Any suggestions please, I have a south facing newly built red brick retaining wall in my garden which stands about 3ft high and I am looking for perennial plants/small shrubs to grow against it to soften its appearance (although I don't want it to be covered completely). I would need some plants which prefer full sun and some which prefer partial shade as some would be under a large silver birch tree.

Does anyone have any ideas of what would look good?

Jasmine grows quickly, and there are some varieties of evergreen clematis

Forsythia is a lovely yellow bush plant but it can get quite big so you'd have to trim it back. You could put a small fruit tree in the sunny area.

If you put a trellis on the wall or an obelisk then I'd say honeysuckle.

Then there's always roses, which are much easier that I thought. A lot of the cheap shops have them for £1 (or not much more at the moment).

I would suggest clematis too - you can plant a few varieties so there'll always be one in flower :D

3 feet isn't very high to support climbers. Do you actually want plants that will scramble over the wall and cover it ... or more something like a herbacous border?

I have a clematis that I have let scramble over a wall, down t'other side and among ground cover plants, it doesn't have to grow up ;)

bamboo will give a nice 'floating' screen

Thanks for all your suggestions

I too thought the wall wasn't really tall enough to take a climber as they can grow quite tall can't they. The wall runs behind the rear of the garage base (the garage stands on a level higher) and there is a small gap between it and the retaining wall which I have backfilled with soil etc. I bought a packet of mixed Aubrietia which I plan to grow in the space between in the hope of it growing over the wall. A grassed area runs right up to the wall and I wanted a small shrubby border there instead.

I could grow some climbers up the back of the garage though! :D

Ivy will provide all round colour - and there are some nice variagated ones. Also honeysuckle would be good - remember if you can't grow up you can grow along!

You could grow some sweet peas up it with a few canes in to support them above the 3ft wall..?