Rod wrote:
C.armandii would certainly do the job for you if your tank and trellis
are big enough. It's a lovely thing in flower and scented but it can
look a bit rough after a bad winter.
If rhodies do well for you and you like them - is your budget big
enough to buy well grown specimen sized plants? but of the fairly
compact slowish growing varieties like the R. yakusimanum hybrids,
loads to choose from, all lovely. Mix with the odd nice azalea at the
front something like 'Irene Koster', again like the rhodies these
transplant quite well as big plants and are available in 'specimen'
sizes, would break up the dense evergreen and don't get too huge.
I still think you'll get a more pleasing effect by breaking up the
outline of the tank rather than attempting total concealment. While
I'm talking of camouflage - if you want to make garden woodwork
inconspicuous don't paint it green, use one of the lighter brown wood
preservatives (just look around at the proportion of brown to green in
a garden - I'm prepared to bet you'll see more browns than greens)

Hi, Rod. Well, I'm determined to cover that trellis so densely that it
won't matter what colour it's been painted! :-)

I agree that your idea of a number of different plants will be more
interesting and more disguising.

The rhodies will eventually grow, but in the meantime that trellis has
got to be covered.

Have just been using some of these "plant selector" engines. They're
throwing up ivies, and I'm wondering if buying a few well-rooted ivies
would be worth it. I've seen ivies doing a wonderful job on walls, but
will they take to a trellis? I'm wondering about:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plant...ges/1343.shtml

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector/plant?plantid=917

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector/plant?plantid=915

But the "plant selectors" have also thrown up:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plant...ges/9807.shtml

http://www.shootgardening.co.uk/plan...t%2Fresults%3F

Dave Hill wrote:
Henrii frost tender?
Balderdash! We havn't even had a leaf marked and we went down to 18f
and had frost for 6 days+ without it geting above 30f.

18f. That's almost -8c. And we hit -10c last December. So Henryi
might be worth the try. Thanks very much, Dave.

Sacha wrote:
We need a thick rapid-growing alpine evergreen climber which is not
thorny. Are we just fantasizing? Does such a plant exist?
snip

Judging by the answers and debate, I'd go for marine ply panels and
trompe l'oeil! Seriously. My former mil did that on a big slab of a
white retaining wall outside her kitchen window. It was an Italian
panorama and had arches, cypresses, birds, distant vistas etc. on a
wall about 30' long and 20' high - looked fantastic for years.

I'm laughing out loud, Sacha. Very loud!

And largely because because I've just dinner while looking down at said
corner with its pale green Calor gas tank surrounded by a handsome dark
green trellis, on one part of which is one great tuft of leafless
clematis, and because it's so clear that that gas tank has gotta "go"!

A great big trompe l'oeil, featuring what scene that would be compatible
with the very natural South Shropshire hills? I can't imagine what
would work . . . and work well! I'll take a pic of the corner tomorrow
and post it.

Eddy.

I(vies will do it, but you have to be patient. Like most plants, they start by getting their roots down well - they can't support a lot of top growth without good roots. So you'll have a year or two of not much growth, then a couple of years when it's doing the job exactly as you ask, and thereafter you'll be cutting back about 12 ft of extra growth every year.

Ivy will "take to" anything. It'll basically grow up and over anything in its path.

kay wrote:
I(vies will do it, but you have to be patient. Like most plants, they
start by getting their roots down well - they can't support a lot of top
growth without good roots. So you'll have a year or two of not much
growth, then a couple of years when it's doing the job exactly as you
ask, and thereafter you'll be cutting back about 12 ft of extra growth
every year.

Ivy will "take to" anything. It'll basically grow up and over anything
in its path.

Many thanks, Kay.

Well, that's it then, I'm going to order some well-developed "Paddy's
Pride" ivy and some "Lonicera Henryi" honeysuckle pronto.

Eddy.

Sacha wrote:
A great big trompe l'oeil, featuring what scene that would be compatible
with the very natural South Shropshire hills? I can't imagine what
would work . . . and work well! I'll take a pic of the corner tomorrow
and post it.

Eddy.

Sheep, fluffy clouds, blue sky and/or rainy bits. ;-)

Hee, hee, hee.

Cheeky!

Eddy.

Sacha wrote:
Oh, shame - I rather liked my idea. ;-)

Oh, it's a very nice idea, Sacha - it's just that if the piece were to
be impressive one would have to contract a good artist and if one
contracted a good artist one would want him or her to create something
better than just more of the sheep, grass, sky and clouds that we have
so much of round here! :-)

Actually we have a friend in Paris who is a professional trompe l'oeil
artist. He does clever things for rich Parisians. I suspect he would
be amused to be asked to whip up a few sheep to match the ones in our
our fields!

But the tragic thing is that with all the rain and cold we have here in
Britain his masterwork (and our payment) would certainly not be a good
investment, no matter how many the number of layers of marine-quality
varnish!

So here's hoping the honeysuckle and ivy I've just ordered will hide
that wretched gas tank!

Eddy.

Sacha wrote:
x-ing fingers for you.....and the sheep. ;-)

Thanks!

"Eddy" wrote in message
...

We need a thick rapid-growing alpine evergreen climber which is not
thorny. Are we just fantasizing? Does such a plant exist?

We are stuck with a Calor LPG tank, painted a very light green, in a
corner of the front garden and it sticks out like a sore thumb.

Firstly, we put a wooden trellis around it, painted it dark green, and
then put in two clematis plants, one of which has taken quite well but
of course for most of the year they're both leafless and provide next to
no camouflage, so they weren't such a good idea.

Next we put in three or four ivy plants, hoping they would take off, but
they just haven't. Maybe it's too cold where we are.

So then we put three rhododendrons in front of the trellis, and they are
coming along nicely, but it's going to be at least 10 years before they
grow so tall and dense that they hide the tank from view.

So, is there such a thing as a thick rapidly-growing alpine evergreen
climber? We're 150 metres above sea-level here and so it can be awfully
cold in winter, plus we're in something of a wind-tunnel. (It looks
like last winter's cold and winds may have killed off a well-established
young viburnum and a young laurel!). The ideal plant has also to be
non-thorny - or the LPG supplier could complain about getting scratched
when they deliver.

Thanks,
Eddy.

P.S. Have been driven to consider just wrapping the tank in a black
tarpaulin but have learnt that that would contravene the safety
regulations. And of course we're not permitted to paint the tank, and
even if you could it would have to be in a light colour so as not to
cause the tank to absorb heat!


Eddy, not sure what you mean by "Alpine" or exactly where you are in the UK
(150M is hardly up a mountain) but two plants that cope with what you have
described are Ercilla volubilis and Lonicera henryi


--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk