Climbing Hydrangea
Hi everyone,
I have just purchased and planted a climbing hydrangea in my garden. the position is mostly shade apart from in the height of summer it will get some direct sunlight. The soil is moist most of the time due to the shade, and I have planted it against a garden fence.
I would be very grateful for any advice on growing this plant as I have never grown this before and am very excited to see how it goes!
Will I need to attach a trellis to the fence in order for it to grow up or does it attach similarly to Ivy?
When is the best time to prune this climber?
thank you all for your help!
Jerry
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You will need to attach it to the trellis, if it was on brickwork it would cling by its roots but not on wood.
i can't remember ever pruning mine, but it was many years ago I had one climbing up the wall, it was almost to the top of the house.
Mine is on a stone wall, it attaches itself. It is pretty big now but when it gets too thick I run the hedgecutter across the front of it after flowering, to make it half as thick and cut off the dead flowers.
Thank you for all of the advice, I will definitely attach a trellis this weekend as I already have one in my shed which is perfect for the job!
one more question, what are the chances of birds nesting in this? once its more established of course. The positioning is pretty much shade all spring and winter, with some sun during the height of summer. is this a position that could potentially be nesting quality or not at all?
Thank you again!
Not sure if birds will nest in it, it will lose its leaves in the winter so will just be bare sticks, and is not that thick again by Spring. You never know, robins make their nests in all sorts of places, but I think the finches and sparrows like to be a bit more in the thick of it.
a client of mine had one, very mature specimen. Blackbirds and even woodpigeons used to nest in it.
I've had blackbirds in mine.
Thanks guys, the only reason I ask is because a friend of mine had blue tits nesting in his once, maybe I could nestle a bird box within it once its grown bigger, that may help the chances!
Thank you all very much!
I do not use a hedge trimmer as you will cut through leaves, better finish if this done by hand.
Birds do nest once growing well but cats sit and wait as do Magpies, access is too easy.
I will be pruning mine using secateurs, however this is speaking quite far ahead as my plant is currently about 2 and a half foot tall!
We do get an awful lot of magpies around where I live, they are constantly terrorising the doves.
Thank you for the advice!