I don't expect to get an answer on this one, but........
I have a wall to cover, south facing, about 4-5 feet high,
and about 22 feet long. I may raise the height to 6 feet
with some trellis. I wish to cloak it in evergreen
stuff. I have bought a "Mermaid" rose, and a Ceanothus,
"Autumnal Blue".

The rose is a vigorous climber, and could get to
20 x 30 feet if left unchecked, and has semi-evergreen
leaves. The Ceanothus is evergreen, and can reach 10 x
10 feet. I would wall train it.

Of course I will need to prune them to keep them in
check, but having bought them on impulse, I now find it
difficult to see how they can both inhabit the same wall.
Their combined maximum spread is 40 feet! Aside from
throwing one away, I see my options as:-

(1) Plant them about 10 feet apart and keep them well
pruned.

(2) (Radical) Plant them close together (c. 2 feet ) and
let them grow through each other ( dark blue and
canary yellow flowers - nice combo ). The
Ceanothus can spread and even Mermaid has a shot
at getting big.

Option (2) sounds interesting and solves my problems,
but is it daft to try and interweave plants like this?
Anyone done someting similar?

Andy.

"andrewpreece" wrote in message
...
I don't expect to get an answer on this one, but........
I have a wall to cover, south facing, about 4-5 feet high,
and about 22 feet long. I may raise the height to 6 feet
with some trellis. I wish to cloak it in evergreen
stuff. I have bought a "Mermaid" rose, and a Ceanothus,
"Autumnal Blue".

The rose is a vigorous climber, and could get to
20 x 30 feet if left unchecked, and has semi-evergreen
leaves. The Ceanothus is evergreen, and can reach 10 x
10 feet. I would wall train it.

Of course I will need to prune them to keep them in
check, but having bought them on impulse, I now find it
difficult to see how they can both inhabit the same wall.
Their combined maximum spread is 40 feet! Aside from
throwing one away, I see my options as:-

(1) Plant them about 10 feet apart and keep them well
pruned.

(2) (Radical) Plant them close together (c. 2 feet ) and
let them grow through each other ( dark blue and
canary yellow flowers - nice combo ). The
Ceanothus can spread and even Mermaid has a shot
at getting big.

Option (2) sounds interesting and solves my problems,
but is it daft to try and interweave plants like this?
Anyone done someting similar?

Andy.




This is how rambling roses grow naturally, so is maybe the best option.
Also where I have done this, it makes the two tougher for winter gales.
When planting interesting hedges (I am a designer) I like to add some kind
of climber(s) to reinforce the hedge and add interest.

Neil

"andrewpreece" wrote in message
...
I don't expect to get an answer on this one, but........
I have a wall to cover, south facing, about 4-5 feet high,
and about 22 feet long. I may raise the height to 6 feet
with some trellis. I wish to cloak it in evergreen
stuff. I have bought a "Mermaid" rose, and a Ceanothus,
"Autumnal Blue".

The rose is a vigorous climber, and could get to
20 x 30 feet if left unchecked, and has semi-evergreen
leaves. The Ceanothus is evergreen, and can reach 10 x
10 feet. I would wall train it.

Of course I will need to prune them to keep them in
check, but having bought them on impulse, I now find it
difficult to see how they can both inhabit the same wall.
Their combined maximum spread is 40 feet! Aside from
throwing one away, I see my options as:-

(1) Plant them about 10 feet apart and keep them well
pruned.

(2) (Radical) Plant them close together (c. 2 feet ) and
let them grow through each other ( dark blue and
canary yellow flowers - nice combo ). The
Ceanothus can spread and even Mermaid has a shot
at getting big.

Option (2) sounds interesting and solves my problems,
but is it daft to try and interweave plants like this?
Anyone done someting similar?

Andy.





Planting of two shrubs etc to occupy the same space but with different
times of interest is a known but little used practise.

Bel

"andrewpreece" wrote in message ...
I don't expect to get an answer on this one, but........
I have a wall to cover, south facing, about 4-5 feet high,
and about 22 feet long. I may raise the height to 6 feet
with some trellis. I wish to cloak it in evergreen
stuff. I have bought a "Mermaid" rose, and a Ceanothus,
"Autumnal Blue".

The rose is a vigorous climber, and could get to
20 x 30 feet if left unchecked, and has semi-evergreen
leaves. The Ceanothus is evergreen, and can reach 10 x
10 feet. I would wall train it.
I would be tempted to plant them a few feet apart to give yourself the option of moving one or the other if what you're
trying to do doesn't work long term. Be warned this isn't a nice smooth skinned Mermaid - she has wicked hooked spines
so you should take that into consideration when planning how to manage this. Mermaid does get big but it takes a while
to get going.
Having said all that I personally wouldn't have started from here. I would prefer Mermaid on a big house wall and use
that low south facing wall to grow a range of more compact shrubs/climbers instead of just the two - you could get away
with some 'not quite' hardy things in that situation. Common Myrtle would be a nice one to include.

Rod

On Tue, 03 Jun 2003 14:18:57 +0100, andrewpreece wrote:
snip
I have a wall to cover, south facing, about 4-5 feet high,
and about 22 feet long. I may raise the height to 6 feet
with some trellis. I wish to cloak it in evergreen
stuff. I have bought a "Mermaid" rose, and a Ceanothus,
"Autumnal Blue".
prune
but is it daft to try and interweave plants like this?
Anyone done someting similar?

Andy,

I have approx. the same length of trellis in my garden as your wall, and I
have got approx. 3 climbing plants for every 6 feet of trellis. This was
mostly dictated by the fact that we transplanted a serious quantity of
climbing plants when we moved house, and this trellis was the only place
to put them! Possibly too many, but I'll worry about that later.

So yes, all the plants on my trellis are interwoven - over, under,
through, around and about each other, it looks very pretty.

You need to plant you rose & ceanothus a reasonable distance apart to
avoid competition of the roots, but as they grow wider, you can train them
together so that they interweave. If I were you, I'd go for several more
plants as well. Two plants will not fill out and give good coverage for
several years, even then it will be patchy. Remember that the 10x10 for
the ceanothus and 30 x 20 for the rose are probably maximums, and no plant
is solid! The rose may eventually reach 30x20, but don't forget it
consists of lots of thin branches, so you will have gaps.

You may want to consider the climbing hydrangea (evergreen, self-clinging,
flowers in spring, very easy), ivy (even easier and evergreen), another
rose or 2 for summer interest (not evergreen), clematis for spring (not
evergreen), honeysuckle (not reliably evergreen), solanum crispum, golden
hop (dies back in winter), jasmines, passion flower just to name what is
in my garden.

Regards,

Sarah