Climbers
12 climbers, grouped by what they hold on with. That single fact decides what you have to build, and it is the thing nursery labels answer least well.
Buy the support before you buy the plant
Three of the four mechanisms below need something built for them, and they do not need the same thing. A twining stem has to be able to wrap all the way round its support, so it will climb a wire and fail completely on a 40 mm trellis batten. A tendril grips something thin it can coil on. A scrambler has no attachment organ at all and must be tied in by hand every year for as long as you own it. Only the self-clinging group needs nothing — and for those a trellis is money spent on an object the plant will ignore.
What each one holds on with
Read your own wall or fence first, then this column. The support note on each row is what to actually buy.
| Climber | Holds on by | Vigour | Foliage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Armand clematis | Tendrils or leaf stalks — needs mesh or wire to grip | Rampant | Evergreen |
| Clematis | Tendrils or leaf stalks — needs mesh or wire to grip | Vigorous | not recorded |
| Climbing hydrangea | Self-clinging — needs no support structure | Vigorous | Deciduous |
| Evergreen climbing hydrangea | Self-clinging — needs no support structure | Restrained | Evergreen |
| Henry's honeysuckle | Twining — needs wires or thin supports to wrap around | Vigorous | Evergreen |
| Honeysuckle | Twining — needs wires or thin supports to wrap around | Vigorous | Deciduous |
| Hoya | Twining — needs wires or thin supports to wrap around | Restrained | Evergreen |
| Ivy | Self-clinging — needs no support structure | Vigorous | Evergreen |
| Passionflower | Tendrils or leaf stalks — needs mesh or wire to grip | Vigorous | Semi-evergreen |
| Star jasmine | Twining — needs wires or thin supports to wrap around | Moderate | Evergreen |
| Virginia creeper | Self-clinging — needs no support structure | Rampant | Deciduous |
| Wisteria | Twining — needs wires or thin supports to wrap around | Rampant | Deciduous |
The ones that need nothing built
Self-clinging climbers grip a sound surface directly with aerial rootlets or adhesive pads.
The recurring question about these is whether they damage the wall. The short answer is that on sound masonry in good pointing they generally do not, and there is reasonable evidence ivy buffers a wall against driving rain and temperature swings; on failing render or perished mortar they enlarge defects that were already there. The damage that actually costs money is in gutters, under tiles and around window frames rather than on the wall face. Each profile says which applies.
Evergreen climbers
Almost always the point. A climber bought to hide something and chosen without checking this hides it for seven months of the year.
7 of the 12 hold their leaves. 1 — Clematis — carry no foliage value at all, and that is deliberate rather than a gap: the record is authored at genus level and the genus contains both evergreen and herbaceous species, so no single answer is true of it. Unrecorded stays unrecorded rather than being rounded to whichever value would look tidier.
| Plant | Foliage | In a container |
|---|---|---|
| Armand clematisClematis armandii | Evergreen | Not a realistic container plant |
| Evergreen climbing hydrangeaPileostegia viburnoides | Evergreen | Not a realistic container plant |
| Henry's honeysuckleLonicera henryi | Evergreen | Workable in a container, with conditions |
| HoyaHoya carnosa | Evergreen | Good in a container long-term |
| IvyHedera helix | Evergreen | Good in a container long-term |
| Star jasmineTrachelospermum jasminoides | Evergreen | Good in a container long-term |
| PassionflowerPassiflora caerulea | Semi-evergreen | Workable in a container, with conditions |
Climbers for a shady wall
The north or east fence is where most climbers are actually wanted, and where the choice is narrowest.
