Which climbers actually flower on a north-facing wall?

A north-facing wall is cool and shaded but it is also even in temperature, and that suits a surprising number of plants. It is the east-facing wall that causes the real damage in a British garden, because early morning sun thaws frosted buds too quickly. Before ruling a north wall out, measure what you actually have: many walls called north-facing get two or three hours of sun at the ends of a summer day.

Step by step

1. Measure the light before choosing.Check the wall through a summer day. A wall that gets a couple of hours of early morning or late evening sun in midsummer will support far more than one in the permanent shadow of a building. Also note whether it is open to the sky or overhung, which matters as much as the aspect.
2. Check how dry the base is.The strip at the foot of a wall is in a rain shadow and stays dry even in wet weather. On a north wall that dryness limits more plants than shade does. Plan to plant 300 to 450mm out, improve the soil generously and mulch.
3. Climbing hydrangea: the most reliable flowering choice.Hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris is self-clinging, needs no support, and produces flat white lacecap heads even in shade. It is slow for the first two or three years and then grows strongly, so it needs patience and space.
4. Clematis alpina and macropetala: spring flowers, no fuss.These early small-flowered clematis flower in April on the previous year's growth, tolerate cold shade well, and need almost no pruning — pruning group one, tidied only after flowering if at all. Several later viticella types also cope with a north wall.
5. Winter jasmine: flowers in the depths of winter.Jasminum nudiflorum is not a true climber and must be tied in, but it produces bright yellow flowers on bare green stems from November to February in a position where nothing else is happening. Prune it immediately after flowering.
6. Parthenocissus and ivy: foliage rather than flower.Virginia creeper and Boston ivy are self-clinging and give exceptional autumn colour even in shade. Ivy — particularly the variegated and large-leaved forms — provides evergreen cover, wildlife value and flowers in autumn when little else does.
7. Roses: a small but genuine list.Look specifically for varieties described as tolerating a north or shaded wall — 'Madame Alfred Carrière', 'Zéphirine Drouhin', 'New Dawn' and 'Golden Showers' are the ones most consistently recommended. They flower less freely than on a sunny wall, but they do flower. Ordinary roses do not.
8. Rule out the sun-lovers rather than fighting them.Wisteria, passion flower, most large-flowered clematis hybrids, campsis and solanum all want sun and will grow leafy and flowerless on a north wall. There is no cultural trick that substitutes for light.
9. Prepare the ground properly, then water for two years.Dig a wide hole out from the wall, work in plenty of organic matter, plant, lean the plant back towards its support, and water deeply through the first two summers. Almost every north-wall failure is a dry-root failure.

Tips

• An east-facing wall is harder than a north-facing one for anything that flowers early. Morning sun on frosted buds thaws them too fast and turns them brown, which is why camellias and early magnolias are traditionally kept off east walls.
• Pale-coloured flowers and variegated or light-green foliage read much better against a shaded wall than dark reds and purples, which disappear.
• Shade-tolerant is not the same as shade-loving. A plant that merely tolerates shade will survive but flower thinly; the ones listed here genuinely perform.
• Wall-trained shrubs — pyracantha, chaenomeles, garrya — are an alternative to true climbers on a north wall and several flower or fruit well there.

Common mistakes

• Planting a large-flowered clematis hybrid on a dark north wall — Most need sun to flower well and produce leaf and little else in deep shade. The alpina and macropetala types are the ones bred for these positions.
• Planting tight against the wall — The rain shadow means that strip stays dry all year, and a plant that never establishes a root system will never perform however shade-tolerant it is.
• Assuming any climber will do because it is only a wall — Aspect is the single strongest constraint on a climber. Choose from the plants that suit the position rather than trying to make a sun-lover work.

Questions people ask