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Learn with Pip Bensley

Climbers & Clematis

Choose the right climber for your garden with advice from Pip Bensley. Pip will cover everything from plant choice, maintenance and colour combinations right through to pruning techniques.

Course overview

To choose the right climbers for your garden I am going to show you how they grow and what kind of supports you need for each of the different types. I will also introduce the idea of different planting layers in the garden and how you can make use of them to bring more colour and flower to your planting. This is climbers and clematis demystified. All this information is generously peppered with invaluable hints and tips I have picked up over 30 years of buying and selling plants.

Meet Pip Bensley

Pip has a long background in hardy trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants, bedding and houseplants from her career at Hillier Garden Centres where she was the buyer for all these products for their 12 garden centres. Her book about Climbers is filled with answers to questions you may want to ask and was described by the Evening Standard as "probably the most useful book published on the subject of what to plant against walls, fences, arches and pergolas". She is also an accredited RHS judge and judging panel chair at all their shows including the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show. She is also a keen floral designer and has three Chelsea Gold Medals for her exhibits in the Floral Design Studio. She is also a Nationally qualified NAFAS (National Association of Flower Arrangement Society).

Course description

Florist, plant buyer and RHS flower show exhibitor and judge Pip Bensley teaches you how to grow climbers and clematis in this online clematis and climbing plants course.

If you're new to gardening or climbing plants or if you're looking to develop your knowledge about clematis or choosing the best climbers for your garden, Pip will take you through from beginner to expert.

Choose the Expert option for personal feedback from Pip on your assignments.

You'll learn:

  • when to prune clematis and other climbers
  • which climbing plants to choose for your garden
  • how to choose climbers that can grow through trees
  • creating garden privacy with climbers
  • what types of climbing plants to grow in which areas of the garden
  • how to solve wisteria flowering problems
  • pruning rambling roses

Perhaps you have some in the garden and want to learn how to make more of what you have? You might be planting a new garden from scratch or helping a friend or client choose climbers for their garden.

Subjects like pruning, planting and using climbers in your overall design can be really intimidating but this course demystifies all of these so that you can really enjoy using climbing plants in your gardening.