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It can look romantic, but it should be noted it is also destructive to trees. It is a pretty destructive species.

when i was a little girl, i got so scared of the ivy shadows from my bedroom window - i always thought they were hands reaching in. so bad i would be terrorized all night. my mom had to get the landlord to cut back all the ivy growing up the side of the house.

nowadays, i think it's very pretty! :)

My brother's window was covered in ivy, and he used to wake us up with his screams of terror as squirrels ran back and forth during the night.

I also think it's pretty.

I used to have an ivy-covered window at work. I loved it. It turns any room into a secret garden.

Grapevine is supposed to be less aggressive/destructive, and has the same look. Its what the buildings of the University of Chicago are covered in, if you want pics.

Ivy is just nasty, especially the German variety. My neighbors yard was overgrown with 30 years worth of it. Itgrew over anything and everything in his yard including trees, sheds, bird baths...you name it. Don't know what sparked the epiphany, but he finally hired people to cut down and clean out the overgrowth. The man heading up the effort came over to tell me to keep my pets inside because he wasn't sure what was going to go scurring into my yard once they started removal. It took 8 days to clean out a 4000 sq ft yard and fill 6 massive dumpsters. Its now been a year and my yard has never looked better now that there is no longer a 20 foot high jungle of ivy blocking the sun.

Ivy can be a beautiful, cost efficient, and energy efficient solution to many eyesores. Ugly buildings, or additions can be hidden, garden sheds can blend into the landscape etc. It is a fast grower, which is part of its benefit, but it does need to be kept under control.

we used to have ivy on our building and the coop took it all down :( it was lovely and one of the most charming things about our building. i was very sad to see it go.

It's nice to have when you live in a concrete jungle. My old NYC apartment had a lovely veil of ivy over the windows in the summer. I would trim it back 2-3 times per summer to keep it from blocking all light. In my new place, all of our windows overlook ugly airshafts and I was happy to see a wall of ivy creep down the wall across from us as it got warmer. It really makes a difference.

Repeating what other people have said and adding a little:

1. Ivy is pretty, but it needs to be kept under control. It is considered an "exotic invasive" plant, which means it is not American (it comes from Europe originally) and so it doesn't have an ecological niche here and can easily get out of control. It causes problems in the woods, where it crowds out native species.

2. Therefore, the recommendation for gardeners is NOT to use it. However, it's so common, grows so well here, including in shade, is so easy to buy in the nursery trade, and is so well-known that this recommendation is rarely followed.

3. Ivy is harmful to buildings because the "feet" that attach to the building can pull out the mortar between bricks and help to crumble bricks. It is harmful to trees because the "feet" attach to trunks (possibly harmful to the tree) and ivy leaves can eventually cover the tree leaves and prevent the tree from getting sunlight. Given enough time, ivy will kill a tree.

4. In short, ivy is pretty, ivy is green, ivy grows in the shade, ivy is hard to kill, and many people love ivy -- but it can cause all these problems. It's a great plant in many ways, and a little ivy is a good thing. A lot of ivy is a bad thing. If you leave it alone, a little ivy will turn into a lot of ivy.

5. Possibly substitutes: virginia creeper (native American plant, green in summer, turns brilliant red in fall, is bare in winter, needs sun), grape (also is bare in winter and needs sun), various shade-loving ground covers, climbing hydrangea (good in shade and has flowers), other?

Sorry to the people who love it. NYC has a crying need for greenery, but not every plant is a good plant.

We used to have one wall on our patio/garage covered by Ivy and it was beautiful, it gave it a nice green background and kept the wall cool... The ivy came from the patio of our neighbor and one day he decided to take it away, and the maintenance guy removed it from our patio too! When we returned home from work we found a horrible plain wall with ivy markings from the roots and scratched paint... now it looks so hard and plain...

Spiders, spiders, spiders, spiders, spiders. We helped our bug invasion problem by getting rid of ivy on the house.

Virginia creeper is a blight on natural existence and should be destroyed. We've lost so many trees in the woods out back because it blankets the branches and chokes out the real leaves. Hate it.

I get the "ivy is pretty" perspective, but I hate it because of its destructive qualities and because it's so hard to get rid of - we've been fighting ours for almost four years now. It still comes back, but every year, less returns. Someday we will win for good.

ivy = spiders.... no thank you!