Dainty-looking yet tough, and smothered with flowers over a long season, there are few climbers to beat a clematis. Grow them over pergolas, walls and fences; train them up a tree; cover an eyesore or provide a pretty partner for climbing roses.
There’s one in flower every month of the year, from the blue bells of alpine clematis in spring to the big, look-at-me flowers of the summer belles and deceptively delicate-looking evergreen clematis, flowering in the depths of winter. Choose a compact variety and you can grow them in pots, too: push a woven wigwam into the compost and train your clematis up it for a summer-long display.