Climbing plants are great for covering walls, unsightly buildings or just to soften a structure such as a blank wall, but as with all garden plants they do need periodic attention to keep them either in check or looking their best.
Climbers like this golden hop will readily covers large areas, but looks fantastic as an ornamental plant growing over pergolas and structures such as this rustic bridge.
At this time of year many climbing plants will perhaps need some attention after flowering or when the growth starts to get a little out of hand. Whether it’s trimming stray stems out of gutters, trimming back ivy or tying back branches to walls, it’s mostly done whilst perched on a ladder and trying to do several things at once, juggling secateurs, shears and twine and keeping your balance. This is in my view one of the most dangerous jobs in the garden, so never take a chance, as it’s a long way to fall from the top of a ladder.
Cut back the long trailing stems of Virginia creeper to keep the plant tidy and stop it swamping nearby plants and buildings.
The other main problem with climbers on house walls is the numerous cables that weave their way around the property. These include telephone, television and satellite cables. Trying to do the pruning whilst all the time making sure that your telephone isn’t going to be disconnected by just one badly aimed snip of the secateurs is something that has happened to gardeners in the past. Being careful of those cables can be tricky but if you know there’s a cable present somewhere then looking before every secateurs cut is going to reduce the possibility of cable damage. Unfortunately some cables are coloured green making it even trickier!
When climbing ladders make sure that someone else is present. This is a great help as they can direct you to parts of the plant that need pruning that you can’t easily see from the ladder. If you are up a stepladder then they can also hand you loppers, secateurs etc as you require them.
When pruning climbers after they have flowered it’s a case of tidying the plants and directing new growth in the desired direction. One main aim is to reduce any unnecessary accumulated weight on the plants. For instance Ivy often grows out from a wall by quite a distance until eventually the whole plant parts company with the wall. Using shears, a lot of the growth can be tidily trimmed back and new fresher growth will appear shortly. Plants such as honeysuckle create lots of growth through the year and often there’s dead growth in the plant. This can be removed and tidied with secateurs, which will greatly help the plant for next year.
Peeling excess Virginia creeper off the window frames and extracting Wisteria from the gutter may not be favourite jobs but it will help the plants and also the house too. Taking time and care will make sure that the job is done properly, safely and the plants will look their best too.
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