How To Grow Ivy On A Concrete Wall

The two main types of ivy people grow are boston ivy and english ivy.

How to grow ivy on a concrete wall.

How to grow ivy on walls. Do you have large vines or bushes that are over grown and too big to train to creep up your textured block walls. Growing ivy up a wall gives it an old world look almost instantly. Among the vines that can attach themselves to cement walls are two related vines with bright red color in fall.

They are virginia creeper parthenocissus quinquefolia which has open growth and reaches 30 or 50 feet tall and the boston ivy cultivar veitchii parthenocissus tricuspidata veitchii which grows 30 to 45 feet tall and has purplish new growth. If you allow english ivy to grow up a wall it will do so and it will use roots and the roots will dig into your wood masonry stone or concrete and tear it apart eventually like water expanding in a crack or a tree s roots lifting a sidewalk. Fast growing ivy for climbing a brick wall. Perennial varieties usually work best.

English ivy is a common ground cover for places where other things don t seem to grow. Vegetative cover can insulate and cool the building trap pollutants and attenuate noise. Take a few cuttings from an existing ivy plant and place them in a glass of water until they develop roots. It can even grow up the sides of walls to soften architectural lines and create an old world charm to a house.

Growing ivy or other climbers up a building wall can however have many benefits. Ivy often gets a bad reputation as a destructive plant when grown on walls but dense ivy looks classic and can actually keep walls dry and provide some insulation. Here s a simple do it yourself project for. Ivy is also easy to plant.

Ivy with its strong attachment to walls can be a worry to homeowners concerned about whether it might damage wall surfaces or block gutters. Inspect any brick wall you want to grow ivy on to ensure that it has no pre existing structural issues that you might make worse by adding climbing ivy. If you want ivy to grow up instead of out it doesn t take a lot of effort to get it started to cover area you wish.