If your garden is crying out for a little colour and extra privacy, annual climbers are one of the quickest and easiest ways to transform it before summer hits.
In fact, now is the perfect time of year to plant your climbers and use them to hide a fence, wall, or to create privacy. In spring, we have warmer weather and extra light, so they tend to grow quickly.
What you’ll need
1. Sweet peas
We sometimes forget that sweet peas are climbers, but they are, and one that’s very prolific, uber pretty and has the most wonderful scent.
Richard Barker, horticultural expert at LBS Horticulture, says, ‘Sweet peas can be started indoors and then planted out in late May once the risk of frost has passed. They will need to be trained up a support, and their clinging tendrils make them great for attaching to mesh, wire or a garden trellis if you need to hide fencing or a wall. The plant will grow quickly to an overall height of around 2m, and its abundant blooms can also help to cover ugly fencing.’ I like this set of 3 expandable trellises, £16.15 from Amazon, if you’re covering a large space.
At this time of year, plug plants will give you a quicker result than sowing seeds. Choose your sweet peas based on the colours you love. There are dreamy pastel shades like ‘Mollie Rilstone’ – a creamy base with pink edges, £15.98 for two 9cm pots, Crocus or pack a punch with Suttons Scentsational Mix that includes dark pink, deep burgundy and purple shades, £9.99 for a 9cm pot.
Sweet peas do need care – they can get thirsty, and feeding them will help.
2. Black-Eyed Susan vine
You may have heard of black-eyed Susan or rudbeckia, as it’s also known, which can grow up to a metre in height. There’s also a climbing variety that’s called Black-Eyed Susan vine.
‘A perfect fast-growing, twining vine, Black-Eyed Susan will quickly smother the surface of a fence or wall with its rapid growth rate, enabling it to reach over two metres in a single season,’ explains Lucie Bradley, gardening and greenhouse expert at Easy Garden Irrigation.
The best way to help it grow over your fence is to guide it into place. ‘As a twining vine, it’s best to place netting, wire or garden twine over the surface of your fence or wall so that its stems can naturally spiral around the vertical supports, whilst its attractive, green, heart-shaped or triangular leaves that are approx 7 to 8cm in length will form a thick, dense mat, hiding unsightly surfaces and providing the perfect backdrop to its contrasting blooms.’
Prep first by putting up some subtle green garden netting, £7.23 for 1.7 x 4m, from Amazon, then pick your vines.
This fabulous vine comes in three colours, pink, yellow and orange. If you can’t decide which you like best, then Dobies have the Thunbergia Trio, from £24.99. They’ll give you up to five months of flowers and a fabulous colour scheme.
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Set of 3 Outdoor Garden Trellis 6ft X 2ft
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Square Trellis – Rustic
VELCRO Brand
One-Wrap Plant Ties Tape, 12mm X 5m, Green
3. Cathedral Bells
‘With extremely rapid growth, these self-clinging climbers with purple or off-white bell-like flowers can reach up to seven metres in a single season,’ says Lucie.
You do need to have a good support structure if you choose this variety, Richard explains, ‘As the plant grows so quickly and can be heavy, ensure that the support structure it is latching on to is sturdy. Full sun is essential for the plant to flower, and although it can be grown as a perennial, it will rarely survive through UK winters.’
Wigwam plant supports work well, and you can place them up against a wall or pergola. You can create your own, just using bamboo canes (you can pick up 10 4ft canes at Amazon for £9.99 and connect them with these nifty cane grip rings for £5.95).
This plant also has a lovely scent that’s rather like honey, so it’s nice to sit next to on a summer’s evening.
Buy the purple variety from Amazon – as Cobaea cathedral bells seeds, 20-pack, £7.32 – or the rarer white flowers from RHS Plants, £3.79 for approximately 15 seeds.
4. Climbing nasturtiums
Nasturtiums are a joyful plant that really can brighten up your garden – and there’s a climbing variety! Both produce masses of vividly coloured flowers in shades such as orange, salmon pink, yellow, and red. The climbing version can be trained up trellises and obelisks very successfully. This weather-proof, metal garden obelisk, £9.28 from Amazon, is a great budget buy.
‘Climbing nasturtiums will produce more flowers when growing in poor, dry or sandy soil as long as it is free draining,’ says Lucy. ‘Ideally, grow against a fence or wall where they will get at least four to six hours of full sun, which makes south-facing structures perfect. To encourage full coverage, you will need to pinch off the tips of their stems as they continue to grow to encourage more vertical growth as well as a bushier habit, and you will need to tie in the stems rather than letting them sprawl.’
For the classic nasturtium vibe of hot orange and bright yellow flowers, check out Thompson & Morgan’s climbing mixed seed, £3.29 for 40 seeds. For a hotter red, consider Sarah Raven’s Empress of India nasturtium seeds, £3.50 for 25 seeds.
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Metal Garden Trellis for Climbing Plants, 185cm Tall
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Steel Garden Obelisk Climbing Plant Support 1.9m
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Square Obelisk Ball Top – Rust
5. Morning Glory
Morning glory is classed as a ‘frost tender’ annual climber that has stunningly bright flowers mainly in a bright blue, deep red or bright lilac. The flowers open in the morning and close in the afternoon – hence the name.
‘As it is a climbing plant, it needs to be grown with a support, such as free-standing obelisks, up a trellis or next to a well-established shrub so the plant can scramble through it,’ advises Richard.
The flowers grow in succession, so you can get a display for months – essentially until the first frost, so it’s a great variety for the summer season.
Richard adds, ‘When growing morning glory, check the plant once or twice a week to ensure that the stems are growing up the support properly, as they may need training to grow in the right direction. They are fast-growing, dense climbers and can act as a natural privacy screen.’
If you love sky blue, then you can buy Clarke’s Heavenly Blue, £6.99 for three from Gardening Express. For a dramatic look, the Grandpa Otts variety is striking. You can buy approximately 30 seeds for £2.25, Crocus.
Our selection of annual climbers will definitely help to create privacy, but you do need to plant them by the end of this month to reap the benefits.
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