To cover a bare wall or not?

AJB

Hi I have a large bare wall at the side of our house, I would love to grow a climber up it (SE facing) BUT my husband says NO, he argues he won't be able to paint the render to match the front and back of the property, and it would look very silly trying to paint round a plant whilst it grows to completely cover the wall. So any solutions please. any climbers that will survive in a pot with a removable trellis to support it, or I am stuck with a plain (but beautifully painted wall!)

Thankyou

jessisinthegarden

How about a viticella clematis, that has to cut hard back to a couple of feet from the ground, every year around mid February?

I have one on my SE facing trellis and it grows from the ground to several meters in height, every season.

Flowers from late June to September and is glorious.

I have Alba Luxurians - very disease resistant and free flowering - white with a slight blue vein...beautiful.

Mine twines up several wires I have trained along my trellis. You could put wires in your wall to help it move towards (it isn't self suckering).

Here's a link:

http://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/clematis-alba-luxurians/classid.7066/

And yes, I would almost always cover a bare wall with one of these 

jessisinthegarden

Ah, you want to plant it in a pot - hadn't seen that. This vigorous clematis is best in the ground - in case you could remove one paving stone, for example, and stick it in the space 

Or there are other smaller, pot suitable varieties too, though viticellas are usually quite vigorous and are not suitable for pots...if there is one that is, I'm sure someone will be along in a minute and correct me!

Obelixx

Climbing plants can be grown up a trellis panel - or 2 or 3 depending on size - and these ar best attched to the wall using wooden battens about 2 inches thick.   The battens can be painted to match teh wall and the trellis can be attached with hinges at the bottom and hooks or screws at the top.  This allows you to drop the panels down for any wall maintenance or painting.

As it is south east facing and will get quite hot in summer you need the biggest, deepest pot you can manage or, better still a large trough, filled with good quality compost and with regular watering and feeding.   Then you can grow one of the smaller repeat ramblers - see David Austin website for ideas - or a group 3 clematis because they're easy to prune and train.   Honeysuckle is another possibility.  Don't go for anything too rigid and woody as it won't appreciate being bent over for maintenance.

As you chosen plant will be entirely dependent on you for food and water you need to prepare the trellis well and then get the pot and plant choice right and keep it adequately fed and watered.  It will use up the nutrients in the pot in 90 to 100 days and rainfall on its own will not suffice.  

AJB

Thank you so much for your help. I have hope now