Calling Gailey.....

[megeve]

Hi Gailey

Would really appreciate it if I could get your insights/thoughts about plants for the mediterranean climate.

This is about our holiday house in Spain. As you know we are doing quite an extensive renovation on this house. Part of the renovation is the extention of the dining & kitchen area onto the terrace/swimming pool area. Thus the old swimming pool had to make way to being terrace and we have decided to put a new swimming pool on another level below the terrace since this house was built on a very steep slope. As this new swimming pool/2nd terrace area is built on foundation which is strong enough to hold the swimming pool/terrace structure, it is not strong enough to hold more additional bricks or stones coverage below it. It has a height of about 7/8m, a frontage width of 20m and 6m of side (left of frontage). As you can see in the attached pic, we need to cover these gaping ‘holes’ with some sort of plants. Our architect has suggested to cover these ‘holes’ with climbing ivy, it would be green all year round but I would rather prefer some flowering climbers like bougainvillaea considering that this is a south-facing frontage, sunny all day long and the terrain soil is dry and rocky. The only thing I am not sure is whether bougainvillaea will loose its leaves during winter? Average winter temperature is around 10°-15° C. Or have you any other suggestion for flowering climbers in this zone!

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

 

[Gailey]

Hey Megeve

Well clearly what I need is a site visit before I can commit my professional opinion here

However, here's something perhaps you don't know about Bouganvilla. The amazing colours do not come from the flower petals. The actual flowers on a Bouganvilla are the little white insignificant trumpets in the centre of the coloured bracts. Bouganvilla is like a Christmas Poinsettia. This means that they retain their colour far longer than a regular flowering plant because the bracts don't drop like petals do. Bracts are really just modified leaves, so they just turn colour.

Now of course their are other flowering vines and shrubs. I'm not all that familiar with the Mediterranean climate, hence my need for a familiarisation visit - I reckon about 3 months should do it But meantime, I'll do some resarch and see what I can come up with. What is the time frame that you are likely to be there? For instance, I love Plumbago, but it has a particular flowering time, which may not match with when you will be in residence.

Is it the stairwell wall that you want to cover in plants? How easy will it be for someone to get in and do maintenance if need be. Is the first picture the new structure or the old? EDIT: OK, don't answer that last question, just re-read your post again.

 

[Gailey]

OK, after a re-read and another look, I have a couple of immediate points. Most climbing plants need some sort of structure to climb or cling to. I think an ivy planted at the base of those concrete pillars would help to cover them up, but I see no other visible means of support for climbers to grow on. That said, it would be easy at this point to install some kind of metal framework for climbers to scramble up at this point in the building.

Bouganvilla is more of a woody shrub and therefore does not need as much support as a traditional herbaceous climber.

Let me know if it is feasible to install some kind of supporting structure or not, because it will help me research the right type of plants for you.

 

[megeve]

(PS just swallowed my long reply! )

Thanks Gailey for your quick response!

I am sorry for not being clear in my description of the situation. In the 2nd pic, is the stairway from the old terrace to the new pool area which is covered with decorative stones. In the begining of the architectural plan, the new pool structure was supposed to be covered with the same decorative stones as the stairway. But now that the structure is up, the architect found out that it is not doable with these stone coverage as the foundation is not strong enough to hold all these additional decorative stones plus concrete walls. So we have to do away with concrete walls with decorative stones and do plant coverage instead.

In the first pic, I have drawn a green line, left and right of which (all the way around) will have to be covered with plants. Yes, the builder has plan to put up some metal support (length and breathwise) around this area in Jan/Feb and plants should be planted in Mar/Apr '11. So I still have some time to make a decision.

I have been told that the most robust and fast growing bouganvilla is the purple flowering kind, see pic below. I would like to see these shrubs looking like that ALL THE TIME. But if they do shed their leaves in winter, we would see the gaping 'holes' That would not serve our purpose.

 

[Gailey]

I found some of my seemingly "swallowed" replies somewhere in my profile section. I'll have another look in a bit and see if I can find them again and let you know where to look.

Meanwhile, Bouganvillea is evergreen, or sometimes semi evergreen, so you wouldn't be looking at an empty patch for long. That said, I have deciduous clematis covering my fence and even though the leaves drop, I still can't see any fence because of the thicket of twining stems.

One possibility is to do a variety of evergreen or semi evergreen climbers that have different flowering times. For instance, here is an evergreen clematis that flowers in the late Autumn & Winter: http://www.clematis.hull.ac.uk/new-clemdetail.cfm?dbkey=123

Maybe follow that with this one (another evergreen) that flowers in the Spring: http://www.clematis.hull.ac.uk/new-clemdetail.cfm?dbkey=112

If this is something that interests you, I could find you an expert in your area that would be able to help you source these plants. I am a member of the International Clematis Society and they have members worldwide.

These are two species clematis, of which there are several hybrids to choose from.

I'll try and search out some other Mediterranean climbers.

 

[Gailey]

Or how about this one, small, but perfectly formed: http://www.clematis.hull.ac.uk/new-clemdetail.cfm?dbkey=1958

 

[megeve]

Oh thanks for the information that bouganvilla is an evergreen plant. That helps me with my decision! We had 2 huge (5m) bouganvilla plants before the contractor came early this year and cleared up the space for this structure but I didn't think we would need them again and from memory they seem to be green during winter but I was not 100% sure. So when I googled, a search came up about it loosing leaves in winter, makes me start having doubts about planting these for wall coverage.

Those clematis are just gorgeous! esp. the 'Joanna' one, aptly named! From my past experience, I know that top of the clematis needs sun and the root has to be in the shade. For this particular wall, it will have more than 8 hrs of sun each day, so I am not sure whether its suitable. I will start reading on it.

 

[megeve]

I have been googling whole morning for evergreen climbers suitable for the med climate and came up with a few. Pasiflora, passion flowers, honeysuckle and jasmine, but all these climbers seem to need good soil or be partly in shade. It seems only bouganvilla proves hardy, needs very little maintenance, can take full sunlight exposure whole day and not fussy about soil. I will have to read up more about jasmine, seems like an interesting plant!