I've just moved into a new house in Milton Keynes (England)- Feb 2003. I've had built a wooden decked patio, with an overhead pergola, in the south facing area of the garden - a brilliant sun trap. The decking has been built against a solid brick wall (side of the garage)so effectively, it looks like a room in the garden. It covers quite a large area - enough space for an 8-seater dining area and a separate "chill-out" section with low benches and table. I planted some jasmine, honeysuckle and clematis in pots to train them up the posts in the hope they would help to cover the posts that make up the pergola roof - no such luck! I really would like to cover the roof and posts quickly, but prettily. I've read about wisteria and grape vine, friends have told me to steer clear of ivy as it takes over everything and to replant the clematis, honeysuckle and jamsine into the ground not pots as they will grow more slowly being restricted by space.
Any ideas out there as to what I should do to achieve a pretty, overall cover, effect in the quickest time possible.
Cheers.
Blank Canvas
The Tecomaria carpensis, Honeysucles is a good grower and you can train it as a shrub, a vine or a rampan, in any case they do look beautiful and humminbird loves it!
What about you put as a pergola cover the grape vine ( remember you do have to prune it) but provide a good cover for those unexpected summer shower.
All those plants in pots will be slow growers, in a pot their growth will be a bit restricted, they would need enough space for the root to grow as their growth will determine the total growth of the plant and to me you do have to cover a large area.
Welcome to the U.K.Hope you like it here,a bit different to home I suspect.
How about a passion flower, they grow quickly, and would in your araea be cut down in the winter I would think, which would mean that it didn't get too big.
Neither clematis nor honeysuckle like their feetin sunshine,so maybe now they're in the ground,they might take off a bit quicker.
A clematis montana,grows really quickly, you could pick one that doesn't grow as big as most of them such as grandiflora or'Pictons variety',and I'm sure that there are some more too,most of these have the advantage of having nice coloured foliage and stems.
What I do have if you're interested is a kiwi vine,I just love the stems, red and hairy, huge leaves.If it's of any use , mail me and I'll post it off to you.
Have put pic of mine take in spring.
another piccy of same plant
Thank you all for your messages. I would be interested in a cutting Sue. I'm off on my holidays to Turkey for 2 weeks tomorrow. I'll post a pic of the decking and the pergola when I return and drop you a note re the cutting.
Wishing you all well.
Happy hols, we're off too in a weeks time,so I'll catch up with you in about 3 weeks.