How to Choose Trellises and Supports for Climbing Plants

Arches:

These structures can add distinctive flair to your garden, no matter what the season. Design and placement are critical. Spend some time in your garden determining what style and scale structure would be compatible with your house and landscape. These structures are most often made of wood, which can be painted or stained to resist the elements. Steel and plastic versions are also available, and are a smart choice if the style suits your garden.

Flat trellises:

These are often used to define a space or provide a sense of privacy. They may be freestanding, or can be anchored to a wall or posts. Sometimes permanently located, they are also relatively easy to move around the garden if you want to try out different effects. Examples of flat trellises would be wood lattice panels, metal trellises of various kinds, and those made of plastic mesh.

Obelisks, tripods and teepees:

Both functional and decorative, these structures add a strong vertical element that can serve as a focal point in the garden. Like exclamation points, they're most effective when not overused. Make sure the structure is tall enough to support the type of plant you want to grow. Scarlet runner beans and vigorous varieties of morning glories, for instance, want a support that's 8 to 10 feet tall; they'll quickly overpower a 4-foot tripod. Bamboo canes make inexpensive and attractive teepees for the vegetable garden.

Cages and ladders:

Vegetable supports should be sturdy and made of durable materials, and tall enough for the plants they'll support. Choices include a traditional cage, a tower, a teepee, or a ladder.

Our new Vertex Lifetime Tomato Cage is available for both compact (determinate) tomato varieties as well as tall-growing (indeterminate) tomato varieties.

Fencing and porches:

There are climbers to suit almost every type of fencing you can imagine—even chain-link fences. Climbing roses look beautiful draped over a post-and-rail fence. When they get a little help from strings or plastic netting, sweet peas look terrific growing against a picket fence. Porch railings and banisters can be wrapped with plastic trellis netting.

Walls:

Not many of us have beautiful 10-foot-high walls of aged brick around our gardens. But you might consider growing plants on one wall of your house, the wall of an outbuilding, or the "wall" of a neighbor's fence. There are a couple options for training plants against a wall. Clinging plants like Boston ivy, can attach themselves to almost any wall with no other support necessary. Most other plants will need to attach themselves to a wall-mounted trellis or a system of wires and eye bolts.

Twiggy branches:

Ubiquitous in Britain, where they are usually called "pea sticks" because they are ideal for supporting sweet peas. Collect some branches about 3 to 5 feet in length, and then simply push them into the soil. The more tiny twigs, the better. Branches from shrubs often work better than trees.

Why do the Brits love them so much? They're free! But they're also quick to install, almost invisible when covered with vines, and can be composted at year's end.