15 minute read
Gardening Mary Payne MBE
Coping with cunning climbers
Plantsthat climb have so many uses in the garden. Concealing unsightly fences, adding height to borders when climbing through obelisks, adding a different season of interest to a rather ordinary shrub that has finished flowering, clambering into trees, adding interest to walls and all that as well as adding beauty, colour and often scent to your garden.
However, before rushing out to the garden centre it is important that you understand how climbers climb so the right support can be provided for them.
Plants have evolved some pretty ingenious methods of getting where they want to and that is usually to the top. their sole aim is to grow up to get whatever light is available. Even bindweed has that one aim in mind.
Clematis, the queen of climbers, is deservedly the top choice for many, with an abundance of flowers and sometimes followed by attractive fluffy seed heads for winter interest. there is a clematis to suit every situation. they “climb” by twisting their leaf stalks around whatever they touch and therefore need a trellis or netting to cling on to. they are unable to scale a wall or fence without additional support. It is vital to choose a clematis that is of an appropriate vigour for your chosen site. Clematis montana is a rampant climber and can easily smother a 30 feet high tree. too often it resembles a gigantic bird’s nest of dead wood, but it can be pruned quite drastically, immediately after flowering, without affecting the next season’s flower.
For enhancing a shrub to add another season of interest, choose a clematis indicated on the label to be in the Group 3 or Hard Prune type. this group are pruned hard in late February and will grow again and flower on current season’s growth. the purple leaved smoke bush looks great combined with the pink flowered C. ‘Hagley Hybrid’ or perhaps a flowering currant draped in C. ‘Venosa Violacea’. always plant the clematis on the north side of the shrub and on the outer edge. By doing this the clematis will get rain and will want to grow towards the south side. the same thing applies if planting a clematis to grow into an established tree. Plant on the outer edge of the tree canopy and train the clematis on a cane into the head of the tree. Make sure your clematis is not too vigorous for your tree.
I use clematis to conceal down pipes by wrapping an appropriately coloured piece of clematis netting around the pipe for the leaf stalks to grab. Group 3 clematis also make striking partners for climbing roses up pillars. the clematis uses the stems of the rose as support while the rose needs to be tied into the pillar. Hard pruning in late February enables the rose also to be pruned. two useful shade tolerant climbers ideal for north facing walls are the climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea annomala susbp. petiolaris) flowering in late spring and Pileostegia viburnoides, performing in late summer. the latter has the added advantage of being evergreen.
Both of these climb by forming aerial roots which are able to cling onto walls and are often described as self-clinging climbers. these aerial roots are not feeding roots and will not penetrate the surface, but it is best to ensure the wall surface is sound. Both these climbers are slow to get started so
With MARY PAYNE MBE
patience is required but worth the wait. Ivy uses the same method. sweet peas, cucumbers, vines and many climbers have tendrils, often modifications of a leaf or a stem that allow them to twist around any suitable support. Ideally the stems of sweet peas should be tied in and all the tendrils removed as they are prone to grab any nearby flower bud.
Virginia creeper and Boston ivy valued for their rich autumnal foliage tints have evolved their tendrils to have suckers at their tips enabling them to cling to virtually any surface, but beware they leave their suckers behind even when dead!
Many climbers twine by spiralling their stems around any suitable support. those familiar with the songs of Flanders and swann will recall the “right-handed bindweed and the left-handed honeysuckle”. It is easier to think of them as twining clockwise or anticlockwise when viewed from above.
I am sure you have tried to persuade your runner beans to climb the pole only for them to decide to go the other way. they prefer to spiral anti-clockwise. Each plant keeps to its own direction of spiral with the vast majority being clockwise and unlike the direction of spiral of the water going down the plughole in your bath plants stay the same regardless of which hemisphere they are growing in.
However, the two main species of wisteria spiral in opposite directions. the Chinese wisteria spirals anticlockwise and the Japanese clockwise!
Climbing roses are not climbers at all, but slightly stronger growing forms of bush roses and require total support. Rambling roses, on the other hand, are very vigorous with a desire to get to the top of their world. to achieve this, they have evolved downward pointing thorns. these cling onto rough surfaces such as tree bark very effectively, like a cat climbing a tree.
Particularly good at going up, but not so elegant at coming down as you will find if trying to pull down on a rose branch. always plant the rose outside the canopy of the tree, as described above for a clematis. select your climber with care paying attention to the vigour, aspect of its location regarding sun or shade, length of flowering season, ease of training and hardiness. look for plants with good growth from the base. It is the roots of the plant you are paying for.
Water well for its first growing season and you will be rewarded with flowers, foliage, screening, and accommodation for wildlife.
