Garden Structures – Pergola planting

The most popular pergola plants include climbing roses, clematis and wisteria – but you’re not limited to the old established favourites. There are a range of potential planting schemes that may suit your garden and lifestyle.

Traditionally, these structures were covered with grape vines, but you may decide other plants are more practical – grape vines, if they are to be harvested, often require multiple pesticide sprays, and the ripening fruits, while aromatic, can attract bees and wasps. Finally, in autumn the fruit looks wonderful but red grapes stain the path, the wood and your clothing and that can be something of a downside to sitting in the autumn sunshine! If you’re determined to go ahead though, your best choices in the UK are vitis vinifera Brandt or vitis vinifera Purpurea which has wonderful autumn foliage.

If you have a larger pergola, it’s a good idea to plant two climbers near the base of each pillar. As an example, a strong-growing climbing rose, when planted with a less vigorous clematis or honeysuckle, provides support for weaker other climber.

Alternatively, strong-growing climbers, such as clematis montana or wisteria, will in time cover cross-beams and start heading for the house, at which time you’ll be needing to start pruning them back!

If you want to plant different things on each arch choose from the less vigorous scented honeysuckles such as Serotina, which bears attractive purple, red and cream scented flowers, or the thornless rose Zephrine Drouhin for its sweetly fragranced semi-double pink blooms. Be cautious about planting some of the very thorny scented roses because they will constantly catch clothing, or skin every time the pergola is visited.

To cover a larger pergola, try combining the fragrant pink-flowered jasminum stephanense alongside a wisteria such as floribunda Honbeni, which can be trained so the sweetly scented sprays of pale pink blooms hang down into the pathway.

For slightly more unusual climbers for your pergola, consider the following, all of which will have visitors gasping with amazement:

• Akebia quinata (chocolate vine)
• Aristolochia macrophylla (Dutchman's pipe)
• Jasminum nudiflorum AGM (winter jasmine)
• Solanum crispum 'Glasnevin' (potato tree)

Garden pergola rose photograph by Xerones, used under a creative commons attribution licence.

 

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