Vertical Limit

They require minimum effort, and spruce up your outdoors in a short time. Leafy or flowering, creepers and climbers bloom in every season. Here’s a lowdown on how to make the most of them.

- Neha Mehta

Call them space savers or clever ornamental covers, climbers and creepers in any shape or form are low maintenance and easy to grow. “While creepers grow downwards and spread horizontally on the ground, producing roots at the nodes, which anchor into the soil, climbers spread vertically with the help of a support system—like walls, pipes, ropes, trellises or any other slender thing to twine upon,” explains Gitanjali Rajamani, CEO of Greenmylife, a Bengaluru-based landscaping and garden maintenance service provider. While to a layman, both might appear to be the same, climbers and creepers are very different in the way that they are planted. “However, both make for amazing ground covers and are perfect for adorning patched and worn-out walls,” says Harsh Vardhan Thakur, an urban farmer and founder of Garden Onsite, a Gurugram-based, full service garden centre. So, while during the summer months, planting a climber on a trellis or wall provides shade, in winters, it works as a natural insulating layer and helps in keeping the house warm.