Can I plant wisteria and ivy together or is that just silly?

[MarkSurrey]

Hi All,

The one who must be obeyed has instructed my to find a fast growing, evergreen, flowering and reasonably self-supporting climber to cover the front of our house.

The wall in question is south-west facing, and is brick and flint (bottom half) and render (top half). The house is in Surrey and so is subject to English weather but not to an extreme.

I was considering suggesting ivy to provide the evergreen coverage, together with a wisteria trained around the door and windows for flowers and interest. However, I'm concerned that a vigourous ivy (the house is pretty big) would smother and kill the wisteria. Is this true, or am I underestimating the wisteria?

What do people think? Alternatively, I would be very grateful to hear alternative suggestions.

By the way, I know that the wisteria is not self supporting, but I am happy to provide individual supports for the woody stems. What I do not want is to have to cover the whole house in trellis for a plant to climb up.

Many thanks

Mark

[Jess]

Wisteria likes sun. Ivy prefers shade. One good reason. Ivy in sun gets scorched leaves and looks ugly. Another good reason. Both very strong growers. Wisteria easily controlled. Ivy clings via suckers and is difficult to remove. Before you know it it will be in your gutters damaging your window ledges pulling off bits out of your wall and leaving ugly marks wherever you pull it off! You may have gathered by now I don't think Ivy is a good idea.
Why not try Akebia quinata instead. It is evergreen has beautiful long dark purple flowers and would contrast beautifully with the Wisteria. It also grows to 30/40ft maximum and is self twining. Would not need trellis just wires spaced about 2ft apart. Do these about 15/20 ft up the wall as the Akebia can be trained out sideways for good coverage and will twine around any Wisteria it meets......Just a suggestion...