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Trellis ties?

Posted by subk3 (My Page) on
Mon, Feb 27, 12 at 10:48

I've added a couple climbing roses to my perennial beds this year and having never had climbing roses I'm not sure what to use to tie them to the trellis. Suggestions please?


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RE: Trellis ties?

Depends how big and how heavy they get. If not too heavy, I use that new green sort of velcro plant tie stuff, and it works fine. Just have to make sure it is not too tight.

We have huge heavy roses climbing three stories up our house, and for the main canes of those, my DH has the following system:

He gets metal plates with loose 2 inch in diameter metal rings attached - these are sold for horse hitches. The rings being loose is the key - they can rotate. These plates come with 4 screw holes. Because our house is shingled, he only puts in three screws, and makes sure they are not in line with the wood grain on the shingles.

Then he gets those tree ties that are heavy wire with rubber hose over the wire for 12 - 18 inches. He lengthens the wire, and then uses that to tie the rose canes to the rings.

He developed this system since one 100 mph winter storm we had years ago, which resulted in our 3 story high banksie lutea and our 3 story Cecile Bruner roses falling off our house into giant heaps - we awoke to a driveway completely blocked by a 10 foot high by 20 foot long mess of roses. (Interestingly, none of the huge main canes were broken - we pruned off all of the broken canes & much of the growth, and put them back up, and the next Spring they bloomed better than ever.)

Anyway, since we started using his new system, none of the roses have fallen down.

Jackie


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RE: Trellis ties?

As much as I detest the color, we commonly use that soft, rather-stretchy green plastic tape. It lasts a remarkably long time.

Another surprisingly-effective option is the legs of old panty-hose. I haven't worn panty hose in years, but you can buy them really really cheaply, in bulk. That material lasts for quite a long time, is not visually-intrusive, and does not harm roses.

I don't like anything that is hard or stiff, and I don't like hemp twine. Both seem to cause some damage to canes.

I've not tried the velcro stuff Jackie mentions, but it sounds like a good idea, and it is a duller-green in color than my beloved plastic tape, and thus not as visually troublesome.

Jeri


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RE: Trellis ties?

I don't know if it's important, but I'm tying up New Dawn, so I suspect that's a pretty heavy/big climber. I've got a very heavy duty trellis (made of steal!) going up the first story of the house and then the plan is they drape over a roof that protects a doorway stoop.

So something to tie to the trellis, then the horse tie rings (I know exactly what these are!) might be great once they get beyond the trellis.


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RE: Trellis ties?

I use panty hose from the dollar store & cut them into appropriate lengths. Even better are green tights or nylons, if you can find them.

Big box stores typically sell the green tinted nylons as "tomato ties", and they work well for smaller roses, but the lengths are cut too short in their pre-packaged ties for longer, stronger canes or hard to reach places.


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RE: Trellis ties?

  • Posted by seil z6b MI (My Page) on
    Mon, Feb 27, 12 at 19:08

I use a big roll of green twist tie I get at the dollar store. It's worked fine for at least a decade on Golden Celebration and I've never seen any damage from it. If I'm tying a whole plant together I use green garden twine. It's harder to find and costs more but it blends in much better than the brown hemp twine. It's usually stronger and less fuzzy too. I tried the panty hose but found it difficult to tie. It kept getting caught on the thorns.


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RE: Trellis ties?

  • Posted by hoovb z9 Southern CA (My Page) on
    Wed, Feb 29, 12 at 14:54

cable ties aka zip ties


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