Quote:
Originally Posted by samantha
My question is this. Up until yesterday, I thought I had found the perfect plant. 'Trachelospermum jasminoides'. I was seeking something evergreen (obviously for year round privacy) and the fact that the flowers smell absolutely wonderful is a bonus.
I have since been told that these are not fully hardy and need to be protected in the winter. We live in Buckinghamshire but lower down, in a little village called Iver, near Slough and Uxbridge.
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It will certainly survive where you are without protection. It doesn't grow very fast, but by buying large plants you may have solved that. And slow-growing means that in the long run it doesn't become a problem. It certainly retains an opaque winter covering. You need to be in a sheltered spot to get it to flower well - we are in a somewhat exposed spot in Little Chalfont, and my neighbour's one has never flowered in the 7 years I have lived there. But it has survived.
Ivy aside, there aren't very many reliably hardy, reliably evergreen climbers, although in Iver you probably have a sufficiently mild climate that you have a wider choice than people in cooler spots. Other things to consider are Akebia quinata (chocolate vine - the flowers are supposed to smell of chocolate), Clematis armandii (winter flowering and scented - large leaves so very opaque), Holboellas, and there are some evergreen honeysuckles (Lonicera). Rosa banksii makes a thick covering and is evergreen in mild spots.