a climber for sun and a climber for shade?

[philbee]

Am after recommendations please! We have a fence on one side which is fairly sunny for most of the day, and a wall on the other which is in shade almost all day. I'd like to plant two climbers in long trough type pots to cover the fence and wall. I can put up trellises, but need something that climbs by twining, not suckers, as they're not our fence or wall.

Any recommendations? I'd love something with edible fruits, but not sure if the sunny spot is sunny enough for a grape vine. Could go for honeysuckle, as I love the smell. In the shade I was think perhaps of a clematis, or someone suggested a climbing hydrangea. Evergreen would be nice on the shady side, at least.

We have a passion flower that makes (not very nice) edible fruits on our sunny side, and there are thornless blackberries that would give you a bigger crop. You would need a good deep trough for both of these, and to feed and top up compost every year. We have honeysuckle growing in deep shade, with variegated ivy and climbing hydrangea. I think the bigger the troughs you start off with, the more success you will have. (We grow wonderful runner beans in an old bath too!)

Passion flower is evergreen, isn't it? That sounds great. Biggish troughs not a problem as there aren't doors opening too close. What type of honeysuckle do you have growing in the deep shade? I looked at wisteria just now too, but am put off by the toxicity stuff, think I should go for things that are a bit safer if small hands get at them.

Yes, passion flower is evergreen, although it goes a bit limp looking in very cold weather. It flowers a lot, and the flowers are gorgeous. It's just ordinary honey suckle that grows in the shade- the sort the grows in woodland, not the Greek sort. We also have a very lovely golden hop on the sunny wall- but it is not ever green- you cut it right back in winter. If you do buy a hop make sure you ask for a female one, so you get the hop bells.

Climbing hydrangeas are lovely but they attach themselves to wall/fence with sort-of suckers. Definitely not twining, so possibly not appropriate for you. Stick with the honeysuckle in the shade I reckon.

OK, nix on the climbing hydrangea then! We have two normal hydrangeas anyway, and DH has said that he thinks they are awful, so probably not great from that point of view either.

That golden hop looks beautiful - I need to look more at that I think. It doesn't HAVE to be evergreen. And I like the passion flower but I'm not sure I like the look of the flowers. I think smaller flowers might be more my thing. Can you do things with the hops? Except make beer (that's right, isn't it?)?

the climbing hydrangers are very different from the 'normal' ones though - lovely lacy, pale cream flowers and very different habit with branches - you'd need to see one.

Cotoneasters can be well behaved on a shady wall and are evergreen and you might even get flowers and berries.

I have just been on taylors clematis website and they have quite a few clematis there that they describe as 'will tolerate shade'. The flowers may be a bit large for you.

clematis montana is incredibly tolerant of all sorts of shit conditions - not evergreen though

we have a \link{http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=clematis+montana+rubens&hl=en&prmd=imvnsfd&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=WIdWT43WIMussALGuqTxCQ&ved=0CEYQsAQ&biw=1036&bih=847\rubens} which has been growing in a large plastic pot, in a very shady NE corner right by the house, for over 10 years IIRC, has been hacked about & never top-dressed but still comes back fighting every year - amazing plant

I regret the 'large flowers' comment now. It's not large flowers, I think it's that the passion flowers look too much like an exotic plant, and that's not really the style of the rest of the garden, we've got roses, camelias, hydrangeas, all pretty standard stuff.

That rubens looks lovely, too - will definitely check that out, thank you.

we had to cut our passion flower down as it grew to big and took over.

You could try clematis armandii which is evergreen with scented white flowers in spring.

Montana is a monster and will need clipping back unlesss you want it to 30 feet and more.

This site is great for looking at www.crocus.com

too big.

Montana contains its gigantic tendencies quite well in a pot

& it's so tolerant, it doesn't mind at all being cut back if it does get too big - ours was impeding a Sky fitter once & he just hacked at the bits that were in his way - it slowed it down a bit but it still came back

also, when it gets a bit bare & trunky at the bottom, the top growth can hang down & hide it

(I've just bought another one - bargain in Lidl this week)