Trellises and arbours give the garden a lift, and give the gardener a beautiful structure on which to nurture roses, clematis or even Jack's beanstalk. - SMITH & HAWKEN/UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
TRELLISES GIVE gardeners a chance to move up in the world up against a wall, up out of crowded flower beds and into the sunlight. Wherever you place a trellis, it gives the garden a lift.
Gardeners are always running out of space, and trellises and arbours (or pergolas) artfully add extra square feet for climbing and clambering plants. Flowering vines put a new dimension in a garden by bringing it up to eye level.
Various forms and interpretations of trellises have been at home in gardens for centuries. Elaborate trelliage, or trellis work, was a gardener's art by the 16th century when material like willow canes and sturdy shoots from nut trees were used. The same material can be used today to make trelliage of nearly any size or style.
In Renaissance gardens, trelliage was often inspired by classic architecture, and was built with great attention to detail. These grand structures still suggest ideas appropriate for modern gardens, but trellises need not be overbearing or formal. Depending on your style, rustic twig trellises, arbours made with cedar posts, and perfectly modern plant supports of gleaming copper or steel may be appropriate for your garden.
A GATEWAY OF FLOWERS
Trellises and other such supports for climbing plants can be used to define boundaries, to screen private seating areas, or to cast shade. An arbour, like a gateway of flowers and foliage, may mark a garden entrance, or frame a view across an expanse of lawn. Free-standing pergolas are usually large enough to
shelter a table and chairs in the dappled light under a roof of greenery. The style you choose could echo details of your home's design, extending the architecture visually into the garden, or it might be something completely different, sending a subtle signal that the garden is a place apart.
The material you choose should suit the plants you intend to grow. For permanent plantings, such as wisteria, climbing hydrangea, grapes or trumpet vine, a sturdy structure with substantial posts and crosspieces is necessary. More delicate climbers can make their way up lightweight trellises, but remember that a trellis covered with plants must also withstand wind, so anchor it securely in the ground. One way to do this is to bolt the legs of a trellis or arbour to wooden posts sunk several feet into the ground.
MAKE YOUR OWN
These days, adding a trellis or another structure for climbing plants doesn't need to involve calling a garden designer or a carpenter. Making your own trellis can be a simple affair:
1: Use tomato stakes or 1-by-2 lumber from the hardware store. All you need are upright supports and crosspieces to give roses, clematis, morning glories or other vines something to climb on.
2: Look for easy designs and plans in books and on the Internet. 'Trellises, Arbours and Pergolas' (Better Homes and Gardens, US$20) has more than 20 different plans using bamboo, willow, lumber, lattice panels, copper tubing and iron bars.
Garden shops and mail-order specialists sell a great variety of trellises of all styles and materials, including weatherproof plastic, ready to set up in the garden. Visit your local gardening store or log on to Smith & Hawken (www.smithandhawken.com) for its new line of handsome steel garden structures that includes an arbour, a pergola, a free-standing trellis, and a three-part landscaping screen; Jackson & Perkins (www.jacksonandperkins.com) which sells a fancy "umbrella arch" inspired by trellises in Monet's garden, Giverny; Gardeners Eden (www.gardenerseden.com) offers metal obelisks, designed in Italy, that will fit right in a large flower pot.
Be creative and look for broken tree limbs and branches to use in your trellises.
Trelliswork of any kind may take a season or two to settle into the garden. Enjoy the new architectural accent unadorned, or plant annual vines (morning glory, moonvine, hyacinth bean, scarlet runner bean or gourds). They'll shoot up your new structure in the course of a summer, while you wait for roses, clematis or other permanent plants to take their places. Before you know it, your new structure will be covered with blooms, and you'll be looking for another place in the garden that just might need a lift.
Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate
