Patience is a Virtue......

When His Lordship and I moved into theDower House 8 years ago, we planted this Virginia Creeper against a south facing wall in soil that felt more like cement and almost needed a pick to make the hole for planting.
For 7 years it survived in the compost it came in, never dying but never making any attempt to flourish. Then suddenly last year some of its roots must have got the message and tapped a source of nourishment deep underground because it suddenly decided to do what is was meant to do, grow up and along the wall.

We watched in amazement as it forged ahead , measuring its progress every day until the winter set in when we thought it might not survive the frost and chill. However it surprised us in the spring by taking up where it left off and now it is covering a good area of the wall and giving us the autumn colour we wanted, which all goes to show that it was worth the wait.