Walls, fences, gazebo, arbors or dividing walls. Every garden has vertical surfaces, opportunities not to lose to lighten up and give magnificence to your outdoor space. You know very well how much I love to create and give elegance to everything that is bare and anonymous: with a plant also a monotonous wire mesh can become beautiful. With a little bit of maintenance, well-selectioned creepers enhance your outdoor with colors, fragrance and energy. Let’s discover the most appropriate plants for your garden and how to maintain them beautiful, healthy and luxuriant!
Which creepers to choose?
Creepers are very different from each other due to their conformation, color and favorite habitat. From evergreen ones, to those with flowers, to creepers in vases and those that are good for terraces, their common feature is climbing upward in order to maximize at their best the available light. Therefore they go farther and farther and more rapidly, taking the shape of the supporting structures. Here is for you a list of my favorite plants that you can use to decorate your spaces to enjoy their blooming during all year.
- Evergreen plants. A lot of people become sad when the winter arrives: grey and bare walls, façades and railings with no flowers and leaves. I suggest you Napaulensis plant, Apple Blossom, Winter Beauty or Little White Charm one to enjoy a green for the whole cold season. Also Jasmine is perfect, wonderful all the year long with his dark green leaves and very perfumed during the blooming between April and May. The same is for Bigonia, which stands out with its emerald color in rainy days and, from June, gives birth to beautiful small trumpet flowers with bright colors.
- Potted plants. If you want to create a green corner between two balconies, there are some species suitable to grow also in smaller spaces. I suggest you Plumbago, with sky-colored flowers or beautiful Bougainvillea, adding romantic fuchsia waterfalls to your terrace. Among all potted plants the easiest to maintain is Ivy, or Wisteria, blooming in spring or even Dipladenia, with its wonderful white, red or pink flowers and its shiny and intense green on its leaves.
- Apartment plants. There are also creepers for the winter season, as Pothos that withstands every atmospherical condition and brightens every corner of the house thanks to its colorful leaves. Other very decorative species are Gloriosa, for a tropical touch and Allemanda, with spectacular yellow flowers highly used to adorn walls and trellises.
- Outdoor plants. Creeping roses are very good to add elegance and romanticism to arcades and arches, but also walls and gates. There are a lot of colors: from white to faint pink, light yellow and also the brightest shades of red and orange.
How to maintain them?
To take care of creepers only few operations are needed:
- Cleaning and keeping plants in order. Every spring it is necessary to check the knots that tie branch plants to their supports in order to ensure the absence of damages, stacks of leaves and residuals. This could lead to a proliferation of insects and plants’ diseases.
- Pruning. If you do not take care care of a creeper, a tangled mass of branches will grow and this could obstruct gutters and insinuate through the shingles. Usually you can trim plants with determination, reducing sizes gradually, at least twice years. Then, water regularly during the growing season and fertilize at the beginning of the spring to facilitate growing and blooming.
Now you have all the useful elements, you have just to choose the creeper that fits at best to decorate your space!
Marco Sandrini, Chief Landscape Designer at Sandrini Green Architecture
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