By LAURA GROSS-HIGGINS
Somehow at the end of winter, those perennial optimists called gardeners start contemplating what to grow in their gardens. The COVID pandemic, in fact, has reawakened many to the joys of digging in the dirt. My husband and I have long been among those who do.
Kits, plans and materials for trellises like the one seen here can be found online or at your local home improvment store These trellises are perfect for plants like a climbing hydrangea.
Although most gardeners think of buying seeds and compiling their seedling wish lists, there are other aspects of gardening that can be considered at this time. Gardens don’t always have to spread out in a standard horizontal bed. This article deals with what can be grown on trellises, even obelisks—vertical gardening.
Trellises and obelisks can provide not only support for perennial vines such as trumpet vine, wisteria, clematis and ivy, but also create a living architectural buffer for privacy when placed near a porch or in the yard. Some trellises even provide a welcoming doorway to a yard. For someone with a small area for gardening, you can grow up and maximize the rest of the bed. Some plants don’t mind being shaded for part of the day by a taller neighbor.
LAURA Gross-HIGGINS
This trellis used to be upright when the trumpet vine it was to support was young. Maintenance is also important with perennial trellis plants.
Many local nurseries sell trellises. I talked to Jennifer Wilson at Mahoney’s in East Falmouth recently. Now its visual merchandising manager, she was formerly its garden shop manager. Jennifer said trellises are always in style. Mahoney’s sells pre-made trellises in both metal and wood. She said the more decoratively shaped ones are often of metal. Jennifer emphasized that the mounting of the trellis, particularly those near a home, is important. She said you don’t want to attach it directly to your house. You attach blocks to the side and then attach the trellis to that. That way an ivy or such won’t work its way under the shingles on a typical Cape-style house. She said perennials like honeysuckle and climbing hydrangea are nice on a trellis.
When I asked her about trellises for vegetables, she said obelisks are more common as a growing surface than trellises. And for the annual garden, she said many people don’t want to spend the money on a trellis; they can buy a package of bamboo stakes for under $10 and with them fashion a tepee of sorts or an A-frame with string hanging down.
I mentioned that in my internet research on trellises, I had seen pictures of trellises made from old tools stuck in the dirt, even anything a bean vine could curl up. And yes, there were pictures of bamboo stakes, in configurations like I described in the paragraph that preceded this.
I also talked to Laura Murphy of Cataumet, who does landscape work. She told me that she used a wooden trellis with a cucumber varietal last summer and it was perfect. The trellis was about five feet high and a foot-and-a-half wide. She bought it at Spencer’s Garden & Nursery in Buzzards Bay. Laura told me that people should not use metal trellises for most tender plants like beans and peas and cucumbers. The metal ones are hard and they get hot, which can damage the plants. She liked the A-frames for peas and cucumbers. I asked her what plants do well on trellises and she agreed when I mentioned clematis, morning glory (though it flowers late) and climbing roses.
I also called Scenic Roots Lawn & Garden Center in Sandwich and talked to Donna Kutil. Her tip was also to know what you planned to plant on a trellis before buying one. She wrote in an email, “When purchasing a trellis you need to know what you are planting on it. You need the proper size and support for that plant. You wouldn’t put a rose that climbs 8-10 feet on a 4-foot plastic trellis (not tall enough and too flimsy).” She said that the trellises themselves need extra support, say from a wall or chimney. You may also need extra stakes and need to bury them a foot or so into the ground. She recommends cedar ones or composite materials, which are less likely to rot and also have less need for repainting or staining.
Donna said trellises can be used to grow peas, beans and cucumbers, even squash and melons. She also said the latest rage is cucamelons (Melothria scabra)! I asked her just as I asked the others, what plants grow well on trellises and she recommended annuals like mandevilla, black-eyed Susan vines, hyacinth bean, moonflowers, morning glories, sweet peas and nasturtium. Perennials included clematis, honeysuckle, trumpet vine, kiwi, ivy, hydrangea vine, roses, grapes, and raspberries and blackberries.
So far, I have talked about trellises that you can buy in nurseries or those you can cobble together from bamboo stakes, even old gardening implements. For those who want a more lasting architectural accent, consider looking at what Walpole Outdoors (formerly Walpole Fences) has at its locations. There is one in East Falmouth, next to Mahoney’s. Maybe this is the year you will decide to go all-out with reorganizing your landscaping. A trellis or obelisk can help to unite the other architectural accents on your property, said Justin Crompton, one of Walpole’s salesmen. He has worked there for eight years. He said Walpole sells both pre-made trellises and can custom-make a trellis, too. They have wood products, but they also have ones made from something called Azek, which is a solid cellular polyvinyl that has a metal armature inside. Azek as a product can be painted to match a house’s existing trim and it has the look and feel of wood, with minimal maintenance.
Walpole also sells garden obelisks, with the ability to customize the cap at the top. Want a birdhouse on top? Or a copper finial? Those are options.
Since Justin is not in the plant business, I didn’t ask him for recommendations for what to plant with a trellis.
I do know from my own experience that maintenance is also important for trellises with perennials like trumpet vine or clematis or ivy. But especially the trumpet vine. Ours has gone through at least two homemade wooden trellises (see picture). Perhaps my next article should be on proper maintenance of woody-vined perennials. The hummingbirds love its flowers; however, it just has a mind of its own.
But isn’t that part of what gardening is about? You learn something new all the time.