[Alice]

I have a few small plants of Dolichandra unguis-cati (Macfadyena unguis-cati), grown from seed, which are destined for the base of a west-facing wall in our garden on the very dry Greek island of Paros. The hope is that they will grow abundantly and cover the wall in no time. However, I have read some horror stories about this plant producing tubers 40-50 cm long and becoming almost impossible to eradicate. Is this a good climber for the conditions?

[Caroline]

Hi Alice - I finally tracked down a reference to this climber in one of my NZ reference books.  It says "it is not wise to grow [cat's claw] in very warm humid areas near native bush (=forest) as it has become a nuisance in some countries, colonising ruthlessly with its strong, claw-like tendrils...on hot dry banks cat's claw excels."  So it sounds as if you should be OK given your conditions  - no guarantees of course!

Caroline

[Alice]

Thank you, Caroline.

[Fleur Pavlidis]

You may have found about the only place where this plant would be bearable - if it decides to grow. Growing up the house wall at Sparoza it looked lovely in flower but then burrowed its way under the tiles and was a devil to remove. To stop it looking scruffy Sally would undertake the huge job of cutting it down every couple of years  but it was always sending out long shoots into the plants in the front of the bed spoiling the overall appearance so she decided to dig it up. It kept coming back and I'm still not sure if it's gone. I love the flowers so I chose a place to plant it away from the house where it didn't get direct water - there it never dies but never grows. Another place where it gets water it is out of control rooting among rosemaries and being really annoying.

[Alice]

Thank you, Fleur.
On balance, it does not appear to be a good choice. Perhaps I will try one seedling and watch it like a hawk.