Which climber will actually hold onto my wall or fence?

Plants sold as climbers get up a support in four quite different ways, and the mechanism dictates what you have to provide. This is the single most common reason a newly planted climber does nothing: it has been given a support it is physically incapable of holding onto, and it will lie on the ground indefinitely rather than climb a fence panel it cannot grip.

Step by step

1. Self-clinging: grips the surface directly, needs no support.Ivy and climbing hydrangea produce aerial rootlets along the stem that adhere to masonry; Virginia creeper and Boston ivy have short tendrils tipped with adhesive pads. They will climb a bare brick wall unaided. They will not climb a smooth painted or rendered surface reliably, and they should not be planted against one.
2. Twining: wraps the whole stem round something slim.Honeysuckle, wisteria, jasmine, akebia and runner beans. They need a vertical or near-vertical support thin enough to spiral around — wires, a slim post, a trellis batten, an obelisk leg. Given time and thickness they will constrict a downpipe or a thin rail, so keep them off both.
3. Tendrils and twisting leaf stalks: grips narrow things with a small part of the plant.Clematis grip with twisted leaf stalks; sweet peas, passion flower and vines use coiled tendrils. The critical point is scale: a tendril can only close around something a few millimetres thick. A tendril climber cannot climb a fence post, a thick trellis batten or a bare wall, but it will race up plastic-coated mesh, netting, wires or thin twiggy growth.
4. Scramblers: no attachment mechanism at all.Climbing and rambling roses, and winter jasmine, produce long stems that lean on and hook through other things. In the wild they scramble through shrubs. On a wall they must be physically tied in, every year, or they fall off.
5. Now look at the surface you actually have.Sound brick or stone will take vine eyes and wires. Render, pebbledash and painted surfaces are better served by a trellis panel fixed on battens, or a hinged panel that can be lowered. A close-board fence panel offers nothing to any climber, so it needs wires or trellis added. A chain-link or wire fence is already a perfect support for twiners and tendril climbers.
6. Consider what the wall will need in the future.A wall that will need repointing, painting or rendering within a decade should carry a hinged trellis panel, so the whole plant can be unhooked and laid down rather than cut off. This is a decision worth making at planting, because it is not retrofittable.
7. Match the vigour to the space honestly.Wisteria, Virginia creeper, Russian vine and rambling roses are all sold in small pots and all become very large plants. Check the eventual spread and the annual growth rate, not the picture on the label.
8. Set the support up before you plant.Drilling a wall over an established climber is unpleasant work and damages the plant. Fix the wires or trellis first, then plant, then tie the young growth in immediately so it starts in the right direction.

Tips

• The commonest failure is a clematis planted against a bare fence panel or a wide trellis. The plant is fine; it simply has nothing its leaf stalks can close around. Add plastic-coated mesh or additional thin wires.
• Self-clinging climbers get a bad name for damaging walls. On sound, well-pointed brickwork they are generally harmless; on poor pointing or soft render they exploit what is already failing.
• Twiners each spiral in a fixed direction — clockwise or anticlockwise depending on the species — and unwinding one the wrong way to retrain it will snap it. Follow the direction it is already going.
• A climber against a house wall sits in the driest strip of soil in a garden, in the wall's rain shadow. Plant at least 300 to 450mm out from the wall and lean the growth back towards it.

Common mistakes

• Buying a clematis for a bare fence panel — There is nothing a leaf stalk can grip. Fix mesh, netting or a grid of wires first and the same plant climbs happily.
• Planting a self-clinging climber on rendered or painted walls — The pads and rootlets lift render and pull paint, and removing an established plant takes the surface with it. Use a hinged trellis and a twiner instead.
• Planting tight against the wall — That strip never gets rain, and it is usually full of builders' rubble. The plant struggles with drought and mildew from the start.
• Assuming climbing roses climb — They have no attachment mechanism whatever. Without annual tying in they slump away from the wall in the first gale.

Questions people ask