Interested in ideas for trellis

I have several clems and wouldn't mind getting more, but I am out of room in the fence line.
What would be a cheap, easy way to support them that would look nice?
any ideas?

You could tie bamboo sticks together...that works while the clematis are smaller. Or if you have any bushes or trees - you could try growing them through the shrubs or up the trees? A downspout from the house works well too.

come forward from the fence about 2 to 3 feet and put in a front row of shorter clems, or ones that can mound on 4 ft structures. in front of the ones on the fence. so it is a double row, dimensional effect.

I found a nice 7' wrought iron arched trellis at Tuesday Morning for $29 about a month ago, and WalMart has 5' ones for $9.95. Also, due to the economy a lot of the garden catalogs are having sales with no shipping pretty often. Haven't checked them for a while, but try Plow and Hearth and Gardeners Supply.

Georgia Pacific site has a nice simple plan for an arbor.Made with treated wood.

A trick I leaned from Debbie is to plant a post, either a 4x4 or a landscape post in the ground about 1 -2 feet deep. Pound in the dirt around it, no need to concrete it in, the loosely staple chicken wire to it. The clem will grow up and over - put a bird house on top. It takes up little room and provides height to an area that could use some. The posts are $5 or so and chicken wire is cheap!!

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/684265/
This is a long thread, but some very good cheap ideas.

Help----I have tried for years to grow clematis. Finally, this year I had one blooming back in April (Zone 7b) with large white blooms. The only problem is that it chose to climb in a paniculata hydrangea-----which I normally prune to the ground each year. I have a pine tree as close to it as the hydrangea------but, it had other ideas. So, if it bloomed early, does it sound like it is the type that must be pruned each year? That would certainly help----otherwise, I don't know what I can do when the time comes next spring to prune the bush. Any suggestions?

I don't think it will hurt it to prune it anyway - I do. When it starts to really grow next year, take some sort of earth staple and "encourage" it to grow towards the pine.

shirley d, send pics ???? any clem can be pruned as irwells posted, may delay next years blooms but a small set back is sometimes needed to grow and train a plant the way you want in to the plant it can be.

The fine gardening web site had several trellis projects. Their sister publication about vegetable gardening (forget the exact name) also had some ideas for tomatoes that could work for other vines. One idea was to make a pergola (tepee frame) from tree branches. One person used screws to fasten the top then covered the join with twine.

My guy installed some trellis against an outside wall. He got them at Home Depot or Lowes. They have them in both wood and white plastic. They aren't fancy, but they look nice covered in vines.

Thanks so much for advice on getting my clematis out of the shrub. Due to my age (77) I am limited in my skills with the camera and computer---so cannot help with a picture. Also, I hate to sacrifice a year of blooming------so will just have to adjust.

Shirleyd

ok what do you all think of using an old bed headboard? Or footboard.
I think if it was an interesting design it might look ok and not trashy?
Even if were wood, could pain it a nice color.

thoughts please!

FrillyLilly, I've seen furniture used as the foundation for gardens before... I think it would look really terrific if you angled the headboard in a corner of your yard and then built a rectangular bed coming out from it with shorter plants to form a "bed" shaped flower bed, with clems growing on the headboard. That could be quite a fun spot in your yard. I can't remember where I saw it now... maybe an article that was posted... about a woman who created a whole "seating area" garden in her yard (but you couldn't actually sit on it) with the frame and springs of an old couch and some other old pieces of furniture, training plants to grow through them.

love a headboard at back of low border as trellis or back drop depending on style. great idea!

I think one of those old wrought iron would be cool,
but probably a little pricey too beings their antiques now...

I think it would look great

You might also look for some old wrought iron gates - we used some that were surplus after an office remodel

Building on blissfulgardeners idea... use a headboard and build a bed of low growing flowers and put up 4 landscape timbers at the corners to grow clems on and you would have a four poster bed and depending on the clems maybe a canopy. Too Fantasy maybe. I love the picture of Irwells50 gates thats great. I may stop at the habitat for humanity store and see if they have anything.

Go to the Pacific Northwest forum and look at the picture on the first thread

Irwell50. The reused gates make for a stunning backdrop, look perfect with the brick and I bet they great in dull of winter too.

I've been really pleased so far. When we first had the idea, I was really wishing I could have some hot pink bougainvilla, but just no way to keep it alive here thru the winter, so we tried this. I was a little wary of how yucky it might look during the winter, but figured since we are accountants we really wouldn't see it in the daylight much until after 4/15 anyway! They never completely lose their leaves, so it looks okay. Paul even likes it, and he could usually care less. He likes all of the plants as long as he doesn't have to do anything with them. Here's the gates yesterday

The first picture was on 4/28, so blooms for a pretty long period. Shortly it'll just be the brilliant pink iceberg that blooms.

What zone are you in JuliaJayne? And do I remember that there's a KC plant in or near Appleton? We've had people transferred to the plant here from there.

What zone are you in? Daughter #2 just bought a condo in Bloomington, IN that has a patio, and I'd like to plant a climbing rose that would survive the winter.

That is a very pretty rose.

The KC plants that closed were in Neenah, close to Appleton.

I'm in zone 4b and I don't grow many roses, so I can't help you with that except that the Canadian Explorer Series roses are very hardy.

http://www.canadianrosesociety.org/hardyroses/crs_hardy.html

Thanks, I'll check those out. I have to pretty much throw out whatever I know about gardening in 7b.

Bloomington IN must be either zone 5b or 6, right?

