How long should it take english ivy to grow up the side of a two story house?

Question

I am thinking of planting english ivy on the side of my two story brick house next spring.
Any advice about planting it?
Will it damage my brick in the long run/
How long should it take to grow real good up the side?

Answer 1

a few years.

don't let it grow too high so you can't trim it.

this provides a perfect access route for vermin into your roof.

my (english) ivy gets full of snails and sparrows too.

the ivy on my home is on the north facing side of the house, beside a rainwater downpipe. i trim it twice a year.

Answer 2

I prefer Boston Ivy. That's what we have growing on the side of our two-story home. The leaves are big and lush green until Fall. Then they turn a crimson red and fall off the vine. It also bears little fruit (like blueberries) that the birds love to eat but they also attract honey bees late in the season for one to two weeks. Also, the little sprouts easily root themselves when they fall into fertile soil below--no need to purchase more. So far, there has been no damage to the mortar. The vine grows by sending out new sprouts that have tiny suction-cup like extensions on them (hard to completely remove, at times). I do have English Ivy in the backyard growing on a fence, and that grows a bit faster and spreads faster then the Boston variety. It does stay green to greenish-brown all year, maintaining its leaves. But I question how you will get the English Ivy to "hold onto" the brick to get started because they don't have the grasping little feet like the Boston Ivy does. On our fence, we had to tie a lattice work of plastic-coated wire (used for weed whackers) so the ivy could be manually twisted around the wire and tied on with soft ties. You might have to use a large trellis.
As for planting either one: Start with some good, fertile soil and water when dry (once established). Space every foot or so apart for English; Boston grows into a tough, woody-like bush so they can be planted maybe four or five feet apart (one plant, over time, can cover a third of the house in five to seven years).

Answer 3

Ivy sleeps the first year. You will think you have done something wrong to it. The second year it creeps, speeding up a little. The third year it leaps, adding an incredible length of growth in that third year, and every year thereafter.
Hopefully you will heed the advice of many others and not plant the ivy on your house. It will glue its "feet" onto your bricks, feet that must be sandblasted off to restore the look of the brick. It will "explore" cracks and weaknesses in the mortar wall and push the cracks apart, making them much larger. It will grow between your brick and your wood trim, pushing the wood out until it pops off the house. It will grow where you don't want it as well as where you do. It grows away from the house and, if you are too busy to maintain it, it will take over natural areas and kill the natural flora by competition. The USDA considers it an invasive weed.
Boston Ivy is not much better behaved. And it doesn't even have English Ivy's one redeeming quality - being evergreen.
In most of the US, the right vine to chose for growing onto masonry without being tied up onto the wall is Cross Vine. It has beautiful yellow-and-burgundy, or orange, flowers. It is a US native vine. It climbs by tiny tendrils that leave little or no residue on the brick after removing the vine. Every year or two it can be cut back to the ground, and removed. It quickly grows back to the top, fresh and clean and not at all knappy. It will take a year or two for 1 gal size plants to reach the top of a two-story house, but then it will reach to the top each summer after being cut all the way to the ground that spring. (Cut back immediately after flowering.)
You will be sorry if you plant ivy on your wall.

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
How long should it take english ivy to grow up the side of a two story house?
I am thinking of planting english ivy on the side of my two story brick house next spring.
Any advice about planting it?
Will it damage my brick in the long run/
How long should it take to grow real good up the side?

Answer 5

Ivy is a weed and as such spreads very quickly. Within one summer the ivy should be well established. It requires no watering and no special planting. Ivy grows even from the cracks in pavements. It you look at houses that have ivory removed will you will notice a difference in the brick colour this is because ivy emits small quantities of a glue like chemical that enables it to climb. This can eat at the brick but not enough to cause structure damage. Make sure you pick a good climbing variety and good luck.

Answer 6

Hi, you shouldn't really plant ivy, it will damage the mortar between the bricks. Even if you have a trellis going up the full side of your house, the roots of the ivy will still get into the mortar, it might take years, but eventually the only thing that will be holding your house up, will be the ivy. Ive seen many houses in the past that have had serious problems from it and it costs thousands to repair. hope this helps.

Answer 7

It'll start slow but after 5 years will start to take over. It'll put out suckers that will dig in and degrade the surface of your house and it'll eventually reach the gutters and go for the roof. When we realised what a horrible mistake we'd made, we chopped the lot down, some of the stems were as thick as a wrist. We couldn't cut all the suckers off the render and painted over them. As you've got a brick house, if you tried to get rid of the ivy, you'd be left with sucker remains showing.

Just as we got rid of ours, a neighbour opposite with a pebble dashed house was planting ivy. That was 15 years ago and it eventually covered the entire side wall of his house thickly. He's just had two workmen in for the week, cutting it down and renewing the rendering.

How about climbing roses?

Answer 8

It took mine about 3 to 4 years to get to the roof.

I do not recommend it, as it's difficult to remove and leaves a real mess: it sticks so tightly to the bricks and mortar that it's almost impossible to remove.once the plant has gone. Looks terrible too and can devalue your house price alot.

I've also got some damage that is causing me a big headache. I'd not do it again!

Good luck! Rob

Answer 9

Ivy can cause damage to walls. As it grws upward, it puts out little roots to help it to cling to the wall. These roots get into the joints between the brickwork and as they grow bigger, they start to break the joints btween the brickwork . I have seen walls where ivy has caused cracks in brickwork from the roof right down to floor level.It looks nice in photographs, but it is very destructive.

Answer 10

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