Has anyone grown ivy (outdoors) in containers?

[elderberryink]

As thread title suggests - I love ivy, but DH is set against it as he spent many years battling an invasive plant that had completely shrouded the garage of our old house.

Our new house has a north facing patio and I thought ivy would be ideal on a not very interesting stretch of fence (which only gets a couple of hours of direct sunlight, part of it none at all) to provide greenery and also privacy as the passageway behind it is a throughway for several houses.

From what I've read online, it seems you can grow it in pots, and DH seems inclined to consider this if that will contain the roots. I'm a very novice gardener but reckon I can manage keeping it's spread under control by pruning little and often :) I was planning to attach trellises to the fence to prevent damage and give it something to cling to, and have read it is better to plant in Autumn or spring? (I would like to get it going in September / October time when we'll have the finances for non-essential garden work, so it gets a bit of growth before next summer).

Does anyone have any advice on size and depth of the pot, and how many plants we should grow to cover an approximately 3.5x2m stretch of fence?

I’m with your husband. I’m currently battling it here from 4 different neighbours. It ruining the fences where it’s forced it’s way through over the years & doing it’s best to smother some of my lovely plants.
However, there is advice about pot sizes here, if you go too big the roots grow first rather than shoots.

https://mycontainergardener.com/how-to-grow-ivy-in-containers-without-much-effort/

Oh lord, don't introduce ivy into your garden. It shoots from leaves dropped on the floor. It's a pain in the arse to get rid of.

I've got it in pots in my front garden, until the recent heatwave I would have said it was indestructible and low maintenance. Its a small leafed variegated ivy. I put bedding plants in the pots too (they stand on a sort of shelf) so pansies/petunias/geraniums which I change when I have time.

Thanks for the advice so far - you've got me thinking better of it now 🤣

Is there any other (ideally evergreen) climbers you'd suggest that would tolerate minimal direct sunlight?

Some sort of jasmine or honeysuckle?

Hydrangea petiolaris

We have honeysuckle on a north facing wall. It's much prettier and smells beautiful but on the invasive front I find it as bad as ivy really. It spreads and grows up and through everything, choking it to death. Like bindweed but much bigger. I would never plant Ivy unfortunately we have that too.

We also have a tall bush with very dark leaves and orange flowers also on the north wall - Berberis darwinii and a mahonia that is in shade which might work for you. Might better behaved anyway!

I had ivy on my fence for about 20 years. It bordered a shared fence so I had to trim it back about 3 or 4 times a year so it didn’t invade the neighbours.

When I decided to get rid of it, it was actually ok. It’s been gone a year and not grown back at all.

If it won’t impact anyone else, I would still consider it. I love how it looks ❤️