris.......but white flowers...:o(

Hi Turts,

The problem that I find with Clematis viticella etc., when planted in full shade is that they tend to want to grow straight upwards taking their flowers with them to find the light and leaving lots of unsightly bare stems lower down.

As Fractal rightly says, they will always require annual maintenance and so will only provide wall-cover for a limited period of the year.

If you have a moderate amount of shelter then I'd go with the evergreen, scarlet flowered Berberidopsis corallina. We have a few here and they've all come through this extremely severe last winter unscathed, proving themselves to be much hardier than I imagined. Beautiful in flower and in leaf too, though you might need to improve the soil conditions depending on what you already have.

An equally good evergreen option would be deep-purple-flowered Akebia quinata - lovely foliage, wonderful, fragrant flowers and edible fruit too if you're lucky!

Both of these actually require shade in order to do well, so your conditions should suit them and they'll provide a striking contrast to your Jasmine.

Good suggestions there Ilex.