Great ways you can protect, prune and support your garden climbing plants and flowers
Pruning perennial climbing plants to remove excessive growth is a common practice. Pruning allows shoots and flowers to grow. When doing this the edge of the cut should be slightly slanted. This stops rain water from collecting on the cut and thus reduces infection rates. Do not use un sterilized cleaning tools to prune the plants and burn all cut-off parts of diseased climbing plants to avoid infecting healthier plants.
Pruning: The right way to do it on perennials
The majority of climbing plants require training on a support. Self-climbers such as Ivy ( Hedera spp) or wild vine ( Oartenocissus) and plants which use Tendrils can support themselves and thus do not need tying. The shoots of the young climbing plants should not be tied tightly because this restricts their growth. Use garden raffia or hemp rope to loosely tie the plant creating a figure-of-8 loop.
Tidying the plant
The climbing plants should be kept in a neat condition. Cut off any deadheads and clear away dead leaves. This will stop seed formation which usually involves great loss of energy for the plant. Clearing any residue will help the plant produce flowers.
Watering hanging containers
More skill is required to provide water to plants in hanging containers than in boxes. Usually the hanging container will be heavy to take it down every time each time you want to water the plant. A shower attachment is a handy tool and can simply be fixed to a normal garden hose.
It is also possible to immerse hanging containers in a bucket or bath filled with tepid water until there are no more tiny bubbles seen coming up to the water surface. If the containers are extremely heavy a rope and pulley will assist taking down the container so you can easily water it.
Winter protection for climbing plants and hanging plants
Due to their sensitive nature some climbing plant species cannot survive the cold without protection. Cover boxes and containers left outside with brushwood. Wrap the containers in polystyrene , bubble pack, sacking or newspaper. Hanging containers can be brought indoors and placed in a cool or warm place.