The Best Climbing Plants to Cover Your Garden Trellis
I’ve written before about how important trellises are in your garden layout to create height and divide space; trellis transforms a garden from flat to spectacular. Once these trellises are installed, the next task is to find suitable plants to cover them. You want to choose plants that will grow large enough to cover your trellis, but won’t be so invasive that you’ll still have to keep trimming them back. You should also consider whether you want the vine’s effects to be temporary, permanent, or seasonal.
Annual vines will cover the trellis without any problems.
An annual plant is only good for a season, and at the end it will die. Sometimes these plants become perennial, meaning they can come back year after year. For example, nasturtiums are an excellent climbing plant if you choose the right variety (there are climbing and hanging nasturtiums) and grow them. I use garden velcro tape to lift nasturtium shoots up to any vertical surface and they grow great in a tunnel if you spend a little time training them at the beginning by pulling them through the tunnel in the direction you want them to go.
In a noticeably short season, nothing beats sweet peas . Easy to start and train, these climbing vines can grow to nearly nine feet, and if you prune them correctly, they will last for months, producing incredibly sweet-smelling flowers. The key to keeping sweet peas alive for so long is constant pruning. Every third day I cut sweet pea flowers to prevent the plant from going to seed, but that means everyone around me always has a bouquet at this time of year.
Grape beans are aggressive climbers, but not so much that they become a problem for your structure. At best, they survive three or four months and can grow up to 12 feet tall. Start by making sure you are growing tree beans rather than bush beans. Traditional filets, haricot verts or haricots grow well on a trellis with some support. Every year I grow massive trellises of white cannellini beans and Gigantes Greek beans. Beans such as shoots, which are often grown simply as hummingbird bait, have colorful flowers and grow profusely.
If you like petunias, you’ll love their vine cousin thunbergia , also called black-eyed Susan vine. I’m an avid climber, I really like thunbergs for poles, I use velcro tape or a slinky hung from the top of the pole to create support. The nice thing about this plant is that when it doesn’t have enough support, it will turn over instead of looking for new structure.
Perennial vines return year after year
If you want to take up a large space and create a feature that will come back year after year, there are plenty of options. The problem with perennial vines is that they keep growing. This means you have to be careful with your trimming and make sure they don’t encroach on the structure they’re re-installed on and that these trellises are winter-hardy.
Roses may seem boring, but the last twenty years have seen an influx of designer roses, even in the form of climbing roses. They can be strongly scented, colorful and curly. I am particularly drawn to Floribunda roses, which look more like peonies than the stereotypical rose. Roses require some attention because they really need to be trained and maintained. They require specific nutrition and specific pruning. But if you have the right space, few things are as grand as a wall of roses. There are hundreds of varieties; Depending on which of the three pruning groups the variety belongs to, it can be either extremely aggressive or less aggressive. The flowers can look quite different, from clusters that resemble lilies to smaller flowers that resemble jasmine.
Of all the vines I have planted over the past ten years, the passionflower vine was the best choice. It grows aggressively, doubling in size year after year, and requires very strong staking. But the flowers it produces look very interesting and last year I was finally lucky enough to see one perfect passion fruit. Passionflower thrives on a wire wall trellis, but it is not the most winter-hardy.
Climbing hydrangea is a slow burn. It will not grow quickly, but over the years it will securely climb the trellis and spread out. What I love about my climbing hydrangeas is that they are constantly covered in foliage throughout the spring and summer, requiring little maintenance on my part. I never cut them.
The grapevine is an excellent climbing perennial plant. While they will of course produce grapes, they can also form a great structure, providing edible fruit and the leaves themselves. Grapes require a lot of care, and whoever plants them must be vigilant about care. The grapes themselves can also attract wildlife if you don’t pick the grapes or clean up the fallen ones.
Evergreen vines have foliage year-round.
Evergreen vines are not just perennials, they will keep their foliage all winter long instead of all their leaves falling off. This opens up some interesting possibilities for long-term growth of grapevines in your yard.
If you have a yard, it should have jasmine . While I’ve never been drawn to artificial jasmine in perfumes or candles, real jasmine is magical when you smell it at dusk when it’s at its most fragrant. Jasmine, a prolific vine, is surprisingly hardy in winter.
Once you realize you love hummingbirds, all you have to do is jump in and move on to honeysuckle vines. If you buy different varieties, one of them will always bloom all spring and summer. The flowers range in color from yellow to red to hot pink, and the tubular flowers act as a siren call to birds and bees. Like jasmine, these plants need reliable support throughout the year.
One variety of clematis ( clematis Armandii ) is evergreen. It’s a little harder to get, but if you can find it, this white-flowered vine will stay green for most of the winter.
Please don’t grow these vines.
There are some grape varieties that you should avoid—not just for your sake, but for the sake of your neighbors and the environment. Some vines are too invasive to be released into the wild, no matter how much you like them.
Wisteria , despite its wonderful beauty, will damage any building on which it is located. It is a very aggressive climber and can grow into attics and through siding.
Only real idiots plant ivy . Almost all ivy will become invasive, choking out other native plants. A ubiquitous spreader, it will quickly become your neighbor’s problem.
No one is buying kudzu , but it could show up in your yard and become a serious problem in a growing part of the United States. If you find it in your yard, you need to start actively working to remove it completely. In some places you can’t even store it.