Climber Recommendations

Hi all,

I have a 4 metre gap in my fence and I’m planning to tie about 5 ropes across it from top to bottom and grow a climber on it. In the  long-run, when my hedge has grown taller, I’ll probably get rid of the fence and the climber but that will be some years away.

Ideally, I’d like a climber that (in order of importance):

- is evergreen (for privacy)

- has quite large leaves (the gaps between the five ropes will be fairly wide, so without large leaves it won’t offer much privacy)

- grows quite quickly

- has edible fruit

- has some wildlife value (I’m based in the UK, if that’s useful info for the ecology!)

- looks nice


I think it’s unlikely that I’ll get all of the above, so I know I’ll have to compromise, but any thoughts you have will hopefully help me to make a decision.


Thanks!

Just bumping this up in case any of you have recommendations/advice for my climber choice!

I think you'll struggle with all those! However here's a few suggestions that might be worth looking at:
Akebia quinata and A. trifoliata are semi evergreen, have lovely scented flowers and edible fruit. I'm not sure they will keep their leaves in the UK though. The fruit pulp around the seeds is sweet and glutinous and the outer skins are tougher but are cooked in Japan as a vegetable - two courses in one fruit perhaps!

Schisandra chinensis, five flavour berry is deciduous, but has very nutririous berries that are supposed to be delicious!

Both of these I'm growing in my polytunnel (no fruit yet...), but they should grow outside in a more sheltered area, indeed I have Akebia that has survived a couple of years, although not growing much yet (a bit exposed). Check whether you need a male and female for fruit - they are not all self fertile.

ivy may not be edible for us, but has good wildlife value with flowers in winter for bees and berries for birds.

mashua is an annual (edit) herbacious perennial, but can grow very quickly, related to nastutium all parts are edible (although not to everyone's taste). The tubers I find quite productive and make good spicy chutney.

Passionflower is apparently evergreen as well, so that may be worth a look as well.

You could try looking at http://temperate.theferns.info/query.php: the Fern's website database search and narrow down in different ways to see what else pops out of interest.

Hope this helps

I have one suggestion however it misses the mark on the "fruit" front unless you can see the value of  rose hips.
Specifically..
"Cecil Breuner" is an evergreen rose, it's a climber but not for ropes it would prefer a sturdy rail or horizontal ladder for bull canes to rest on. Exceptionally easy to grow from cuttings, and can arch up to 10 ft with a 5ft horizontal support. The flowers are non stop all summer, a small mid pink to apricot tone, producing buckets of rosehips by season end. A very formidable security line! The dried flowers are also prized. 10 ft growth in as early as 4 years. My friend says..1st year it sleeps, 2nd year it creeps, 3rd year it leaps!  This is my top choice.

A rope climber that can give sort of year round privacy (in your climate) is hops. If you leave the dead vines in place year after year, it will look messy but it will screen out a visual direct line...I  just tore mine down or I'd show you. I guess you can consider hops a crop as well, a fantastic nervine.. very valuable in these stressful times and obviously they also flavor beer. This will spread and will need control in the years ahead, as such will need a lot of very tall rope support... can you say bio mass?? It's crazy after 6-7years so plan ahead because it will smother anything it can reach. I use mine to keep the front of our house from baking in the summer heat, and from people walking down our street looking into my space as I am working .. I like an open window but nobody can see me sitting right there sewing.
Okay, I  just wanted to share my love for both those plants .. that rose is an old old friend of mine if you can get it on line, I'm cheering you on to do so.

Thanks, all! None of the fruit-bearing options really appeal to me, so I think I'll go with honeysuckle on each side, with possibly just ivy in the middle for a bit of screening/privacy. I think these options are quite good for wildlife. Not sure how well they will grown on ropes, but I guess I'll find out

Roxanne Sterling-Falkenstein wrote:I have one suggestion however it misses the mark on the "fruit" front unless you can see the value of  rose hips.
Specifically..
"Cecil Breuner" is an evergreen rose, it's a climber but not for ropes it would prefer a sturdy rail or horizontal ladder for bull canes to rest on. Exceptionally easy to grow from cuttings, and can arch up to 10 ft with a 5ft horizontal support. The flowers are non stop all summer, a small mid pink to apricot tone, producing buckets of rosehips by season end. A very formidable security line! The dried flowers are also prized. 10 ft growth in as early as 4 years. My friend says..1st year it sleeps, 2nd year it creeps, 3rd year it leaps!  This is my top choice.

A rope climber that can give sort of year round privacy (in your climate) is hops. If you leave the dead vines in place year after year, it will look messy but it will screen out a visual direct line...I  just tore mine down or I'd show you. I guess you can consider hops a crop as well, a fantastic nervine.. very valuable in these stressful times and obviously they also flavor beer. This will spread and will need control in the years ahead, as such will need a lot of very tall rope support... can you say bio mass?? It's crazy after 6-7years so plan ahead because it will smother anything it can reach. I use mine to keep the front of our house from baking in the summer heat, and from people walking down our street looking into my space as I am working .. I like an open window but nobody can see me sitting right there sewing.
Okay, I  just wanted to share my love for both those plants .. that rose is an old old friend of mine if you can get it on line, I'm cheering you on to do so.

Gorgeous rose! Is that one bush?