Pergola planting ideas

[Crazzzycat]

I recently put up a pergola to hide a really ugly building, but now i’m a bit stuck for what to plant on it and how many climbers I need. Anyone has any suggestions for good climbers for pergolas?

The pergola is 2.4 x 3.6 metres and the top gets the sun all day long. The base gets significantly less sun, but still around 4-6 hours worth. The soil is neutral.

The building behind the pergola is covered in a Virginia creeper, Clematis Montana and a small climbing rose (and still it looks ugly!)

I love the idea of growing something different on the actual pergola. But I’m confused by some of the information I’ve seen online. Do I really need to grow a climber at the base of each post? Or does this depend on the size of the climber?

We have a grape vine on ours, desert grapes doing really well this year. We do have to trim it regularly as they are very vigorous. At the other end we have a spring flowering clematis, for interest when the vine is dormant. Also a young climbing rose, which hasn’t done much this year.
I think a climber at the base of each post will give you maximum coverage.

How many posts are there? You don’t need to have a climber on each one, and if you were to put vigorous climber on each post you could end up with an unholy tangle.

I would suggest a couple of vigorous things to give fullness and leaf over the top, and smaller floriferous plants on the front facing posts. There’s not going to be much winter interest with the three plants on the wall so how about a winter flowering clematis like C cirrhosa? Golden hop gives lovely foliage and starts from ground level each year

Thanks both, those are some interesting suggestions. I hadn’t actually considered season long interest, so that’s a helpful reminder.

The pergola is not in a particularly prominent position but the seating area underneath it will, hopefully, be used lots from late spring to early autumn. So, ideally I’d like it to look nice around that time, and not a total mess (like you can get with some types of clematis) the rest of the year!

@trethew , there are 4 posts in total. I can imagine may be needing 4 climbers if I’m growing small clematis, climbing rose etc, but I think you’re right that it would turn into a huge mess with more vigorous climbers.

How about the perfumed thornless rose Banksaei Lutea. I starts flowering in early May and grows a mile a minute. Soft whips branches make it was y to wind round the pergola. I would then add a summer jasmine which is practically evergreen and smells wonderful.

Carol did a clematis feature on GW this week.