Clematis Miss Bateman
• Check for briar suckers coming from the roots of roses and remove them flush with the roots to avoid getting more. •Vigorous shrubs such as Firethorn [Pyracantha] will benefit from having over-long shoots pruned back and this will stop them hiding the attractive berries which should have formed on old growth. •Carefully prune evergreen Californian lilac [Ceanothus] and Broom [Cytisus] now that they have finished flowering. Don’t just hack at it, but make sure you use really sharp tools and trim out leading shoots to leave weaker side shoots. •Vigorous climbers such as clematis, honeysuckle and perennial sweet peas will need tying up again. support them well and they will repay you well with more blooms. •after they have finished blooming, move pot grown limehating plants into a shady area of the garden. they will enjoy the cool and you can bring something showier into the limelight for summer. •all lime-hating plants, either in pots or in the garden, will reward you next spring if you regularly feed with a specific plant food. this month is when next year’s flower buds form so ensure they don’t go short of water. •Check susceptible varieties of plants for vine weevil damage. Half circle notches out of the edges of leaves are common at this time of year and are caused by the adult insects. likely plants to show symptoms are viburnums, heucheras, busy lizzies, euonymus, bergenias, camellias, rhododendrons and fuchsias.
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Pictured (l to r) Dami Howard, Lins Herbert, Lin Paul, Pam Jeffery and Doris Gentle
tEMPlECloud in Bloom volunteers raised around £370 with a couple of plant stalls, while also tidying and clearing nearby borders.
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Fundraising flower festival in Wedmore church
st Mary’s Church in Wedmore will be holding a flower festival on saturday, July 10th and sunday, July 11th. as well as beautiful flower arrangements, there will be coffee, tea, light lunches and cream teas available each day 10am6pm. tickets are £5 with free entry for children. the proceeds will go towards the upkeep of the church to help recoup some of the loss of income during the pandemic.
Gardeners’ delight
Details: www.facebook.com/St-Marys-Wedmore CHaRlIE tricks and Julie Parker, owners of Parsonage Farm, in Publow opened their garden to members of Churchyard springs to life – nailsea’s Fagus Garden Club, raising £800 for all saints Church in Publow. thanks to “no mow” the refreshments were provided by church members keen to practice their baking skills following the suspension of the church’s monthly saturday morning tEREsaEaton markets 14 months ago. (left) and Janet One of the church wardens, Gillian Wookey, said: Bramley enjoy a “Visitors were very complimentary about the selection of break in the cakes on offer and a comment in the visitors’ book read graveyard of ‘You have a lovely garden, the fruit cake was wonderful the Blessed and it was a treat to see the cows running in the Virgin Mary buttercups. But the best bit was the barn owl swooping church in by the river’.” Wanstrow ahead In the nine years Charlie and Julie have lived at of welcoming Parsonage Farm they have worked hard in the garden. visitors to afternoon teas to admire the wildflowers which have First planted 85 years ago, it was the creation of two thrived during no Mow May. the church is one of many in the very knowledgeable gardeners, Jenny Pym and later Diocese of Bath and Wells working with the somerset Wildlife norma Reid. trust on Eco Church, a project to encourage a more eco-friendly local gardening expert, Mary Payne, who visited the approach to grass cutting and biodiversity. gardens with Fagas, said: "It has come a long way since the grasses and flowers will be allowed to set seed before Charlie and Julie took it over and is a lovely example of being cut later in the year. a spring garden.” the newer part of the graveyard has still been cut regularly.
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Preparing for Chelsea
YEOValley’s organic garden and farm at Blagdon is the inspiration for its first ever Chelsea Flower show garden, designed by tom Massey and supported by Yeo Valley’s sarah Mead. the garden will highlight the importance of soil health in reversing climate change and tackling global biodiversity collapse. the garden was due to be built at the show in 2020 before Covid-19 restrictions forced a cancellation. this year’s show runs from september 21st26th and Yeo Valley’s garden will be on the Main avenue. the modified design, which features a diverse range of habitats and a rich tapestry of flowering plants, encourages wildlife and supports pollinators, mirroring the diversity of life found on the farm and garden at Blagdon. the design, including biochar logs as garden markers and rammed earth walls as boundaries, highlight the importance of soil health to our changing world. a hand-crafted steam-bent wooden hide has been designed and created for the garden by celebrated Cornish sculptor tom Raffield. It provides a wonderful, elevated view of the garden and a place to quietly observe the wildlife it attracts. sarah said: “We’ve been quietly growing and farming organically for many years now and we know it has huge benefits for the environment, particularly in safeguarding our soil and supporting pollinators and wildlife.
“I’ve been visiting the Chelsea Flower show for most of my adult life and have longed to bring a slice of our somerset valley to the show for years. We’re certainly not in the business of telling people how to live, but we are excited about bringing our organic credentials and experience to the world’s greatest flower show.
“now is the perfect time to start shouting a bit louder about the benefits of growing and buying organic and putting nature first in everything we do.” tom Massey won a silver-Gilt Medal at Chelsea in 2018 and appeared in three episodes of BBC’s popular Your Garden Made Perfect series.
He said: “It’s a privilege to be working with the Yeo Valley Organic team who have accumulated many years of organic gardening experience.
“I have learnt a huge amount from them and the soil association in the process of designing a show garden founded on organic principles and I have seen first-hand at the Yeo Valley farm and garden how growing organically can positively impact the environment.
“With the exception of the large specimen trees and shrubs, the plants for the garden are being grown organically, a big challenge for a main avenue Chelsea show garden."
