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Put up a spare trellis - is there enough room behind it for morning glory?

Pink678Pink678 Posts: 498
in Problem solving
A friend of my just put up a spare trellis for me, as my old one was falling apart.
Once it was done, I realised there is not a lot of room behind it for the morning glory which usually grows there.
Will there be enough room for a morning glory to grow up it? It's the common purple morning glory.
I have measured the gap between the wall and the trellis - half of the slats are 0.5cm from the wall, and half of them are 1cm from the wall.
Thank you very much.


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Posts

  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    Morning glory will get into narrow spaces, but I find it climbs best up something thinner, like canes or wires, or your other trellis which is made of narrower pieces of wood. Maybe you could add some wires or mesh to the front of the new trellis, if the morning glory doesn't climb well on it next year.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • Pink678Pink678 Posts: 498
    edited December 2023
    Thanks @JennyJ.  The trellis on the right is one of those cheap expandable ones.
    Would I do better to buy two of the expandable ones and put those up instead, taking down the grey ones?

  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    I would try it next year with the grey trellises (they look very nice!) and be ready to add some wire or mesh if the morning glory doesn't twine round the trellis. If it can't find something that it can twine round, the stems tend to twine around each other and make a kind of rope so you'd want to watch out for it starting to do that.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • Pink678Pink678 Posts: 498
    edited December 2023
    Where would I add wire to the trellis, would that be lots of separate pieces sticking out?
    I do like the look of the grey ones, but if I replaced them with 3 expandable ones side by side, they could go higher up (to the top of the photo) and have more width at the left. It's an established morning glory that wants to cover that whole section so I feel the grey ones aren't covering that much area of the brick wall.
    Hmmm... what do you think @JennyJ?
    I put a red bar where the morning glory grows up from in the soil:

  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    Maybe we're talking at cross-purposes? What I know as morning glory is a tender annual climber, Ipomoea , that I grow from seed started in mid-late spring. They grow fast but can't go outside until late May-early June here. I do sometimes get self-sown ones appearing in the summer, but the plants never make it through the winter.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    Depending on how long the screws are, you could just ease them off slightly and wedge small bits of wood as spacers behind the grey trellis, then tighten the screws back up again.
    The expandable trellis is usually very flimsy and can't bear the weight of climbers.
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    I often have Ipomoea on an expanding trellis made of canes, like this one (can't find a UK site with it on, sorry. Mine came from one of the local cheapy shops, years ago). It seems to work - it's not terribly bulky as climbers go, nothing like a climbing rose or a clematis or even a sweet pea. I suppose they would get bulkier in a warmer place with a longer growing season.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • philippasmith2philippasmith2 Posts: 3,742
    Agree with @JennyJ Morning Glory seems to prefer a more slender framework to let it do it's twining round.  I usually grow mine up steel  "twisty" rods but upright canes would work just as well I imagine.
    Beautiful flowers and well worth growing :)   
  • Pink678Pink678 Posts: 498
    Thank you @JennyJ! Yes it's the same one we are talking about I think, it comes up in spring. There are so many seeds scattered down there it just comes up from that area! (established was not quite the word, as it comes up yearly as you say)
    That trellis you linked to looks very nice, I'd prefer one like that if I could find it. 3 of the cheap expandables like the one on the right side in the photo would cost me £10.
    Thank you @Lizzie27 that would be an excellent plan, but unfortunately the screws are short.
    I need to think about if the expandable trellises are strong enough. I think they could be just about OK if well fixed to the wall, as they are about as strong as the old one I just removed.
    The morning glory really likes to climb, it wants to go higher than the level of the photo and end up doubling back on itself.
  • Pink678Pink678 Posts: 498
    That's very helpful to know @philippasmith2, I am thinking a finer frame will good for them. I really like the flowers, I love how the purple seems to glow from within, and how they twist into little twirls as they close. And they carry on late too, there were still flowers on mine a couple of weeks ago.
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