Silver Bells

Silver Bells is a vigorous, semi-evergreen, twining climber that reaches around 10m, training readily up a wall, fence, trellis, or pergola. Its rounded leaves are dark green above and blue-green beneath, divided into five leaflets that take on a purple tint in winter, giving the vine a vivid green appearance in season. Between March and May it opens racemes of flowers — male blooms described as white to butter-coloured, paired with slightly larger, pinkish-purple to mauvish female flowers carrying purple-pink stamens — that release a spicy, vanilla-scented fragrance. In some seasons the female flowers develop into elongated purple pods, growing up to 10cm long and shaped rather like small sausages.

Its vigorous growth makes Silver Bells effective as a privacy screen, where its summer display of flowers and seed pods adds ornamental interest. It also adapts well to container growing, given a large pot at least 40cm deep with good drainage and a support structure for it to climb.

Silver Bells is low maintenance, showing strong resistance to pests and diseases and needing little pruning or feeding once established. It is notably cold-hardy, tolerating temperatures down to -20°C, and copes well with drought. Its RHS hardiness rating of H5 confirms reliable hardiness from -10°C to -15°C, making it suitable for most parts of the UK.