Training Hydrangea Petiolaris

I never trained any of the ones we have grown and they managed to climb the walls quite well.

The two I have did it all by themselves. I do trim back the outgrowing stems now and again, but that's all.

Sorry, OB, we crossed! (Glad we agreed)

Thanks very much for your replies. So I am guessing that when the outgrowing stems start to infringe my archway I can just trim it back and when should I do it?
Regards

We prune ours as and when we get round to it. Probably better after flowering though. You may have to wait a few years before you need to prune it though, they are not fast growers in the beginning.

Great stuff, thanks very much for your advice

You will probably need to fasten it up somehow until it gets the idea but by the second year it should be clinging itself as ivy does. Blu tak wont work though as it comes off when wet! Perhaps two or three masonry nails and some wire?

I've just bought one and it is supposed to be self clinging. Looks like it will be a slow starter so looking forward to seeing it romp away in 3 years time :-) I only paid £3.25 for it so not expecting a large plant better than the prices I saw in some catalogues. Not sure if we allowed to mention suppliers on here but crossed fingers the plants I get are good because they could save me a fortune!

I bought last year one still small think I paid £5.50 .

I am interested to see how it will perform for me.

I have several in the garden and I did give them support against the wall for the first few years. I just used canes to hold one of them in place until it started to cling The second one was planted beside a trellis and once it found its way inside that and on to the wall behind it started putting out little roots to cling to the wall. Thethird one was torn off the wall by the fierce winds we have had recently so I have provided some support for it in the hope that it will attach itself again. They do not tunnel in to walls like Ivy does. I prune back shoots which are growing too far out from the wall after flowering and any straggly bits get cut off as and when necessary. I have posted a photo of one of mine so you can see once it gets going and starts to cling it is easily kept in check.