The Trellis of my Dreams
When I first saw this image years ago, I dreamed of one day recreating a similar beautiful trellis against the walls of our brick garage.
The original photo was posted on Houzz (linked here).
Now, I am thrilled to report that my dream is working its way to life! Last year, Alex and I purchased Jackmanii clematis and the small trellises shown below in order to test how the vines would do growing against our south-facing garage. The clematis got off to a great start this year, blooming in early May. However, the leaves and buds quickly began to wilt and shrivel up. I had made the unfortunate mistake of not cutting back my clematis in late winter / early spring, and they developed a severe case of Clematis Wilt.
In mid-May, I cut the clematis back dramatically, making sure to remove all of the vines that had contracted the disease. As you can see in the photo below, the clematis recovered beautifully. I will remember this year to make sure the vines do not breed this fungus again. This article from Gardening Know How was very helpful in diagnosing the disease. This article from Fine Gardening provided instructions for proper pruning moving forward.
This photo was taken in June when the clematis arch was in full bloom. We purchased the white trellis’ from Home Depot. Unfortunately, this exact product is no longer available, but I have linked a similar option here.
A close-up of the clematis illustrates how profusely these flowers bloomed for us.
This year, I decided to plant the beautiful Colette Rose to climb the trellis with the Jackmanii. I ordered the roses from Heirloom Roses on May 14th. They were delivered and planted the last week of June and already have produced a few blooms. I could not be happier with these roses thus far. They were de-leafed when shipped, but after two weeks, the leaves and buds started to grow vigorously. So far, I have treated them once with Alaska Fish Fertilizer as recommended in the instructions I received from Heirloom Roses. I plan to treat them once every three weeks for the duration of the season.
Aren’t these roses stunning? I cannot wait for them to begin climbing up the trellis next season.
Next Spring, we will have our carpenter build a custom trellis to wrap around the corner of the wall and create a “formal” arch over the door on the side of the garage. The clematis this year grew on a makeshift arch that I created from a tomato hoop! It served its purpose well this year, but the additional weight of the roses will be too much for the tomato hoop.
My inspiration for having our carpenter craft a custom trellis came from the Instagram of Philadelphia-local, Eddie Ross. Look at his gorgeous trellises! I am always excited to drive by his home in Wayne and check the progress of the climbing roses he planted against them!
