[needtoknowhow]

Hi guys, have a question about Virgina creeper. bought and planted one last year against a garden wall in a south west facing garden (so wall is north east facing right?) wall is rough plastered in case this makes any difference. understood that it needed no trellis as was self sticking. didn't train it against anything and plant just grew a little along the ground and all leaves fell off in the winter. thought it was dead but it came back this year and propped it with a stick and its growing round the stick but no sign of it heading north against the wall, and no suckers. am i doing something wrong? should i try and hold some of it against the wall with them u shaped pins i can tap into the wall??

also, am planing a fairly sizable raise bed in front of the wall, will there be an issue for any climbers with light etc? being south west facing, the garden gets good light but part nearest the wall is in shadow from 2/3 onwards!

thanks in advance

N2KH

[GPI]

Virginia creeper is self adhesive ,no trellis required, however it can take a year or two to get going.
You need to keep the stems in contact with the wall to allow time for the clinging tendrils to form.
u shaped pins like you mention, or adhesive climber supports from garden centres can be used for this job.
In fact if the growth is not too heavy, I have even seen blue-tack used to good effect.
Once it gets going you will be back here asking how to control its rapid growth.

On your other query, well Virginia creeper copes well with partial shade.
Another climber/wall shrub you could consider is winter Jasmine.
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Remember, a weed is just a plant in the wrong place.

Garden Consultation & Design in Ireland!

[needtoknowhow]

Thanks GPI. very informative. emm, my success rate on the climber front is pretty poor so far anyway. my wall is only 6 ft high so I'm hoping Virginia creeper will branch east and west rather than just north! I'll try pinning it to the wall - was putting it off so that i could get a bit of growth and thought maybe trellis would get it started! have a honeysuckle that i could nearly measure growth rate each day. it grows that fast that is heading over the wall now and have tried disentangling it before to train east and west but wasn't too fond of that! am leaving to see what happens with no more northern support, gravity might intervene! winter jasmine looks fab too - though I've already killed a jasmine plant - not sure what variety but some winter colour would be nice! other half reckon the only success we're having is in growing rocks!!! I'll keep trying though