Jasminum
No climber does more to lift the grey pall of February than Jasminum nudifforum. The yellow flowers on a north or west wall brave snow or arctic frost with equanimity Over a low wall, on a trellis, clipped as an ornament to the front lawn, few soils or situations reduce Winter Jasmine to despair. Each flowering shoot should be cut back in April to within 2 shoots of the base.
The White Jasmine, J. officinale, is more circumspect, preferring to flower in the somnolence of July, lingering on until September. The sweetly scented white flowers festooned the tool shed at home where the roots were buried in mortar rubble, but refuse utterly to survive on wet clay, to my eternal regret. Cuttings taken with a heel in August will root readily enough.
The common species, Hedera helix, has no equal as a self-clinging climber or for all-round adaptability. Fortunately, it shows no reluctance 
sport new varieties to such an extent that the choice is becoming bewildering in its diversity. Buttercup, as the name implies, is a good yellow form, which dare I whisper it, always has the same effect on me as flat lemonade. Congesta is slow growing with small grey-green leaves. It is a fine plant for a terraced corner or a large stone in the rock garden.
Polygonum baldschuanicum is a heaven-sent climber for those unfortunate gardeners with ugly buildings to cover, chain-link fences to hide, or air-raid shelters to disguise. My particular bete noir is a tarred shed.
Lonicera x americana is a vigorous climber which will spread 30 ft. The flowers appear earlier than those of the native woodbine in June to July, white at first, then yellow tinged with plum purple. L. henryi is another climber which needs room to spread and is almost worth the space for the beauty of the dark evergreen leaves. The red and yellow flowers are rather small and the blue-black berries soon disappear down some bird gourmet’s rapacious throat.
Pyracanthas make good wall shrubs. Clipped to a green buttress they take the square angularity from the modern concrete buildings which hold no pretence to architectural elegance.
March 15 2009 | Gardening | No Comments »