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What kind of climber support?
MockOrange
Posts: 6
in Talkback
I've got a clematis and roses to train up a fence, and a wisteria and another clematis to train up what starts as a wall and then has fence battens across the top. What should I use for each? Is wire better than wooden trellis or vice versa?
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You are better off using wire supports for all of them. Get the screw in vine eyes. They provide a stronger frame especially for the rose and wisteria. Drill the supports into the brickwork for the wisteria not the mortar,wisteria is very heavy.
Thanks Dave, really helpful.
The one reason I'd use trellis is that it looks infinitely better than wires when plants like Clematis and Rose have died back for the winter, especially if it's a site you can see form the house.
Actually, two reasons - wires need to be attached quite close together so that self climbers like clematis can reach the next one 'up' easily if you're not quick enough to get them tied in. The growth can be quite heavy very quickly, and can become difficult to tie in without it breaking.
I use both options depending on the site and the type of plant.
Sorry if I've confused you now!
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
You have indeed Fairygirl but it's a good point, thank you!
Maybe I'll go with a mixture - wire for the wall/batten areas (for Wisteria) as I don't think a trellis will attach easily there, and wooden trellis for the fence panels. You've found wood to be sturdy enough to support roses and not break/ rot?
I don't grow roses, but I do grow clematis. In some areas I'll have a couple on the same piece. I use decent quality trellis though, and paint it first. This area has Etoile Violette which gets pretty hefty, and also has Constance mingled in under it - it flowers early. There's a new white one next to it as well so it has a fair bit of weight on it.
I've also made trellis from roofing battens which means you can tailor it to suit your requirements, and it's quite a cheap alternative if you're handy with a saw and some nails!
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
If you have room, it's worth putting in extra 50x50mm posts a few inches away from the fence and then making trellis panels, each framed with 35x25mm timber to fix to the posts. That way you can replace fence panels when you need to without the hassle of detaching the plants/trellis. Definitely wire and vine eyes for brick walls though.
Nice job there Fairygirl and I agree about making your own trellis - stronger, longer lasting and usually prettier than those normally available which often have holes too large (15x15cm) for my taste - I prefer about 10x10cm.
I agree Bob. I bought some of the ones with very small holes (the kind in the pic) but they're expensive (about £30 for a 60cm x 180cm length I think ) and a nightmare to paint!
They're on the fence alongside the path to my back door so I'm seeing them all the time, and it was therefore worth doing.
The flimsy stuff isn't worth having, in my opinion. The stuff I made has rectangular holes of about 10cm x 6cm. They were done to fit the space, although I'm relocating them as I've changed my mind about what I was putting on and against the fence
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I have a very heavy clematis armandii which is on an aluminium trellis that I made from the black aluminium tubes that certain good online retailers sell. It was dead easy to trim to the right lengths and a doddle to fit together with the assortment of junctions that they sell.
Hard part was fixing it to the concrete fence posts. It is held up using the gripper clamp things that they sell for hanging baskets and the really clever bit was that I managed to find some black aluminium clips designed for use on boats to hold the trellis onto the clamps.
T'will out last me!
We have a Kiftsgate rose trained on wires across the front of our house. It's sturdy, can be placed where you have available space and is discreet in winter.
We have wooden trellis panels elsewhere and, after being battered by storms and gales and some seriously cold winters, find that most of the panels need replacing - 12 in total. Expensive.
A few years ago when we got our first dog, we enclosed our veggie patch with a system of posts to which we attached 5m x 2m builders' wire mesh for reinforcing concrete. We have found it to be cheap, indestructible and unobtrusive and well spaced for clematis, roses, squashes and blackberries to be trained along so our plan is to replace 3 of the trellis panels in the front garden with the 3 newest from the back garden and then buy a few lengths of the metal mesh and use that to replace all our broken trellis at the back and side.
Maybe this would be a good alternative for your fence panels as long as you remember to attach battens to your posts and then attach the wire mesh to those so that air can circulate around the plants and you can get your hands in to train stems.
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