Irwells, You may also want to look at Kordes roses, especially Westerland and Rosarium. I am trying Westerland this year.

A friend gave me two explorer roses, Jens Munk and William Baffin. She had cut them back, so they are currently recovering. At first they looked like fat dead sticks. They finally have some green shoots now A neighbor said they were "huge bare root plants" and asked where I got them. I never grew a bare root rose before, only pots. I don't really like the "dead stick" look. Hope they grow fast.

People on the rose forum recommend removing all rose buds to encourage root growth. I guess this year will be the dead stick and baby clem year. As ClemGuru said in another thread, we gardeners are always living for next year.

Jens Munk does grow fast and blooms well, but its a shrubby rugosa rose not a climber. It will get huge and can be cut back very hard in early spring.

I've had good luck with Westerland, so that might be a good one to try.

That is a gorgeous color!

I should have mentioned that Jens Munk wasn't a climber, but William Baffin is (although some people grow it as a shrub, also) I hope that they get big enough to cut back.....and to grow some clems on. I have rubromarginata started on the same trellis as Baffin. Right now it looks like a weed in a soda bottle sleeve and a couple dead sticks. I could post a pic for comic relief. Luckily, they are hidden by my Austin Wildeve rose and peonies.

I was thinking that purpurea plena elegans would look nice with wildeve...what do you think?

There are some lovely pictures of ppe in Dave's plant files:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/79169/

There are some fab pics on hmf as well:

http://www.helpmefind.com/plant/l.php?l=21.108715

I was amazed to read the variety originated in the 1500s. I am concerned with air circulation around the rose if covered in clematis. However, Wildeve is a very vigorous rose and it would take a while for ppe to grow large enough to be a problem. That may be one reason group three clems are recommended for beginners. They would be less difficult to move after pruning should you make a mistake in placement.

Oooh, I may have to get that one

I cut Jens Munk almost to the ground and it would reach 4-5 feet each year. If I left it, or only cut out the thickest stems and gave it a light prune, it would reach 5-6 feet.

There is one thing about Jens Munk that I didn't care for. Keep in mind that I am not a rose person. The blooms on Jens Munk were small, clustered together and browned out fast. I had them on the south side of the house, in marginal soil, so that might have something to do with it. Plus it blooms better in cooler weather.

One of the reasons I adore clematis is that the tepals drop off when the bloom fades. The expired blooms of Jens Munk stayed on the plant, which was too messy looking for a foundation plant. I had 2, plus a white rugosa very similar in size and bloom. There were so many blooms that I found it impossible to keep the plants looking clean while not getting cut up and bloody, so I got rid of them. Like I said, I am not a rose person, so take my comments with a grain of salt.

I had a rugosa, Purple Pavement, that was pretty, dropped it's petals and had nice hips, suckered like crazy, but maybe that's because it had optimum growing conditions. It loved the heat as long as the soil stayed moist. Anyway, I wanted a pinker rose that dropped its petals, so I asked for suggestions on a rose forum. I was mostly ignored. I guess petal dropping isn't a desired trait for most rose lovers. *shrug*. This was around the time my first clematis were showing their stuff. I was hooked, and I quickly grew tired of the roses, the blood, and the black spot too. All my shrub roses, regardless of how disease resistant they were purported to be, and regardless of how much airflow they had, got black spot. Jens Munk also got powdery mildew.

One rugosa that has survived the shovel is Therese Bugnet. It has bigger blooms than Jens Munk, but are not clustered so tightly together. I forgot to cut it back this spring, so I thought it would look gangly, but it's full of buds and just started blooming. It looks sort of elegant, but it won't once the black spot hits and it too suckers.

Wow, as I previewed this, I realize that I have too much to say about roses. I should stick to talking about clematis ;-)

julia jayne, if you are in my area, come over and give me some rose advice.....i need it.

With all the rain we got this spring almost all of my roses have black spot, except the ones I have growing on wrought iron gates attached to a wall. So weird, it's on our patio, and against the wall, and little airflow, go figure. We had a french drain clog up, and one bed was waterlogged for a long time, and those are the worst, except one rose in the same bed that doesn't have any. I don't have any hybrid teas, and that helps. Here's my black spot free Quietness, which is hardy to zone 5. Not many thorns, either.

And a picture of the bush

CG - if I am ever in your area, I'll stop by to meet you and to see your gardens.

I will give you rose advise from here, but the rose people have to stop reading now. lol

How much trouble do the roses give you even though you provide them with everything? Lot's? That's because they are roses. The truth is, the plants themselves are horrible. Rose people grow roses for the blooms. Roses are nothing but thorny sticks with beautiful flowers.

I suggest replacing roses with viburnum, forsythia or other sturdy shrubs that do well in your area and grow relatively fast. Plant a couple of not too aggressive clematis in them, one group 2 and one group 3. You will have blooms from spring to fall, will not have to spray all summer to ward off disease, nor will you have old blooms that look like crumpled up wades of dirty old tissue paper, and you will not have suckers that will be impossible to remove from choice plants.

I know people say that clematis are perfect partners for roses. The reason why is because clematis leaves look great up until frost, so they help cover up the ugliness of the rose plant. :).

The best solution to rose troubles is a shovel.

Have I helped? lol

amen.


I hate roses.
I have wasted so much money on those thorny black spotted 'sticks' and they just die.
and have sprayed them with all kinds of expensive chemicals and prune just right, and they die anyway.

I just plant other things that will bloom, without all that work, and will not die on me.