By Annebroyd
Surrey,
United Kingdom
I have just had a trellis put up on an 18ft fence at the back of my courtyard garden. I want to trail a mixture of mock orange, clematis and honeysuckle to cover it. Any ideas how many of each plant I would need to buy, and the best time to plant them?
Any other tips on planting, choice of plant (evergreen where possible!) etc. would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Anne
14 Jan, 2011
Previous question
Here's where a latin name is needed, Anne - you're thinking of planting a 'mock orange' but to me, that's a Philadelphus, which isn't a climber - it's a free standing shrub. Did you mean that? It's also deciduous.
Evergreen clematis - yes, there are some. They flower in the winter months - look at the Clematis cirrhosa group. The one that's most often seen is 'Freckles' but there are others. All lovely and worth growing. They take up about 6 - 8' of trellis each when they're mature. There's also C. armandii, but I wouldn't recomend that for a trellis - once it gets going, it's very vigorous.
Honeysuckle -there are quite a number of evergreen varieties, so that would be fine - choose a not-so-vigorous one, though, or it'll take over the trellis! One plant would also take up 6 - 8' of your space.
It looks as though you need three plants max. to cover that length. You could add a spring/early summer flowering group 2 clematis so you'd have something in flower most of the year. That would be deciduous, and only needs a trim to keep it tidy. Group 2 clems often flower twice, too! :-))
14 Jan, 2011