building a trellis

Before my rambling rose, "Darlow's Enigma" arrives at the beginning of May, I need to build a trellis. The first floor of Our Old House is faced with brick - but 100 year old brick does require the mortar be retouched/replaced occasionally.

What I am looking for is a trellis that (1) requires no talent to build, (2) requires almost no money to build, (3) requires a minimum of tools to build. We do not own fancy table saws, routers, etc., and (4) will allow us (or future owners of Our Old House) to be able to repair the bricks if ever they require it. (The bricks are in fine shape now . . .)

This rambler grows eventually to 10-12 feet high and about 8 feet wide.

Ideally, I would like to place the trellis at the south-west corner of the house, where the rose will get lots of sun, and the fragrance will waft into the 2 closest dining room windows.

I thought about building a plain, square trellis at an angle to the corner of the house - see my poor sketch. Maybe you can suggest something better . .

Any ideas? Also . . . keep in mind I have to ask my husband to do this :-)

Thanks, Seandor



From: Seandor

In that location, why not consider a tall obelisk rather than a trellis? I'm sure you could come up with a design that would work.... think "teepee" only maybe something more formal than bamboo and twine... although your choice of material may be irrelevant once that rose matures, as it sounds like it would completely cover any structure it grew up/over.

I have a friend who lives in a mansion built right in the late 1910s or early 1920s. She has trellises and roses all over that thing and theyare gorgeous.

She showed me exactly how to do it. Everything is special, BUT none is expensive. Maybe $20.00 to do one wall of your house? I think the wire is about 13c a foot, but it can add up!

You take a regular little (not mortar) drill bit (and she gave me an old one & I can have Mr. Clean measure it if you're interested) and you drill holes in your mortar say one every 18" vert. & horiz on a nice grid pattern. You don't go very deep. LIke exactly one inch. I have to look at the nails again. You can get fancy and make diamonds or keep it N-S-E-W. Then you take these special non-rusting nails that are the perfect size for the hole you drilled and put in this special cement in the hole and then you take a little wire to really jam the glue in the hole and also get glue all over the nail shank and you simply push the nail in. Let it set 72 hours and sort of cure, a week is better before you put any weight on it, and then you get this special wire that is strong enough to hold a rose and the right strength to hold itself when you go to twirl it around the nail head.

When you're finished, you have a wire grid that you tie your rose to with twist ties or velcro ties or whatever you want.

It is NOT as cool as a whiet wood trellis, but when I mentioned that to her (yes I can sound rude without meaning to), we turned a corner and there was a gigantic, esp for Indiana, 2 1/2 story tall rose tht took up at least 14 feet of wall. She asked me how I would take the rose down to paint &/or repair the rotted trellis. Uh, good question!

Suzy


This message was edited Jan 21, 2007 12:23 PM

Both of these ideas sound good. I wonder if I could get David to drill holes in the wall . . . .

Just my .02, I saw a trellis that was raised off the surface of the house with small blocks secured to the house and the bottom of the trellis attached to the blocks with small hinges. The top of the trellis was a hook and eye affair and when you needed to get behind the trellis you would unhook the eyes from the top of the trellis and gently lay the trellis down. The trellis was made out of a type of lattice. I have been asking my dh to do this on the front of our garage and no go yet.

Please post a picture when you find a style that suits you.

Joy

Geez, I forgot something -- she drilled holes in the mortar, not the brick. I'm going to go back and edit the original post to reflect this. Yes, drilling holes in the house is scary.

Suzy

While we are talking trellises, I have two that came with the house that I'd love to recreate. It's some sortt of chain link material and is held in place with some hooks at the top and the plant stakes at the bottom. Any suggestions where I might find more or this or what it is called?

beaker, that sure does just look like ordinary chain-link fencing to me... is it different from what you see in the fencing dept. at Home Depot? I'm really liking that arrangement with running it up the entire height of the wall... I have a narrow bed at the side of the house where I'd like to put up trellises, and I was thinking about using lattice, but something that I could run all the way to the roof line might be better yet... I'm going to go outside tomorrow and take a serious squint at that edge of the roof!

I like the idea with the nails and the wire for putting vines up against brick... especially if you want that wonderful, unstructured, rambling look... you can just continue to extend the nails and wire as the vine grows, I'd think.

If you want to put a "regular" trellis up, you can provide additional support by putting in (with a masonry bit) a couple of concrete anchors and installing screw-eye hardware to tie the trellis to. We did this with the trellises against our chimney -- no amount of anchoring those trellises at the base was going to work once those clematis vines got large! I can just detach the ties if I need to take down the trellises, and it's fairly inconspicuous.

this DOES look like regular chain link fence and it looks great.. The only problem is that if you get something that has agressive tendrills and it starts to grow into your siding. ivy can destroy brick over time. Also, if that is wood siding you must watch for rot if there is anything keeping the side fo the house damp longer than usual. I love the idea though!!
:)

Susan

I've got vinyl siding, and I'm growing clematis in that narrow bed, no worries... This is their third year, and I expect them to take off, so I guess I've committed myself to building some sort of trellis for them this spring!

I have siding also.

Have any of you heard of or tried the cattle fencing for trellis???

yes!! I just clicked on a link somewhere on DG that showed an incredible garden using painted black cattle fencing. it looked amazing.... Now if I only knew where the link was ...

Susan

I AM SO HAPPY! Went to the mall and found a cedar arbour with built in seat for $89.00! It's not as big as the $325 one at the local nursery - and probably not as well built but DH will be able to reinforce it and we will extend the side panels and top to allow the rose to really spread out. When we get it assembled and erected I will send a picture.

what store at the mall?? Inquiring minds want to know!! :)

Susan

Oh sorry! I found it at - get this! - a Christmas Tree store in the mall in Holyoke Ma.

Go figure.

ohhhhhhhhh

oh well..

I'm happy for you!!
:)

Susan

Christmas Tree store is some sort of chain. I have no idea why the name - but you can find all sorts of cheap stuff there (and some is really cheap - as in "cheesy").

Maybe there is a store near you?

I'll do a search :)

thanks !