Anyone with experience in growing this plant? It's common name is climbing
hydrangea. My research has been conflicting (most Web research is) about
the light requirements. I have found everything from full sun/part-sun to
full shade/part shade.

I am looking for a full-shade climbing vine. I know that Hydrangea
petiolaris are slow to get growing, and they have neat
cinnamon-colored/peeling bark on the older stems. Flowers in June/July for
2 weeks or so.

Any more info on the light requirements?

-- Much appreciated!
-- pelirojaroja
"dangerous redhead"

In article , "pelirojaroja"
wrote:

Anyone with experience in growing this plant? It's common name is climbing
hydrangea. My research has been conflicting (most Web research is) about
the light requirements. I have found everything from full sun/part-sun to
full shade/part shade.

I am looking for a full-shade climbing vine. I know that Hydrangea
petiolaris are slow to get growing, and they have neat
cinnamon-colored/peeling bark on the older stems. Flowers in June/July for
2 weeks or so.

Any more info on the light requirements?

They'll be a richer green leaf grown in shade, with more vibrant autumn
yellow. They'll bloom sooner in more sun but at risk of sunburn must
always be well-watered. But "slow to start climbing" is an understatement.
If you got a two-foot-tall little start of a vine, it would probably begin
to seem like a serious climbing vine in seven years. If you got one that
was nose-high & already with nice exfoliating orange barked twigs, maybe
three or four years. When it starts to go it is aggressive & gigantic, but
a seriously long wait.

No wait for akebia or china blue vine that also like shaded walls or
trellises or arbors. The china blue vine is evergreen. The shade-loving
"Moonlight" false hydrangea is no speed-grower, but compared to deciduous
climbing hydrangia it is.

I don't have a webpage for my china blue vine as yet, but here some stuff
on the others:
http://www.paghat.com/moonlightvine.html
http://www.paghat.com/climbinghydrangea.html
http://www.paghat.com/akebia.html

There's an evergreen climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea seemanni) that grows
slow compared to akebia but very fast compared to deciduous hydrangea.
Ours is planted in morning sun, but Heronswood's display garden has a big
one growing under full shade of Douglas firs & it does great for them in
shade. I've had it for two years & it's doubled in size (has reached the
top of a seven-foot trellice, but just barely) & gotten thick & bushy, but
without blooming as yet. There's a second species of evergreen climbing
hydrangea with serated leaves, but every specimen I've seen has been kind
of homey compared to H. seemanni, I've yet to see a really big healthy one
of the other.

When I get good flowers on the China Blue Vine, from that point on
Holboellia coriacea is going to be a vine I'll recommend as a
first-choice. And I once saw it on a "top ten vines for shade" list so I'm
not the only one who rates it highly. I've only had it a year & it already
reaches the top of the garage, but it didn't bloom last year when it was
still a little thing, & as yet has no flower buds on it so I presume it
won't bloom this year either, but getting so big it should next year for
sure. Even as so-far-just-the-leaves, though, I've really liked its
year-round presence. We don't have a lot of evergreen vine choices for
Zone 8, but this one's dandy. Holboellia grandiflora is supposed to be
even nicer (bigger flowering) but I've not seen it.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

I have two on the north side of my garage. In three years, they've nearly
covered it entirely. They grow well in the shade and still send out runners
in the sun. They are a lovely shade of green throughout the summer. The ones
I have flower early, in May. The flowers last a long time.

Mac Knight
http://www.macknight.addr.com

"pelirojaroja" wrote in message
.. .
Anyone with experience in growing this plant?