Hydrangea petiolaris - heading south for the summer!

Sometimes, "one" does not need to look at a compass, to work out which way a garden faces.

Here's a good example - Hydrangea petiolaris, the climbing Hydrangea.

This is a fairly new plant, but quite well established, and growing away strongly.

That upright branch on the far left is tied to a vine eye set into the wall, because although this is a self-clinging plant, it does need a bit of encouragement in the early years.

But all of the new shoots are heading off at an angle of 45 degrees.

What does this tell you, class?  *laughs*

Yes, we are looking at an east-facing wall. South is to the left.  The shoots are heading towards the sun. (And who can blame them?)

What does this mean for us, in our professional capacity?

It means that, if we want a nice even covering of Hydrangea on this wall, we are going to have to be very strict about formative training - that is, training which is done while the plant in question is still young and pliable.

In this case,  knowing that the shoots are going to tend to go to the left, as we look at it: we will have to train the main framework either across to the right, or strictly upright.  Otherwise, the wall to the left - which is actually the kitchen window, you can just see the corner of the windowsill - will be too thickly covered, and the wall to the right will be bare.

Now, this might seem like a bit of a contradiction to that saying about not fighting with your plants: right plant, right place; only grow plants that you know can cope with your soil/weather/conditions, etc etc. But countering phototropism (that's the technical term for  "go towards the light!") is part and parcel of being a gardener, because often, we are restricted as to where we can position our plants, because we might want a, for instance, south-facing wall, but we might not have one!

So, often, we have to make the most of the situations which we have. 

And in cases like this, it just means that for the first few years, we will ruthlessly force the new stems of the climbing Hydrangea to bend towards the right: they will become the (all together now) "framework of old wood" that I'm always going on about (*laughs*).

Then, each year, we can cut off the new, wayward, stems heading south (and, incidentally, covering the kitchen window, which is not desirable) leaving us with a good covering on the wall, which - being "old wood" will bear the flowers, the following early summer.

 

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