Picking A Structure For Your Plants to Climb

Now, let’s start with the structure. If you like you can drop by the Home Depot and pick up a three foot high wire trellis for very little money. On the other hand you can build (or have someone build) a 10 x 15 foot Pergola, which is much more involved, but which can be awesome. Then there’s everything in-between (and, of course, you have to be thinking about what you’re going to grow on these things. )

A trellis is simply a two dimensional frame that will need to be supported. The support can be either stakes, wall supports, or posts. An Arbor is an arch with enough room to walk under and it might be 2 to 3 feet deep. That pergola might be built with 6×8 posts, 2×10 joists, and be held together with heavy bolts. You can have your dinner party under one. Halfway between these two are deep arbors with seating. Imagine sitting beneath an arbor or pergola that’s densely covered with fragrant roses. .

Putting Up the Plants

Now you have to grow something onto the thing, whatever it is. Let’s begin with the small, wire trellis you grabbed from the store. You’re not going to grow a large climbing vine on that wire, it would eat it like a small snack. A good choice for that small trellis might be a rose like Life lines. (This is a beautiful miniature climber that might get to six feet.) Not exactly pergola material, but perfect for a small structure in a small place.

As for the pergola, take a look at the rose, May Queen. This energetic climbing rose can hit 30′ (or more) under the right conditions. Wind it around the posts and let it “climb” all over the top. In time you’ll have an amazing, flower covered, nicely scented structure.

(Note: All the roses mentioned can be found listed at HelpMeFind.com.) Keep in mind that you can always get suggestions, just go and check out the local grower/nursery and/or the local rose society and get their recommendations. Growing roses isn’t nearly as hard a thing to do as some have made it out to be.

You also have to consider how the plant actually climbs. So let’s look at roses, clematis’, and that wisteria. A clematis wraps tendrils around branches or wires. It can handle a plastic lattice, but it’ll have a tough time with a 6×8 post unless you cover that post with a mesh of some kind. A wisteria, which would be perfect for that pergola, twines around things on its way up to devour whatever it’s growing on. It’ll twine its way up those posts and drape itself all over that pergola. It may well do the same to any attached structure, such as your house. Don’t grow this plant on any structure that isn’t very solidly built.

A rose doesn’t twine and it doesn’t grab (well, maybe a bit with the thorns.) so it will need to be tied to whatever support you provide. Cimbing rose vary greatly in size and some can match that wisteria. Rose canes vary greatly, too. Some have rather thick canes which don’t bend well, others can easily be wrapped around a pillar. Shoot for a rose that will grow to twice the height of your structure. By the way, rose growing is easy, so don’t be intimidated by negative comments or by what area you may live in. Remember, you can also get great advice from your local rose society or experts.

Training the Climbers

Why twice the height? A rose tends to flower only at the ends of the canes, but if you train the cane to be more or less horizontal you will get blooms all along that cane. So you’ll be winding and wrapping and crisscrossing those long canes back and forth along your structures. Obviously, if you do this with a 6′ rose on a 6′ trellis you’ll have some space left over. Even with little Lifelines, weave it through that small trellis and it will reward you with an amazing number of blooms. If you have a rose with long, flexible canes try wrapping it around a pillar or post. Wrap your big climbers around the posts of that pergola and then let them reach across the top. You’ll have flowers all the way up and over the thing.

Do you want a wall of flowers? Train your rose canes to crisscross along whatever lattice or trellis you have them growing on. They’ll bloom all along the main cane and be dazzling. Do the same with your arbors. Wind some canes around the posts and let the others reach over the tops. Do that with fragrant roses and you’ll have an awesome arbor. If the rose is too short then you won’t be able to correctly train it that way.

Once you’ve picked out some climbing plants that you like go and talk to your local gardeners and they will help you with your structures. Your local rose club or gardening group, such as the Spokane Rose Society, will also be a big help Good luck!