6 of the 12 tolerate a wall that gets no direct sun, which is an unusually even split for a garden question and the reason climbers for a north-facing wall publishes as a list of its own. The rest will climb there and sulk, or climb there and never flower.
| Plant | Foliage | In a container |
|---|---|---|
| Climbing hydrangeaHydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris | Deciduous | Not a realistic container plant |
| Evergreen climbing hydrangeaPileostegia viburnoides | Evergreen | Not a realistic container plant |
| Henry's honeysuckleLonicera henryi | Evergreen | Workable in a container, with conditions |
| HoneysuckleLonicera periclymenum | Deciduous | Workable in a container, with conditions |
| IvyHedera helix | Evergreen | Good in a container long-term |
| Virginia creeperParthenocissus quinquefolia | Deciduous | Not a realistic container plant |
How much plant you are actually buying
The second question after the mechanism, and the one behind most climber regret. A rampant climber on an undersized structure does not simply get too big — it pulls the structure down.
Restrained — suits a small structure — 2
Safe against a porch, an obelisk in a pot, or a low fence. Slow to fill a space, which is a virtue where the space is small.
Moderate — a normal fence or arch holds it — 1
The comfortable middle. An ordinary trellis or arch is enough, and annual pruning is tidying rather than damage control.
Vigorous — needs a substantial support and annual attention — 6
Fine on a house wall with proper wires, a mistake on a fence panel. Budget for cutting it back every year for as long as you own it.
Rampant — will overwhelm anything undersized — 3
These are for a big wall, a large pergola or a tree you do not mind losing. Every one of them is routinely sold to somebody with a six-foot fence.
Climbers in a pot
Shown at the inclusive setting, since a climber in a container is nearly always a conditional answer — the condition being water.
A vigorous climber in a pot is a plant with a large canopy and a small reservoir, and it will need watering in summer more often than anything else on a patio. The restrained ones are the honest recommendations here.
| Plant | Foliage | In a container |
|---|---|---|
| HoyaHoya carnosa | Evergreen | Good in a container long-term |
| IvyHedera helix | Evergreen | Good in a container long-term |
| Star jasmineTrachelospermum jasminoides | Evergreen | Good in a container long-term |
| ClematisClematis | not recorded | Workable in a container, with conditions |
| Henry's honeysuckleLonicera henryi | Evergreen | Workable in a container, with conditions |
| HoneysuckleLonicera periclymenum | Deciduous | Workable in a container, with conditions |
| PassionflowerPassiflora caerulea | Semi-evergreen | Workable in a container, with conditions |
Climbers with recorded wildlife value
Ivy is the standout, and its value depends entirely on being allowed to grow old.
Ivy only flowers once it makes adult growth at the top of its climb, so a plant clipped hard every year never reaches that stage and feeds nothing. Its flowers are among the last nectar of the year and its berries ripen when bird food is scarcest — the two moments a garden is least able to supply.
Ready-made lists from this group
Published only where the filter genuinely narrows the group.
Every climber, compared
| Plant | Foliage | In a container |
|---|---|---|
| Armand clematisClematis armandii | Evergreen | Not a realistic container plant |
| ClematisClematis | not recorded | Workable in a container, with conditions |
| Climbing hydrangeaHydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris | Deciduous | Not a realistic container plant |
| Evergreen climbing hydrangeaPileostegia viburnoides | Evergreen | Not a realistic container plant |
| Henry's honeysuckleLonicera henryi | Evergreen | Workable in a container, with conditions |
| HoneysuckleLonicera periclymenum | Deciduous | Workable in a container, with conditions |
| HoyaHoya carnosa | Evergreen | Good in a container long-term |
| IvyHedera helix | Evergreen | Good in a container long-term |
| PassionflowerPassiflora caerulea | Semi-evergreen | Workable in a container, with conditions |
| Star jasmineTrachelospermum jasminoides | Evergreen | Good in a container long-term |
| Virginia creeperParthenocissus quinquefolia | Deciduous | Not a realistic container plant |
| WisteriaWisteria sinensis | Deciduous | Not a realistic container plant |
Know the position rather than the plant? What can I grow? takes your light, soil, space and month and answers from this same catalogue — including which climbers it rules out for you and why.
Pruning a clematis is the one job here where getting the group wrong removes the whole year’s flowers — the clematis profile sets out the three groups and what each one wants.