Installing a Trellis for Climbing Roses Onto Your House

Installing a trellis onto the side of your house is actually quite simple!

See the steps below.

In the past, I’ve talked about how much I loved using siding hooks to hang trellises onto your siding covered house. And I still do love them because they can easily be installed/removed and they don’t put any holes into your siding. However, I’ve also said that they’re not meant to support a lot of weight, and I knew it was only a matter of time before ours needed to come down and a trellis installed “the proper way.” Well, that time came a couple of days ago when I went to prune our ‘Pink Supreme Flower Carpet Rose’ which was intertwined with ‘New Dawn’. A couple of minor tugs on the canes, and the whole thing came crashing down. It was a disaster of epic proportions. And if you don’t believe me, scroll down to the picture below because that shows what these roses looked like in full bloom so I’m sure you can imagine how many long, thorny canes were now suddenly sticking every which way. I think I just stood there for a full minute in disbelief, but then I got my pruners and went to work reminding myself that if I ever had to do some serious re-maneuvering, now was the time while the roses were still dormant.

A lot had to be cut back and it was kind of heartbreaking. But in the end we were left with plenty of room for ‘New Dawn’ to grow and fill in the now empty space without being overshadowed by ‘Pink Supreme’. After he was finished, my husband said it was easier than when he installed the siding clips, so go figure. Here are some things we did:

1) First we consulted Martha just to make sure we were on the right track, and we were. The spacers we attached the trellis allows air to flow and prevent rot which is especially important if your house is sided with wood shingles.

2) Next, Jesse cut small sections of scrap pressure treated wood for the spacers. They were about 2″ thick and 12″ long. (Our trellis is cedar but we didn’t have any cedar scrap laying around so pressure treated it was.) Whoops, our trellis is teak! See below for link.

3.) Jesse pre-drilled the holes into two spacers using self-drilling outdoor screws and then installed them onto the side of the house. (We placed the spacers so that they would support the trellis in the center.)

4.) The last step was to attach the trellis to the spacers, making sure it’s even of course (a level would be handy for this).

All in all, it only took him about a half-hour from start to finish. You can build your own trellis if you’re feeling particularly ambitious. {EDIT: I’m such a ding-a-ling, this trellis is teak, not cedar. What was I thinking? Anyways, you can purchase them in a variety of sizes from Gardener’s Supply.}

Summer, 2011.

I hope these roses fill in quickly so it will look as pretty this summer!