In article ,
Brian Watson wrote:
"dg.dg" wrote in message
...
THANKYOU for all your great advice - I'm afraid I havent had the time to
return here till now, but theres much food for thought.
Especially the stuff about Mums!
I now feel I have the confidence to take the first bold leap into the
world
of gardening and get a big pot with some nice colourful ivy to put up my
scrubby old wall.

A very sensible mid-point solution.

After all, you can always take a shotgun to the pot...

I read that as "you can always take a shotgun to the Pete". Tempting.

However, I really don't understand either extreme of the ivy
league. It is a useful and attractive climber for circumstances
where you want a block of green and can put it with its vigour,
but it isn't attractive enough for use if something else better
is appropriate. I don't like variegated plants much, but can see
that some people like them, and it has some good forms.

And it is really NOT difficult to get rid of, except in the rare
case where you can neither dig it up nor poison it. I have heard
that it does get out of hand in the USA's Pacific North-West, but
that is there and we are here. Its holdfasts don't cause trouble
even to loose mortar - though removing it may - and, if you have a
wall where roots can establish, you have serious damp problems and
will get other plants anyway (e.g. buddleja).

I don't grow it deliberately, because I don't like it much, but I
can't see why it should be demonised.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.