Garden Talk

Evergreen Climbers

Garden Talk with Janine Winlaw | Instagram @janinewinlaw

Evergreen climbers are one of the most useful plants in city gardens. Covering fences in green foliage, they blur boundaries and create a lush backdrop for planting throughout the year. There are lots to choose from, all offering something different: foliage, flowers, berries, colour and scent. Here are my favourites.

Luscious leaves

Trachelospermum jasminoides

With neat glossy foliage and sweet smelling flowers, this tops the list. It copes with shade but in sun will reward you with a mass of tiny white summer flowers that smell of the Mediterranean. I also like the ‘Variegatum’ variety with white splashed leaves, or for something different try the yellow flowered ‘Star of Toscana’. Trachelospermum takes a while to establish but will eventually coat your fence in dense foliage, which just needs a light Fab flowers prune after flowering to keep in check. Lonicera japonica ‘Halliana’

Pileostegia viburnoides Evergreen, self-clinging and shade tolerant, this is a useful new find of mine. It has long glossy green leaves and sprays of white flowers in late summer, There’s nothing quite like the sweet smell of honeysuckle and there are various evergreen varieties. This one has white fragrant flowers in spring turning yellow into summer. For more dramatic colour try Lonicera henryi with dark early autumn. It’s slow growing but is a stunning green leaves and purplish-red summer flowers, or sight once established. Happy in sun or shade in L.henryi ‘Copper Beauty’ has bronze leaves and fertile soil. Shorten stems after flowering. beautifully contrasting yellow flowers. Great for

Hydrangea seemannii This is another useful self-clinging evergreen with handsome mid green leaves and large greenish an English country garden feel, honkeysuckles are vigorous and can get woody so cut back by up to two thirds in spring. They like sun or part-shade. cream flower heads from early summer. It will climb Passiflora caerulea high, so useful if you need to cover a tall shady or A seriously exotic climber with evergreen leaves north- facing wall. Keep moist while establishing. and large blue highly ornate flowers from July Brilliant berries to September, followed by orange fruit from late autumn. P. caerulea ‘Constance Eliot’ is a lovely

Pyracantha ‘Orange Glow’ Although strictly speaking a shrub, pyracantha can be trained to cover a wall and is often supplied on a frame ready-trained. It’s thorny and needs white form. Great for a cottage garden or tropical look, it’s another vigorous climber that needs cutting back after flowering to keep in shape. Prefers sun but will tolerate shade. careful pruning to keep flat against the fence Akebia quinata but the stunning autumn berries, dark evergreen This is a very pretty climber often known as leaves and lovely white May blossom are worth chocolate vine probably because of its clusters of the effort. Also available in yellow ‘Saphyr Jaune’ spicy-smelling maroon-chocolate flowers in March or red ‘Saphyr Rouge’. Tie in shoots to extend the to May. They contrast well with the lovely bright framework and shorten branches after flowering to semi-evergreen foliage. Likes full sun but tolerates expose the berries. Happy in sun or shade. shade. Prune back after flowering.