fast growing climbers

hi we are moving to a house that the main garden is at the side front of house and seperated from public pathway by a small wall. i would like to make this private as it will be our main garden, so was thinking of putting decorative trellises or fence work on wall and need some fast growing evergreen climbers , it is also a sunny spot can anyone help as i am new to gardening thankyou

Hmm.. a difficult one as there are not many fast growing evergreens that I can think of which would give you a quick response.  Avoid Russian Vine like the plague or else you'll be lost within a couple of years within it's tendrils.

Clematis armandii is evergreen and you'll get lovely scented flowers in spring but it won't tolerate windy sites.  Clematis montana is very fast growing and smothered in pale pink flowers in spring but it's not evergreen. Unfortunately I lost mine this year to a very severe frost early spring.    You could mix one of these with a rambling rose or a jasmine officinale or even an ivy.  Ivy comes in all sorts and doesn't have to be just plain old green. 

Photo of an Ivy living with an Elaeagnus (don't know which one) which has decided it might like to climb with the Ivy so I've left it, topped with a Campsis (not evergreen but late flowering).  See my blank bit of arch where the Clematis was - boo hoo...

Photo of the other side of the two together.  They get a fair amount of shade from an oak tree during the day but they seem to like it. I think just greens works well.

 Then perhaps a Kiwi.  Not evergreen but is very fast growing and if you had a male and female you could get the fruit too (although I only have one and get little fruits so I don't know how that works)

I used to have a Solanum crispum on a trellis years ago.  It went mad but I had the space to let it roam.  Some winters it kept most of its leaves and the blue flowers were lovely all summer long.

Lastly, good old honeysuckle.  Again not evergreen - although I do believe there is an evergreen now (?) and when in flower - as mine is now - the scent in the evening is devine.

Sorry this is a long reply but I hope it has given you a few ideas and you'll get even more help and advice I'm sure. 

Enjoy your new home - and garden.

How about euonymus?    Not a climber, but evergreen and grows quite fast.   Various colour combinations, such as green/gold, green/white, etc.

Akebia quinata  and Trachelospermum are lovely climbers - they both do well in our garden

Pam x

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plant_finder/plant_pages/4246.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plant_finder/plant_pages/23.shtml

Clematis cirrhosa - 'freckles' and 'jingle bells' are evergreen and grow very quickly.  I bought them as 2 inch seedlings at the beginning of last year and they are now romping upto 6ft high on trellis. Discribed as vigourous but not invasive,  the first has white/marron flowers, the second - creamy/white.   

Another one I bought last year - Solanum Glasnevin, keeps it's leaves over winter, might be semi evergreen though, you'd need to check, mine kept it's leaves last winter, grows very quickly, needs encouragement to bush out, I've been nipping it's shoots. Flowers May to September with tiny lilac flowers.

Lavatera Barnsley, mine kept it's leaves this year but again this could be semi evergreen, it was one I grew in a pot before planting out. Flowers June to September, with flowers that are white with a pink centre, I suspect very insect friendly.     

I'd use pyracantha - in fact, I have! Its a dense, very hardy evergreen shrub with small leaves mainly used against walls or fences. You tie it in initially until it gets the jist and it supports itself after that. It has white flowers in early summer and bunches of berries in autumn. Good for security too, as old growth deeper in is thorny. I trim mine as a hedge annually to keep it tight to the fence/trellis and keep it to 8ft tall. Easy, as the new growth you're chopping is soft and not thorny. I grow eunonymous fortunei through it for its silvery or gold evergreen foliage, plus various small clematis (alpinas, macropetalas, early or late late large-flowered are ideal) for extra flower power. It will clothe right to ground level, or you can trim the trunks bare lower down and underplant. Red column is a good variety. I plant mine 4ft apart and they should grow pretty quickly - just bear in mind that anything super super fast won't stop when you want it to and you could well end up swamped and spending your life pruning. Also, if the sun is coming from the path side and you put up trellis and climbers, most of the flowers will appear on the sunny side! Yeah,  I'd do fence, pyracantha, and clems (which will flower in some shade). Food for thought with all these different ideas anyway... Bx

wow thanks very much for all your replies, i have certainly got a few to think about now once again thanks much appreciated

Thanks very much. I had the same query. Pyracantha fits my bill perfectly.

Ah, just realised - it needs planting in a pot...is this possible?

My experience with pyracantha is that it has exactly as many thorns as leaves, and pretty much grows as a tree. I've got one woven into a trellis but it's not really paying attention to where I want it to be. It just grows. Definitely a good anti-climber plant.

Neighbour has winter jasmine growing up the wall and a trellis on top of the wall and trailing down on the public side ... two feet thick. Fortunately, it's a wide path. That's not really a climber, either, just a bush that tends to be taller if it has somewhere to rest on the way up.

Honeysuckle Lonicera and Chocolate Vine Akebia Quinata would be my first suggestions, because my experience of clematis is that they have a 12-month half-life. Of the two, Honeysuckle definitely favours the sunny side, so if you've got a south-facing fence there you'll probably be looking at the leafless inner branches while the public get the display. You could probably beat this by having fence panels on the public side and trellis on your side. ChocVin's a bit more inclined to just grow in all directions, but really likes being sunlit.

I've got "climbing" roses too, but attempts to get them to branch out into big fans of climbing roses merely caused the root stock to grow past the grafted climber. Turns out the root stock produces gorgeous flowers, so I'm letting it do that. Again, though, it's not really doing the trellis thing.

If it's a long fence, I'd suggest putting purple and white varieties of Akebia and a few http://www.bluebellnursery.com/cgi-bin/search.cgivarities of Lonicera along it, pruning them each spring for a few years to get them to spread out and then letting them mingle on the trellis. It'll be a few years before you get really good cover, but you should get a charming mix of foliage and flowers and loads of hoverflies, your very own anti-aphid air cavalry! A little layering will spread each plant both ways, to give you a more thorough mixture.

Just beware with the Lonicera that not all of them are climbers. Some are shrubs and some are best grown as hedges.

http://www.bluebellnursery.com/catalogue/climbers/Berberidopsis/B/293Berberidopsis I don't know, personally, because it might not like our winters down here in the frost hollow, but if you get the trellis filled with other climbers it should cope with growing up through them.

Having typed all that I read the rest of their list and hit Wisteria at the bottom. Hmm. Well, you'd certainly get some privacy with one of those 8m high and 8m wide but you might need planning permission for that trellis. O.o

If you like it riotous, the mixed honeysuckles and chocolate vines with berberidopsis to follow once they provide shelter. If you like it neat and simple, just one or two kinds of wisteria.

Akebia and Lonicera are good suggestions but bear in mind most Honeysuckles are deciduous - the evergreen ones are Loniceras Henryi, Halliana and Giraldii.

Thanks both of you. I am just looking to make a 'wall' to separate a raised deck area and a patio area. There is a small fence at the moment. It would need to be fairly narrow. It would be in full sun morning to evening (lucky aren't I?). I still fancy berries - any comments about cotoneaster horizontalis, would it be ok in a pot and would it grow quickly? Thanks.

you could fan train a evergreen ceanothus over it - fairly quick growing, blue flowers in spring/summer followed by black berries . Ask at nursery for advice on the best one.

Honeysuckle.