Plant to train up wall, round door

[MorelloKisses]

I'd like to find a plant, needs to be in a pot, to train up the wall and round some French doors I have just had put in.

The wall is north to north west facing, but gets afternoon and evening sun all summer.

Ideally white flowers, pretty foliage that will make an impact white quickly.

Will I need wire on the wall, or trellis etc? Any recommendation?

Sorry, I mean an impact QUITE quickly

The difficulty here is the pot. Unless you buy an enormous one (which will cost £££), many of the larger climbers that are big enough to get right around French doors are going to be unhappy. The kind of climbers that are happy in smaller pots tend not to grow that high. Your options might be:

1. to go for two smaller climbers in pots either side and forget about covering the area above the windows. The well-worn choice is a smaller patio clematis that can manage in shade, like these some of which are white or very light pink: www.thorncroftclematis.co.uk/quick-selection-lists/patio.html?aspect=10

1. to get rid of a patio slab and plant a larger climber in the ground right where you need it.

1. to plant a vigorous climber in an adjacent space where there is good earth and train it in.

Much depends on whether you want a rather neat and controlled look (1), something that really covers expanse of wall (2) or a really wild rambling plant that covers a lot of ground (3). For option 2 I'd suggest climbing hydrangeas (which are quite self-supporting), pyracantha if you want birds, bees and butterflies brought in by both the white flowers and the later, colourful berries. (You might get away with shade-tolerant roses, too, but I can't think of a white one). For 3, I think you might have to depart from the white theme and go for something like Parthenocissus.

Thank you. Just so I can resolve in my mind, when you say an enormous pot, what sort of size were you thinking?

Then I'll cross that off my list and try lifting a slab!

Oooh, good question. I'm rubbish at volumes, so hopefully someone else will corroborate what I'm saying here. For something like one of the more rampant clematis or a climbing hydrangea, I would think you'd want something well in excess of 100 litres. Basically, something too big and unwieldy to look good beside a domestic window. The trouble is, it's not just the pot size, but the conditions - things like the big clematis like their roots wet all the time, which is hard to maintain in a pot in hot weather. Roses like a deep root run, again hard to simulate in a pot.

If you want something big and glorious, unless it's really going to wreck a brand new patio in the most pristine and expensive stone, I would lift a slab!!

Another consideration to bear in mind - don't forget that dense plants up a wall will tend to make the wall more damp. This can cause problems in some places, esp if you get heavy rainfall.

Yeah, what holly said .

Lift a slab, one on each side , dig out the stuff that's underneath it ( probably sand and type one ) , put in some decent soil or Soil based compost and plant . Do it soon as most climbers take a year to get established and put on decent growth

Hello,

So I checked out the slab configuration last night, and I can't lift one - on one side of the door there is just one slab before the boundary wall, and it overlaps the door IYSWIM and on the other side there is a drain.

The nearest border is quite a way away at the other side of the patio, so pots it is, and they will need to be no bigger than 60-80 tall and 40 deep

So the smaller styles it is. I like the look of this one:www.thorncroftclematis.co.uk/quick-selection-lists/patio/forever-friends-zofori.html

So can you give me a bit of advice on will it need wire or trellis putting up? And any other tips?

Thanks

I have a climbing hydrangea which is in a pot about which is less than a metre tall. It is on north facing wall.

The pot is less than a metre? How big is the plant?

Do you use trellis or wire on the wall?

Name changed. The pot is this Wilko planter Madrid gun metal it is £10. I have the same pot in the back with Spirea the Bride. With a bigger pot you coulld have more than one climber for year round interest.

I will see if I can add photos

The photo with the drain pipe is the hydrangea. I am training mine laterally to cover up the pipe. It you can train it upwards too.

How about a jasmine? That ticks all your boxes. Not sure how well they do in pots though.

It will also smell lovely in the evening.