Pergola climbers

[shalalala]

Hi. Hoping for some advice. We finished building a fairly large pergola last summer so didn't plant anything as the season wasn't right. Therefore I'm looking now and was hoping for advice.
Pergola is on a patio with 2 of the 4 poles in soil and the others in the patio so we'd need to plant at least 2 in pots.
Ideally fairly fast growing and low maintenance. With flowers and a scent?
The pergola is around 4x4m if that helps

Thank you so much in advance

Wisteria. I don’t know much about gardening but this is my contribution 😊

Wisteria isn't low maintenance TBH @MrsGarethSouthgate. Needs pruning 2x per year with some precision to ensure it flowers and it's a very short season of flowering.
@shalalala no reason you couldn't have planted, for example, climbing roses as bare roots through the winter.
As it's large, I'd suggest some of the more vigorous climbing roses. David Austin website is a good place to start looking

I’ve been really pleased with my David Austin Generous Gardener climbing rose which is up one side of my pergola. It was a bare root stock that I didn’t think was going to do anything at all, but it suddenly shot up, and was growing about an inch a day last summer with some lovely scented blooms.
I also have a clematis, a honeysuckle and a jasmine growing up the other poles, but they are all in soil.

The David Austin advice line is very helpful, they can make suggestions based on aspect, size, soil, amt sunlight etc
RHS website also good for suggestions
Love a Wisteria but not low maintenance
Jasmine
Grape
Kiwi fruit
Climbing hydrangea?

Banksia Lutea is the perfect rose for this. It grows rapidly, it is thornless, has sweet smelling flowers from April and is evergreen. It is really easy to manipulate and needs minimal pruning. I would plant it with summer Jasmine. This too is evergreen for about 9 months. In April, when Lutea is flowering, the jasmine looses it leaves. This is followed by highly scented white flowers through until autumn.

I got mine from David Austen who give a two year guarantee. One thing to be aware of is that, because Lutea is so vigorous it’s spend its first season putting down very strong roots. The riotous flowers follow the year after and then get more prolific each year.

Star Jasmine

Evergreen honeysuckle.

IMO there's no such thing as low maintenance climbers on a pergola. The reality is that every year you need to keep in reasonably tidy, unless you leave any pruning for the next year but then it's double the work. But that possibly just me, I like to shape and prune things!

Very helpful thread as I hope to get a pergola in. I didn't know Davy Austin had an advice line.

This is really quick growing. Evergreen but winter flowering for late bees
www.primrose.co.uk/clematis-cirrhosa-jingle-bells-3l-pot

Someone recommended this to me. I planted last summer and it is pretty quick. Not sure if it will flower this summer or if I will have to wait until next summer
www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/akebia-quinata/classid.225/?affiliate=googleproductfeed&gclid=Cj0KCQiA_c-OBhDFARIsAIFg3ewtqZTbKNuDJ2t0zS_HZCO8oD3EqF8RTlBOmFYUbk7lUlK-dBdULjsaAsHVEALw_wcB

I also got one of these after seeing it on a gardening programme. It looked stunning. It arrived bare root a couple of months ago. I’m looking forward to watching it grow
www.primrose.co.uk/climbing-iceberg-climber-rose-5-5l-pot?gclid=Cj0KCQiA_c-OBhDFARIsAIFg3ezRlJH7NyHo2XzD2Wg4QgCu1nJNG9kxDbBmLyNX0N9FPgQI8UFvlQwaAoiqEALw_wcB

I’d second the suggestion of an evergreen clematis. My Jingle Bells is in flower and is such a lovely sight on a dull day.

I agree that a lot of climbers are hard to manage. This is because of their tangling and woody habit. That was the main reason for recommending the Lutea Rose, as it never produces hard wood growth. The branches are very soft, occasionally they break off if I am a bit heavy handed but, because of their vigour,it is not a problem.

Be very careful of thorny roses as they are nightmare to shape on a pergola and sit under.

Passion flower is another easy to train shrub.

[email protected]

I emailed my questions to this address (tricky clay/shade spot) and had tons of help and suggestions within a couple of days

I meant to reply to Namechangeforthis88

A chocolate vine? (Akebia quinata)

They don't like their roots being disturbed but don't require regular pruning other than you cutting back any bits that you don't like, which you can do quite savagely. The flowers smell nice and are an unusual purple colour. It'll do well in full sun.

You're unlikely to get fruit unless you plant two, which I'd advise against as the fruit are quite big and are likely to be the biggest maintenance job.

I have a clematis with double white flowers which flowers very early in the year (then does nothing really), it could be the Duchess of Edinburgh, and another clematis which doesn't really appear from the ground until ?June then goes mad up to about 9 feet and flowers until the frosts It has smaller bright pink bell like flowers and is called Princess Diana. I recommend the second one but just wanted to point out that you need to take note of flowering times.

Thanks @Perching. I'm not quite at the point yet, but hoping to get a pergola in a sunny spot in due course and would love to have roses climbing up it.

I echo the generous gardener from David Austin upthread. Seems to be evergreen too. Also David Austin, Next I am looking at Adelaide d'orleans which is an evergreen white rambling rose. It's quite addictive that website. Great filtering options to narrow it down too.

PassionFlower is a quick climber , flowers are huge . I have one in a big pot trained on wires (bought it last year )

Also got a climbing Jasmine with tiny pink flowers , it started in a pot , now in the border . It needs cut back .

Personally , I cannot stand the smell of honeysuckle so its a 'No' from me .
But for scent , a load of sweetpeas , get one of the really tall varieties and keep the seeds to grow next year

Depends on aspect NSEW. We have a scented rose on one corner, a wisteria in another, I add sweet peas to each pot. I love Honeysuckle lots in the garden, but not bormally happy in pots, and much prefers shade. Jasmine.

Oh, yes, clematis in the other 2 corners, everything in pots.

Some clematis grow well in big pots - others really won't. Most climbers prefer being in the ground.

You could put annual climbers up on the pot side - it's easy, just put some seeds in the pot.

Cathedral bells. Cobaea scandens, cathedral bells, has lush foliage and large, pretty bell-shaped flowers. ...
Chilean glory flower. ...
Sweet peas. ...
Spanish flag. ...
Black-eyed Susan. ...
Morning glory. ...
Rhodochiton atrosanguineum. ...
Nasturtium.p

@Harrysmummy246

Wisteria isn't low maintenance TBH *@MrsGarethSouthgate*. Needs pruning 2x per year with some precision to ensure it flowers and it's a very short season of flowering. *@shalalala* no reason you couldn't have planted, for example, climbing roses as bare roots through the winter. As it's large, I'd suggest some of the more vigorous climbing roses. David Austin website is a good place to start looking

I planted climbing roses up our pergola. Bare roots from David Austin. They grew superbly for a year before I realised that climbing roses are not suitable because they are trained sideways and then grow up, so it blocks the pergola.

I've now replaced them with David Austin bare root rambling roses. These are the ones that will tumble and trail and cover the pergola.

I'm hoping to reposition my climbing roses against a wall or fence as they are ideally placed against a wall.

All all specimens have been vigorously growing.

For low maintenance grow a fast clematis. They cover in about 2-3 years and are glorious.

Thank you everyone for all these brilliant suggestions. I think we may plant 4 plants one in each corner. 2 can be planted in the ground and 2 in pots. Would anyone have suggestions for good pot climbers? They can be large pots! Thank you