What should I plant here?

[parietal]

I have a narrow bit of bed between two pleached trees. Against a fence facing east/north and sheltered but dry. It currently has an old honeysuckle that always gets black fly and some crocosmia that has never thrived.

I want one climber or a wall shrub and a couple of small bushes in front. Any advice?

Hopeful bump

You will struggle with a climber. Their mode of action is to use other plants to help them scramble quickly up into the light, so persuading it to stay down on the fence will be hard. At best you’ll get flowers in the trees and bare stems beneath. A variegated ivy might tolerate the dryness.

not sure what bush will tolerate the dry shade. Thinking of similar situations in my garden, maybe Ruscus, except it’s not very exciting, except for the curiosity that it has no leaves, only flattened stems, so the flowers appear to come out of its “leaves”.

The conventional advice for dry shade is hardy cyclamen, which could give you flowers from September to April, and decorative variegated leaves the rest of the year

Thanks. It is a tricky spot. Most of my garden is dry shade but this patch seems to be the most difficult.

Mahonia has grown under a hedge for me but slowly.

Honeysuckle is always weedy when it's alone - its's a hedge plant really - and crocosmia needs ridiculous amounts of wet and light.

You've got Japanese anenomes on one side and hydrangea on the other, so it can't be too disastrous a spot. Berberis, mahonia, holly, sarcocca? Some ferns are happy in a dry spot and epimidiums are lovely and the basic yellow one will grow everywhere.

I'd be tempted to put a feature that isn't a plant actually. Bird table or bird bath (plenty of cover). Or you could stick in a seasonal pre-planted pot? Or just a nice pot.