Pretty climbing plant for partial shade - is it clematis?

Hi all,

The side of my new house needs prettifying and I was thinking about putting some trellis up and growing climbing plants to bring the area alive. I'd like something that is green all year round, flowers would be a bonus. I've been told a clematis would be ideal, but there are many different types I understand. The fence is north facing, but does get oblique sun at the end of the day. As you can see from the photo, there is a small area for planting, but it's stony so maybe growing from a container would
be better.

Any advice really welcome, many thanks, visgraat

 

Try Pileostegia Viburnoides.

 

Check out clematis Advent Bells visgraat
Can you excavate a bit more though? Worth doing because anything in a container will be less vigorous and will be more demanding for water and space.
If you can accept deciduous climbers are attractive for most of the year anyway, from spring to autumn, you open up a far greater choice of plants.......?? Not everything has to be evergreen to look good

 

Hi,

Wonder what you are going to put the plants into ..?

Have you got room to make a narrow boarder of soil ?

Because of the fencing posts and paving you might find that the soil, if any, under them is very poor and will need replenishing.

Clematis do like a good and deep root run, so you will have a bit of work to do. Growing in pots , they will need a lot of watering and unlikely to be at their best.

Another plant that does fine on my north facing wall is a hardy Fuchsia 'Mrs. Popple', grows up to 3-4ft high and flowers until the heavy frosts.

 

What a lovely space!

What you describe as "a small planting area" (please forgive me in advance) I would call: the place where they ran out of paving! To my mind it is far too narrow to do anything with as it stands in its current condition - it will be very dry due to the paving plus concrete settings of the fence posts and too little surface area for rain to be of any great value.

However, do not despair! Those issues can be overcome First, and foremost, do you wish to retain that area as it is, or, are you open to chipping away some of the paving to make the "border strip" wider still?

If you wish to keep it as it is then you will need more than just one simply planter along that fencing. I'm going to assume each fencing length is 6 feet? So, you have around 24 feet of fencing you would like covering? Of course a clematis can do that eventually but clematis are renown more for their height than their girth and a clematis in a container would never be able to cope with 24 feet of spread due to its roots being "contained".



A clematis armandii is evergreen and has fragrant flowers (for a limited time), so there is one container which would easily fit the bill, but it would need to be a big container to give the plant enough root room. Yet, that area could easily handle a variety of containers along it's length and with a variety of plants which would give all year round interest! Ferns would love it, as would hostas; a Fatsia Japonica would be happy in a (large) container in that spot and is not only evergreen, eventually has globular flowers but would add a touch of the "exotic" into the mix too.

I have a chaenomeles in a shady corner, in a pot, and it produces flowers very early in the season, is evergreen and never fails to bring a smile. I have a hydrangea growing in a tub in that same shaded area.

Never underestimate the value of an attractive ivy too - excellent for wildlife!

Personally, I don't believe it is a "one pot with plant fits all" area. I think several pots with a variety of plants which are shade loving would do great there and create their own microclimate.

The downside with lots of containers would be they need constant watering and feeding.

So, an alternative might be to make that "border" much deeper, but that would mean chipping out a good amount of that paving.