I just bought three at Walmart, cheapo cedar ones for $8.97 each.

and i got some 6ft ones from the general dollar store for $6.00 a piece

thanks buyorsell & kimmy

I am experimenting with using tomato cages of various types for some of mine. These cages are usually pretty cheap and I'm thinking about putting mesh over them to increase the number of places the clemmies have to cling. This will work best with fairly vigorous plants, and of course, doesn't look as nice as a trellis before it's covered, but as you say, trellises can be expensive.

If I know the clematis is a very vigorous grower, I take chicken wire, fold it in half, open it up and use two long pieces of wood to serve as anchoring for it. It vanishes comletely with clematis like Sweet Autumn and Montana varieties.

~Chills

I've seen used sections of T.V. towers used very effectively, they are self supporting and are 10' tall and will take 3 plants,try to get them for different blooming times. Rai

You could also try 8 foot bamboo stakes in a narrow-based teepee for each plant, with some smaller bamboo cross-pieces up the "front" tied on with twine. Looks rustic, but it is quite inexpensive. I just made one last week, because I didn't want to spend $$ on a "real" trellis. My husband actually said he liked it!

Laurel

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

Laurel, any chance you can post a pic of yours? I like the idea, but need a visual model to follow. I'm not very crafty........at all.

i'm sure this person won't mind me posting this link since it was posted in another forum... check this out... scroll down to the bottom.

Here is a link that might be useful: clematis trellis

courtskey83 -- thank you very much. I've seen this man's rose and clematis pictures before, I've just never seen his supports. Very interesting.

Thanks for the link to the pictures.

maureen

That man's roses and clematis are truly stunning!

Hi Maureen
I've been thinking about this for some time now and I'll tell you what I did a few years back to get an inexpensive trellis. Went to home depot and bought firring strips, about 10 of them, don't think the cost was over $20. Hubby put the strips length wise and crosswise, using either nails or good strong twine. We left about 2 foot on the bottom to be sunk into the soil. I used this trellis for sugar snap peas, and now have it out of the vegetable garden and its being used for clematis. Hope that give you some idea of what I mean, :)
Alberta

Last year I just used twine looped diagonally along our privacy fence -- worked like a charm, and doesn't get much easier or cheaper than that!

Irishrosegrower, if you have a Big Lots, they have very inexpensive trellises, comparable to some of the very expensive ones on line.

I have also used twine, fishing line, weedeater line, chicken wire, and hog panel wire for those that were going to be covered. Just so they have something as small or smaller than a pencil to twine around.

Maureen,
Like you, I balked at spending a whack of money for trellises. If you are at all handy, they aren't hard to make. We went down to the local HD and bought cedar 1" x 1" x 8', cut them to various lengths for the horizontal pieces, shorter lengths for the vertical pieces and then put them together in a grid pattern, using galvanized screws.
Probably very similar to Alberta's design.
Don't think we spent more than $25 for all 3...
Margaret

Lee Valley also sells brick clips which are excellent. We have a trellis attached to the front of our house with these clips and tye-wraps. You just need to measure the size of your bricks. This way you don't need to drill into your bricks or mortor. We are putting another trellis up in the back for my new Hagley.

I was going to grow this one on the patio in a pot along with a Heavenly Blue morning glory, but it sounds like that might be a bad idea?

I will be able to overwinter the clematis in the garage.

Thanks for all the great info!

Roberta

Have mine growing on 2x8 and 4x8 lattice from lumber company, scewed to post verical or horizontal.
Plus an oblisk made of 2x2x8 lengths held together with pieces of cross strapping,good for a clematis on each side.
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You guys are great with all this info on trellis'

Wmc1's pics are great. That looks easy enough to do and a great structure for the clematis to grow on.

Maureen
p.s. My clematis are dangling onto anything they can, roses, lilys, etc. They despertely need trellis'.

courstsky83:
First of all, your vines are magnificent! Wow!! But the last statement on your link caught my eye "remember you cannot overwater clematis as they love water" because when I bought my clematis recently at the nursery the advice there was to avoid overwatering. I was advised to be judicious in how much water the roots got (after getting established of course). Would you or anyone else please address this issue?

The link she gave is for Roseperson..that is Rosepersons home in Michigan..yes clematis love water...when you hear people say they like their roots to stay "Cool" and heads up in the sun..what they mean is their roots like to stay moist...Always do a finger test to make sure the soil is moist..that is another reason to plant clematis 2-4 inches deeper than in the pots you get them in because they are deeper in the soil and can stay moist...Jeanne