Hardiness zones:
Sunset 1-24
USDA 3 - 11

Landscape Use: Relatively diminutive, evergreen ground cover for shady portions of the Phoenix landscape, mesic landscape design motifs, hanging baskets, indoor atriums.

Form & Character: Evergreen vine providing an old fashioned colonial look, clean.

Growth Habit: English ivy has has both a juvenile and adult form of habit. Juvenile form is a vine to 50' or more (up to 100' in more temperate, moist climates) that can climb and attaches via adventitious stem roots. The reproductive adult form is small and bushy and usually is manifested abruptly off of juvenile stems that have climbed up onto a support structure

Foliage/texture: Juvenile foliage 3-5 lobed, 2-4" wide at base w/ palmate venation; adult foliage larger and less lobed and usually found at highest point. Aerial roots of juvenile stems attach to most anything, but are not quite as destructive as juvenile stems of Algerian ivy.

Flowers & fruits: Juvenile foliage none, adult form has small greenish white flowers in clusters, spring, followed by small black drupe fruit.

Seasonal color: None

Temperature: English ivy is very cold tolerant, hardy to -40^oF.

Light: Does not tolerate full sun in Phoenix, and will quickly die when exposed to western, summer, afternoon sun. Plant English ivy only in light to full shade.

Soil: Tolerant

Watering: Only slightly drought tolerant, best w/ regular irrigation.

Pruning: Prune to control spread only

Propagation: Juvenile stem cuttings root easily under moist conditions.

Disease and pests: Spider mites are the main problem in central Arizona. Treatment includes rinsing off foliage with a high pressure stream of water. Bacterial leaf spot and edema (water soaking) are problems that can rarely occur only during unusually cool wet periods (Rhetorical question: When was the last time that happened in the lower deserts of the southwest US?).

Additional comments: English ivy is smaller and less vigorous than Hedera canariensis which makes this the ivy ground cover of choice for smaller, shaded locations in Phoenix that have a mesic landscape design motif. For use as a landscape ground cover, its best to plant English ivy from nursery flats at about 18" to 24" on center.

There are MANY English ivy cultivars, and new ones are introduced into the horticultural market by nurseries each year. Some longstanding favorite and well known cultivars include:

'Hahn's Self-Branching' (great for landscape use)
'Needlepoint' (great for hanging baskets)
'Baltica' (novel juvenile leaf form)
'Gold dust' (variegated leaf form)

Invasive alert: English ivy is known to be invasive in 18 US states, particularly those along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.