Anyone use teepee trellis for their MG's?

I'm getting ready to start a bunch of seeds (thank you e-bay) I saw 8ft red wood 2x2's @ Home depot. I thought they might make an interesting trellis in the shape of a teepee. Anyone do this? Any down side? I know some vines would be to heavy. Maybe a different color growing up each leg?

I used three bamboo poles to grow one of my vines on, and it held up nicely. The JMG types don't make a whole lot of vines, as far as it being heavy, but I. purpurea types like Grandpa Ott's, etc., tend to get pretty massive, so you'll want to have something a bit sturdier for those.

I use a variety of trellises I've made out of livestock fence panels. They can be bought for about $16 at McCoys or other farm and ranch supply stores. They are 52 inches in width and 16 feet in length. I use bolt cutters to clip them into three long strips which I bend to form an arch that is usually 18 inches wide and arched open to about 4 or 5 feet and 6 or 7 feet tall.

I also have welded a few triangular obelisks out of them as well as staircase looking trellises. They are made of galvanized steel so they be left in place all year around as they won't rust or fall apart. They also tend to blend into the background when nothing is growing on them :o)

Here's a 'stairway' trellis photographed against my garage door so you can see what it looks like.

~ Cat

Here's a photo of several arches, triangular obelisks and the stairway arch - only the smaller triangular obelisk can be seen in the right side foreground - right before the lime green ground cover starts....the rest of them are quite covered by my vines :o)


~ Cat

I like the stairway one. Hmm, I have some old cattle panels, and you're giving me ideas here...

:-)

Great trellis Cat!
I've learned buying expensive, ornate trellis is silly. They just get covered :)

Fish_knees & Queen

Yep...makes no sense to buy expensive ones. I found out that wooden ones and the hollow tube metal ones rot or rust and fall apart within a couple of years due to yard sprinklers and the south Texas 100+ temperatures. The ornate heavy metal ones look pretty but they do get covered up :o) Can't see spending $100 for one of those when I can make several with galvanized steel livestock fence panels.

Here's another photo of the 'staircase' trellis from back in June - just when the vines were starting to cover it. Will try to remember to get a recent photo - the vines have gone crazy :o)

Ah...you can also see a small triangular obelisk trellis - I stuck that around a climbing rose bush to try to contain it. Needless to say, when I get off my duff and post an updated photo you will see that the giant snail vine, allamanda and thunbergia have obliterated the rose bush :o)

~ Cat

ps...Queen...you can't go wrong with the livestock fence panels. They are lightweight yet so durable and extremely versatile! If you can weld or have someone who can weld them into shapes for you - you can let your imagination run wild! I still have many trellis ideas I've yet to try :o)

Here's a picture where the cattle panels are used as a straight run. I have cut some to use for gates, but hadn't thought about cutting them long ways to make an arched trellis. Thanks for the idea, Cat.

Cat, I have some of those thick wired ones that were given to me last year, and one of them I bent into an arch and planted my purple butterfly vine against. (You should've seen short me trying to rock a 10-12 ft. panel into an arch! LOL)

I have a few more shorter pieces that I planned on using for MGs anyway, but I see where you've been more artistic with it than I would've been. The panels are currently being used as one side of a fence that was kinda crunched by a tree when Rita came through. I guess I get to find out what shape they get to take!

Has anyone thought of using 15mm copper tubing? We made a pergola from it, with the 8mm hollow tube for the curly bits, but one can be inventive on any type of shapes with this. The 15mm can be bought quite cheaply, it was nearly 4 years ago now, but we mostly pay more for our stuff than you do. The 15mm was £17.95 for 10 x 3m lengths, (approx. £31.50), the 8mm was a bit more expensive but that doesn't relally need to be used, or use less of it.
I have gone mad on buying MG seed this year, had some i. purpurea up the pergola legs last year but not many. I am going to have to do something seriously quick for these this year, formulating ideas of teepees or something similar. Could make some arches, quite cheap for 2 x 3m lengths for a small arch, or 2 joined in a taller arch, with some cross bars joined in with 'T' junctions preifilled with solder. To join in some curly bits you just need some solder wire, some flux, a flame gun or a can of propane gas with a nozzle bought from a hardware store. We used an old plumbers coil spring to pull thru the middle to bend the pipes, the 8mm were easier if you can set up a sort of guide to bend over, that is if you want the narrower curly bits. Copper tubing should last a long time,
and also looks good.
A pic to give an idea of what we have done

Txwillie...Excellent photo showing the length and height of the livestock fence panels.

For those using the livestock fence panels...remember to use bolt cutters to cut off the last "rung" from each end of the arch. That should leave you with "PRONGS" that are about 7" or 8" long on both ends that can be pushed into the ground to hold the arch in place. That makes it so much easier to push one end into the ground then curve/arch over the other end to push that into the ground. If you're spacing is off you can always easily pull up one end and work it out further away etc. (If you need longer prongs...guess you can use bolt cutters or a dremmel cutter to cut another rung off from each end)

I've done that with the 16 foot long pieces that I made into arches that are roughly 18" to 24" wide and about 6 feet tall :o)

I took more photos of the staircase trellis covered with vines before I left for work so will post them tonight.

~ Cat

Great ideas! I'll have to show DH these.
:) Donna

First, in jest, I like to say tsk tsk Fish-Knees ;) I'll have to check Ebay. With that said, I grew Heavenly Blue last year in a 2x2 square plastic pot and built up a chicken wire trellis around it. It worked out well but this year I'm going with something sturdier. I don't know where to buy cattle fence here but HomeDepot has 4x8 welded sheets used to lay concrete. I don't know the technical term for it but it looks just like Cats cattle fence. I have a snail vine growing on it elsewhere so I know its sturdy. Since we in the southwest have had no winter this year I suppose its time to start thinking about putting out some of those "elusive seeds."

Kim,
You'd be surprised at the online retailers that you can buy those babies from, too! Tsk, Tsk, Tsk. Nice pic! I love that one.

Have you been to the new southwest regional forum? Here's a link from there that has I think what you're talking about.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/571570/


Lynn

Lynn, anytime I go out of state I pick up gobs of seed packets. I have quite the collection.

Thanks for the link! I haven't been to that forum yet!