Climbers For North Facing Walls

Shade Loving Climbers

Garden books always talk about the necessity for well-drained soil, well-rotted manure, and a sunny spot without really ever specifying how "well", or how "sunny". This can induce gloom in a gardener with a shady garden devoid of friable (another of those words), rich soil.

But Beth Chatto, the doyenne of drought and gravel gardening, had a mantra of 'right plant, right place'. A North Wall can be the right place for many wonderful climbers, with the caveat that some do as well (sometimes better) on an East facing wall too.

The reason why "The North Wall" causes such anxiety is that it gets no direct sun. This disadvantage will often combine with dryness; rain-bringing winds generally come from the south-west. This gardening double whammy creates a pretty inhospitable environment for many plants. Consequently, they will certainly need a little coaxing early on with extra rations and monitoring of moisture levels.

Honeysuckles grow in woodland and are accustomed to having to escape the shade of a tree and climb to the light. They frame a door on a North facing wall beautifully and fragrantly, although you will sacrifice some fragrance and flowers compared to one grown in full sun. One of the best for this situation is the evergreen Lonicera japonica halliana. The creamy Graham Thomas and late-flowering reddish- trumpeted Lonicera periclymenum Serotina also work well but perhaps the toughest and most striking is the golden orange Lonicera x tellmanniana, although it lacks scent.

Climbers are so special because they link the ground with the sky and produce flowers at eye-level for close scrutiny. Clematis must be the queens of climbers and love having their feet in the shade and their noses in the air. They are a classic for growing into your fruit trees and producing a second wave of flowers when the fruit blossom is over. RHS AGM winning blue C. alpina 'Frances Rivis' or the pale pink C.alpina 'Willy' fit the bill, as do the stripy, rose-coloured C. Nelly Moser's, C. Carnaby's and C. Barbara Jackman's.

Clematis flowers fade in the sun, so they tend to last longer on a North wall, given sufficient moisture at their roots. C. Hagley Hybrid is a compact, mauve-rose colour which will scramble along branches as would any Clematis macropetala: Propertius is a stunning cerise pink, double clematis which boasts fluffy seedheads late into the year; Markham's Pink has an RHS AGM and is a particularly lovely granny pink colour while Blue Bird is as pretty as the name suggests. The rather larger C. armandii and Clematis montanas would swamp most fruit trees but rejoice on any North wall if given some tethering points, the mauve Tetrarose being particularly good as it thrives in shade.  

Clematis need something to hang onto to climb effectively, but some climbers just cling on to a wall by themselves. With a little support from a cane at the very start of their tenure, they then learn to DIY.

Cling-ons include the variegated ivies Hedera helix Glacier and the large leaved Gloire de Marengo and the creepers Virginia and Parthenocissus Veitchii. The latter's autumn show is a little subdued when grown in deep shade, but the summer green cover is worth it nonetheless. The showy, white Hydrangea anomala sub petiolaris with its large, lacy white flowers shining from the shade and from its deep evergreen foliage, is another cling-on and is often viewed as the go-to choice for a north wall along with Pileostegia viburnoides. Their flowers last late into the winter just until the acid-yellow Jasmine nudiflorum gets going. Unexpectedly Trachelospermum jasminoides will also cope with a North wall as long as it is sheltered from cold winds. And what, you may be asking, about roses?

Vita Sackville-West deployed the double white Madame Alfred Carriere as the silver bullet for her massive North facing wall at Sissinghurst to spectacular effect. The following list is not exhaustive but represents the wide range of colours and styles of rose that you could use.

• Alberic Barbier: a rambler with double creamy lemon flowers with practically evergreen foliage
• Albertine: a rambler with salmon pink clusters of double flowers growing on reddish stems
• Madame Alfred Carriere: warm double white flowers that can take on a soft pink blush
• Climbing Iceberg: ice white flowers that do repeat all season
• New Dawn: climber with cupped double pearl-pink flowers
• Danse de Feu: climber with scarlet clusters of double flowers with abundant glossy foliage
• Golden Showers: a climber with pointed double yellow flowers that open in rosettes
• Mme Gregoire Staechelin: climber with sweet pea scent and double, deep pink flowers
• Zepherine Drouhin: cerise pink climbing rose - attach wires away from the wall to allow air circulation
• Gloire de Dijon: old climbing rose with large, creamy pink-orange flowers and a rich scent.
• Maigold: blazing orange flowers.

Some good shrubs can be trained to 'climb' a North wall. Pyracantha Orange glow is excellent, while Photinia Red Robin, Cotoneaster simonsii or Cotoneaster horizontalis would at least get you to base camp even if they would not quite cover the Eiger.

Or how about Fruit Trees? The blue plum Czar, and the cooking apples Early Victoria and Keswick Codlin are both suitable, but the standout candidate is the Morello sour cherry, which probably produces better quality fruit on a northerly wall than in full sun. The blossom looks wonderful in spring, and then, once firmly established, the branches could be used as a support for delicate climbers.