Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
jim wrote:
[...]
Ivy grows on derelict buildings and dead trees everywhere - and
that's where it should stay.

Ivy doesn't read newsgroups, either :-)

I am a bit surprised by your posting, as ivy normally takes a LONG
time to reach 9" in diameter, and I hadn't heard that the
variegated
forms regress to the dark green ones.

I actually adore ivies, and in my last garden had a good collection,
mainly of varieties spotted in the wild (I never got the one from the
railway cutting near Neath, though: that colours beautifully in the
off-season). But they must never be allowed near any structure you
don't want prised apart: this includes fences.

Like Nick, I'm impressed that yours got to 9" at the base in what
seems so short a time. A roughly six-inch one I had to take out must
have been in place for fifty years or more. Are you perhaps counting
the side-shoots which mass up against the main stem?

Unlike Nick, I'm not surprised by reversion to self-colour. In time,
several of the variegated forms send out plain shoots; because these
are more efficient at the chlorophyll game, they will eventually
overpower the rest if you leave them to it. You have to watch for
these green shoots, and if your variety sends them out you should
tear them (not cut them) off as soon as you can see what they are.
The worst offender for me was a clone of Goldheart taken as a cutting
from a friend's garden: all three plants I raised were guilty. Aspect
is important, too: too much light and the variegation diminishes.

If you want autumn and winter colour from ivies, you need to starve
them brutally, and to be patient till they're old enough -- for some,
this can be ten years (or mo a lovely dusky pink from the roadside
near Pembroke never coloured up for me at home). I think soil acidity
helps.

Back to surprises, though. I find they're usually easy enough to kill
off if you have to: try SBK on the freshly-cut surface of the stump,
and the spots where you've ripped out any shoots along the ground.
Even just tearing off -- again, tear, don't cut -- any shoots you see
will knock it out soon enough.

Mike.