Allotments 4 All

I have recently taken on an allotment for the first time...

Once all the hard work is done and the veggies are in, I want a nice climbing plant to grow over my shed. Although the rest of the plot is a sun trap, the area around the shed is shaded by overhanging trees.

Has anyone got any suggestions for a nice plant, preferably a sweet smelling one with nice flowers?

Hi. My shed is in the shade of a hawthorne hedge which is some 15 feet tall but I have a honeysuckle growing up in it and it seems to be doing really well judging by the amount of buds on it. You could try that.
Joan

Thanks Joan, I love the scent of honey suckle so I think that I may take up your suggestion!
 ;D

Good! Let me know how you get on!
regards
joan
 8)

do you want a perennial climber? i grow cobaens scandens (cathedral bells or cup and saucer plants) every year and they cover great areas and look absolutely fabulous. also sweet peas will take some shade (mine do). black eyed susies (thunbergias) and morning glories. i like to grow annuals as i like to chop and change.

Campanula, i grow cobaens too! Love everything about them including the interesting seed pods!
Snuffy how about a jasmine? Or for colour in shade, but unfortunately no smell, Clematis Nelly Moser. DP

Alternative Clematis which does have a wonderful scent is C. montana. Our Summerhouse is in the shade of hawthorn and the white flowered Clematis has now left the shed and climbed the tree. The scent is lovely.

C. montana is white. C.m. wilsonii is a creamy white one. C.m. rubens is pink. Strangely enough the Toomey and Leeds Encyclopaedia of Clematis does not mention grandiflora.

C. Montana, as Eric says, is white.  C.montana grandiflora is a variety of Rubens, and pink flowering. C.montana Rubens has darker (bronzier) foliage than the type, as well as being pink flowered. C.montana rubens Elizabeth has a better pink colour, but I find it nowhere near as vigorous, while Pink Perfection is a good deep pink, and Tetra Rose has deep satin pink flowers.  I have no practical experience of Grandiflora or of the last two, for which I must pay homage to Fred W. Loads, Judith Berrisford, Shewell-Cooper and Edward Hyams.

Ah now this is interesting I found C.grandiflora in the Book and it says large flowered and white. Christopher Lloyd says white and scentless.  Elizabeth is very beautiful as is Tera Rose.

Eric, I DID say that I had no practical experience of Grandiflora and was relying on the books (all by well known `experts`).  If THEY can`t agree then how can we poor mortals judge?

I sometimes think that some of these experts have never grown these plants either and merely copy from each others books. I too have not got C.grandiflora, so the veracity of the experts statements must be left to others to verify. (That sounds good and pompous does it not?) By the way mended the leaks, now all we need is rain to see if the repairs work.

I grow montana white, rubens and Elizabeth, and from my experience the white has a poorer show of flowers, rubens is very pretty, but Elizabeth is the best of all and has a slight vanilla scent, excellent coverage and thrives on a good hacking back every few years.
One other I would highly recommend is 'alpina', very early flowering , north aspect no problem ! I live 900ft up in the Pennines and it has thrived for approx 10 years, both on east and north aspects!! Beautiful grown alongside the yellow Kerria Japonica.
Has anyone had experience growing clematis horizontally as ground cover?

How about Clematis tangutica? A shower of yellow in the summer, and shimmering seeds heads in the autumn and into the winter. Its not as rampant as the montanas, and so easier to control when its high up on a shed roof.
I also grow rhodochiton. This is a great with the clematis, and gives even more interest.

ooh, i have just sent off for rodochiton seeds- i agree that it should look really good with some of the viticellas (my fave, purpurea plena elegans) or something dinky like 'Little Nell'. Never tried it before.