I'm looking for something to grow over a large shed (11' wide and probably 10' high at the apex). It's up against a south fence, and the planting bed is in deep shade, but there's full sun at the top of the fence - about 5 or 5.5'. The soil tends to stay damp but does have decent drainage.

I was thinking about Veilchenblau, for a number of reasons. Great colour, few thorns (it is a traffic area), vigour. It would be competing with Virginia creeper as well. I would grow it in a pot until it was big enough to be in the sunlight, but after that do you think it would be ok to have its knees in the shade?

Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions!
Karen

Damp feet and full shade at the feet is less than ideal, but I'll confess that I grew a fine Veilchenblau in exactly those conditions here in PDX. In fact, the 1st half of the rambler was in quite a bit of shade. It tended to bloom at the top half, where it reached sun. On the upside of the location, the plant had pretty good air circulation, and at least the soil stayed cool in the middle of the drought summer. Disease was actually pretty minimal. The support was a two-story deck, and Veilchenblau shared the railing with a Clematis montana 'Mayleen' which was rooted on another post opposite Veilchenblau. If you're willing to gamble just a bit, I'd go for it. I find many ramblers to be quite forgiving and eager to please. Maybe someone in your area can add more info about Veilchenblau's performance there. Carol

Portland, How high did your Veilchenblau get?
Any thoughts on Bleu Magenta instead?

Mad gallica, why the setigera hybrids in particular? Assume I know virtually nothing about OGRs! Also, I'd almost certainly buy from Palatine, which uses multiflora rootstock (as I'm sure you know). I haven't tested that particular bed, but mostly the soil here is neutral to acidic.

Jackie

My pH is a bit over 7, and anything multiflora noticably struggles.

My deck-climbing Veilchenblau achieved a height of around 15 feet (in time) if my measurement recall is accurate. I only lightly pruned it since it was in a large space.

Jackie, wow, wow, wow! What a gorgeous specimen.