pyracantha, honeysuckle or other

Hi all,

I have a fence between my garden and the neighbour. Its just plain featherboard and looks a little dull. I am looking for something to cover it (although NOT ivy).

There is now a Sorbus chinese lace in the sunnier end, but the fence runs north to south and is shaded by the fence itself in morning and the house pretty much most of the time except about 30-60mins midday.

I would prefer evergreen with flowers. Hoepfully something the birds will enoy or even nest in.My first thought was pyrancantha, but the bed in front of it is 120cm wide and might get swallowed up...

I want to try to grow some raspberries and beans in the bed in front, if light allows.

Many thanks,

Bill

Pyracantha can be trimmed. It's prickly, and care needs to be taken not to remove the flowers and buds - which will produce the berries in Autumn.

Pyracantha is a sturdy plant, and would support a honeysuckle growing through it. That would be an interesting combination.

There are quite a few clematis that can cope with a shady spot 

I would go for climbers so as not to take up too much space in the bed. Have a look at Clematis and Honeysuckle on Google, some are evergreen, some are fine with shade.

I use pyracantha like this and keep it trimmed to about 4 inches thick easily. I grow silver euonymous fortunei through it like a climber to break up the dark green, and also small clematis, such as alpinas and macropetalas for some extra flower power and fluffy seed heads. Birds love it. Easy to underplant too as its roots don't tend to do that thick matted thing that some plants do.