My Boston Ivy climbs great but looks terrible--all rusty brown and dwarfed leaves. My English Ivy looks great but won't climb my brick wall. Any suggestions?
English v. Boston Ivy
Could you put up a trellis? It doesn't have to be fancy.. string some fishing line around small nails.. The English ivy just needs something to get a start on.
You may want to keep an eye on that English ivy... Pick all of the berries as they appear or the birds will eat them and pretty soon you (and all of your neighbors) will have baby ivy plants popping up everywhere.
I had Boston Ivy on my previous house - southeast side. It was very healthy and I had trouble keeping it out of the window areas, then out of the eaves of the roof, then off the roof...When termites were discovered in a wooden expansion joint of the concrete patio, the buyers demanded a termite treatment (we were in the process of selling the house) which meant the ivy had to come down. We were told that allowing plants to cover the outside of the house is not wise as the termites can easily get into the house under their cover, and vines are particularly bad. Trying to get the ivy off was a horrendous JOB! Its tendrils clung tightly to brick and mortar. The vines themselves were imbedded in the brick. We tried to scrub off the remnants with a steel brush. It still looked like the house had a five o'clock shadow. I almost went for the jugular vein when the new owners complained about the missing ivy! Grrrrrrrrr........
Ivy roots and tendrils weaken the mortar between the bricks. It is extremely difficult to control its growth. It allows termites and other insects safe passage into your home through any cracks in the mortar and through the weep holes. Termite tubes go unseen under the ivy. It is impossible to remove neatly. And with a hot summer, it starts to look awful with all of the heat from the brick. I hope you change your mind and realize its destructiveness....
Well said Ceejaytown!
Although I love the evergreen of ivy I keep it contained. A brick patio surrounds a red oak. I have the ivy growing up the oak and even then keep it trimmed to a certain height.
we have wood siding on our house and the previous owner let ivy crawl all over one side and two years later still have to spray with herbacide often and you can still see the left over tendrills stuck to the white paint. also have the ivy about 30 ft in the air covering some pecan and oak trees, the main branches of the ivy have been cut but they still thrive. A limb of the tree came down two weeks ago and i had to pull it down with a whole lot of the ivy and put it on my burning pile, noticed today that the ivy was still just as green on the pile as it is on the tree, tough stuff so be aware before getting it started....