10 garden trellis ideas for vertical gardening

The alternative to traditional wooden trellis is to use rope planters, metal trellis, or make your own. Be creative and use things like window frames with chicken wire attached across it, ladders, bamboo frames, pallets – anything that plants can climb up to create a screen, add privacy or vertical interest. The easiest trellis to build is a bamboo frame that climbing vegetables can be trained to grow up. It can be cheaper to make your own trellis, if you are upcycling materials such as bamboo canes, ladders and pallets, but there is also a huge range of trellis to buy, with options for every budget.

Add trellis to a pot

Containers that come with an integrated trellis make it easy to grow climbing plants, whether you're growing perennials such as clematis and jasmine or annuals like morning glory and Cobaea scandens. The most common design is a wooden trough with a tall trellis at the back, providing an attractive alternative to growing climbers up a wigwam in the centre of your pot. For a budget option, buy trellis that fits into a container you already have.

• Buy outdoor cylinder trellis for a container from Dunelm
• Buy a raised wooden planter with climbing trellis from Thompson & Morgan
• Buy expanding trellis from Gardening Express

Use shaped trellis

Trellis comes in many designs and one way to add interest is to choose a design that is curved or wavy at the top. Adding a trellis topper to a fence or wall not only provides an opportunity to grow climbers but is a stylish way to enhance your boundaries. Designs include styles such as wave, curve, arch or concave.

• Buy arched top trellis from The Garden Trellis Co
• Buy Napoleon top trellis from Chart Fencing and Sheds

Fix trellis to your walls

Fixing a trellis panel to your house wall means you'll be able to add colour and scent with climbers like roses, wisteria, clematis and passionflowers. Climbers will soften a wall and if you choose a long-flowering plant, can add colour for months on end. Trellis that can be attached to your house includes square panels, fan-shaped lattice and arched trellis panels.

• Buy Forest Garden Hidcote fan lattice from Robert Dyas
• Buy wooden trellis panel from Homebase
• Buy wall trellis panel from Crocus

Use trellis to divide your garden

Trellis can be used as a screen to divide the garden into sections. This can help to make the garden feel larger as the whole space can't be seen at once. Use a screen to create a secluded space for entertaining, or separate different parts of the garden into rooms so you can experiment with a variety of styles. You can also use a screen to hide unattractive features such as sheds and compost heaps.

• Buy contemporary screen from B&Q
• Buy slatted panels from The Garden Trellis Co

Use trellis to increase privacy

Adding trellis to the top of a fence or using trellis as a boundary creates a space to grow evergreen climbers. This is a great way to increase privacy in the garden as well as add year-round interest.

• Buy Forest Garden fence top trellis from Wickes
• Buy traditional trellis from Homebase

Grow scented climbers up trellis

If you don't have room to grow climbing roses on a fence, consider a free-standing trellis. These can be planted with scented climbers such as roses or jasmine to bring colour and fragrance to the garden throughout summer. It's an easy feature to create with big impact. To anchor a free standing wooden trellis, you will need to put in a post at each end. Some free-standing trellis are sold with ground spikes.

• Buy a metal rose fence from B&Q

Frame an arch

Use trellis as part of an arch so that climbing plants can scramble over the top. An arbor has trellis on the sides for climbing plants and an arched or flat top. These make eye-catching features for pathways or at an entrance to a garden. Try climbing plants such as scented honeysuckles, exotic passion flowers or a mix of clematis for a long season of flowers.

• Buy a wooden garden arch from John Lewis
• Buy a garden arch from Robert Dyas

Make it metal

Metal trellis comes in many more designs than the wooden trellis, which means you can choose one to suit the style of your garden, from a simple metal grid for a contemporary look to a decorative structure for a rose-filled cottage garden.

• Buy metal trellis from Primrose

Keep it simple

Try extendable trellis for an easy solution to growing climbing plants. It's budget friendly and isn't complicated to put up and dismantle. It can be expanded to fit your space and is simple to hang on a fence using nails. It is useful if you grow a lot of climbing annuals, as it can be taken down and stored indoors over winter.

• Buy extendable willow trellis from Thompson & Morgan

Grow fruit

Make trellis pretty and productive by using it for espalier fruit such as plums, peaches, apples and pears. These trees will give you attractive flowers in the spring, provide coverage for your trellis as well as a bountiful autumn harvest.

• Buy an espalier plum tree from Marshalls
• Buy an espalier pear tree from Marshalls

Choosing a trellis

There are many styles and types of trellis to suit different purposes, from free-standing trellis that can be used for screening or dividing your garden into sections, to trellis for containers, and topper trellis that can be added to fences and walls. Trellis comes with either diamond or square holes. There are also styles including wavy or curvy topped trellis if you're looking for something different.

Types of trellis include:

• Rectangles or fans to attach to house walls – good for growing climbing roses or clematis up
• Container trellis for supporting climbers in pots and troughs
• Metal trellis which provides a strong support for heavier climbers
• Topper trellis for fences and walls to enable climbers to be grown up a boundary
• Trellis with small holes – provides a strong support and extra privacy
• Trellis with large holes – provides support for climbers while allowing light through a boundary or screen

Plants for a trellis

Among the best plants for trellis are clematis – there's such a wide range of colours and types to choose from that you could have one in flower in every season, finishing the year with an evergreen clematis such as Clematis cirrhosa 'Wisley Cream' which not only provides privacy when grown up trellis, but flowers in the depths of winter. Evergreen climbers are ideal for growing up trellis to create privacy, adding interest all year. Climbers and honeysuckles such as star jasmine also have scented flowers through the summer. For fast results, try annuals such as sweet peas and morning glory.