Looking for fast growing climber for privacy low maintenance

Hi all,


I wonder if anyone could help with a question about fast growing climbers.

Im trying to find a fast growing climber for privacy that is low maintenance as I'm only in Quesada once a month for long weekends. preferably the variety with out spikes if possible but are colourful.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.
Thanks

Stanford wrote:Hi all,


I wonder if anyone could help with a question about fast growing climbers.

Im trying to find a fast growing climber for privacy that is low maintenance as I'm only in Quesada once a month for long weekends. preferably the variety with out spikes if possible but are colourful.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.
Thanks

Hi,
I think you will find as with all plants in Spain, all the climbers will be fast growing. In fact like you, we are only in Spain intermittently and have found that most plants we have grown there grow so fast that, except for the cacti, they take a lot of maintenance which is OK for those who live there and enjoy gardening.

I wish we had thought of 'low maintenance' and 'no spikes'/thorns when we planted our Bougainvillea, which took up so much time to cut back each time we visited that we couldn't keep up with it and, as beautiful as it was, we removed it eventually. It should be easier for you though to keep a climber in control as you are there every month.

I have often admired a blue delicate looking climber in other gardens but not sure if it has thorns.

Hopefully you will get some good suggestions from others soon.


Jan

The blue climber is Plumbago. Although I don´t class it as high maintenance, or even medium maintenance, it does die back during the winter and the flowers stick to everything when they fall. They are, however, beautiful.

How about an evergreen Jasmine. That way you have the beautifully fragrant flowers in season, but still have the leaves to give privacy all year round?

Most of the climbers will need maintenance. Bougainvillea has been mentioned and that can get out of control even if you are here.
Jasmine is a nice climber which can do with cutting back just a couple of times a year.
We had a green with purple flowers climber called poly gala but the leaves falling back in winter meant we had two or three inches of dead leaves all over the place which was a pain to keep cleared up.
We have a hedge at the back with a plant simply called siempre verde (evergreen) which takes minimal pruning, maybe a couple of times a year. Comes out in white berries followed by white flowers in January which turn into purple berries at this time of year. Stays green all year round and forms a nice privacy barrier.
A lot of people use fir trees which are not exactly mediterranean and, to my mind, a bit boring but will, again, need a bit of cutting or they become scraggly.
Other jasminoid climbers stay pretty green all year round without getting out of control but don't really form a barrier. We have them over the arch at the entrance and get lovely, bell shaped orange flowers on them now and again.