Suggestions please for plant to cover east facing house wall, never gets sun, to plant in either shallow garden raised on concrete, or in 15 ltr pot. On clifftop of north east coast.
I can't think of any plant that will happily do what you are asking of it - to cover a housewall, yet live on next to nothing, with no sun and battered by probably salty coastal gales. And you don't say how you intend to support it or care for it. Your best bet is probably ivy, planted in the ground, but don't know how it would cope with salt.
It clings on well by itself, but if it does grow then it will go on climbing until it reaches the roof and then it will climb some more! At some point it will begin to put out bushy branches which will have winter flowers and then berries if they get pollinated and it will send tendrils under your rooftiles and along your gutters and over your windows. You will then have to get up a ladder and cut it all back, but you can't do this when birds are likely to be nesting in it, and they will, unless you only get seabirds
Which is why I was up a ladder in February this year, peeling ivy off the roof and cleaning out the vacated gutters before the nesting season began l have ivy and love it, it is good for the birds and insects and it protects the wall against weathering and helps retains heat in the house. But you need to know what you are in for. My house is a low cottage and the North wall, where the ivy grows, is quite sheltered but it is still hard to find days when it is calm enough to go high up a ladder with a degree of safety and you need a level place to stand it on too. I live in the hills and get a lot of windy weather, but the NE coast is probably worse!
There are other self clingers such as Hydrangea petiolaris and Virginia creeper/ Boston ivy. I have no personal experience of the last two, except that like ivy they need pruning to keep them under control. The hydrangea I do know, it grows bushier than ivy , so more wind resistance and clings less strongly so might come away, it is deciduous and a slow starter. It needs a moist site to do well.
Thanks. I don't think salt will be too much of a problem as the house is on the cliff top and three stories of house are between the back yard and the sea. I have a clematis at my own house that is and has been for several years thriving in a 15 litre pot
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I can't think of any plant that will happily do what you are asking of it - to cover a housewall, yet live on next to nothing, with no sun and battered by probably salty coastal gales. And you don't say how you intend to support it or care for it. Your best bet is probably ivy, planted in the ground, but don't know how it would cope with salt.
It clings on well by itself, but if it does grow then it will go on climbing until it reaches the roof and then it will climb some more! At some point it will begin to put out bushy branches which will have winter flowers and then berries if they get pollinated and it will send tendrils under your rooftiles and along your gutters and over your windows. You will then have to get up a ladder and cut it all back, but you can't do this when birds are likely to be nesting in it, and they will, unless you only get seabirds
Which is why I was up a ladder in February this year, peeling ivy off the roof and cleaning out the vacated gutters before the nesting season began
l have ivy and love it, it is good for the birds and insects and it protects the wall against weathering and helps retains heat in the house. But you need to know what you are in for. My house is a low cottage and the North wall, where the ivy grows, is quite sheltered but it is still hard to find days when it is calm enough to go high up a ladder with a degree of safety and you need a level place to stand it on too. I live in the hills and get a lot of windy weather, but the NE coast is probably worse!
There are other self clingers such as Hydrangea petiolaris and Virginia creeper/ Boston ivy. I have no personal experience of the last two, except that like ivy they need pruning to keep them under control. The hydrangea I do know, it grows bushier than ivy , so more wind resistance and clings less strongly so might come away, it is deciduous and a slow starter. It needs a moist site to do well.
Thanks. I don't think salt will be too much of a problem as the house is on the cliff top and three stories of house are between the back yard and the sea. I have a clematis at my own house that is and has been for several years thriving in a 15 litre pot
Hostafan lives 10 miles inland and gets salt on his windows after a storm!
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks, I'll bear that in mind.