How To Make a Passionate Trellis

One of the things I have always wanted to do in my yard is to have a trellis against the wall with a vine or creeper to hide the ugly looking pipe works.  My biggest obstacle in this project was that I didn't know what plant to choose that would hide the entire wall.

I decided to get some help so we went to the nursery, and the lady there limited my options to three choices (thankfully).  For my small yard, with no direct sun, but lots of light, the contestants were, a Jasmine, a Passion Flower or a Stephanotis I love the smell of Jasmine and the Stephanotis, but I thought it would eventually be too overpowering in such a small space.  I loved the Passion Flower flowers, so I decided to go for it.

The wall I wanted to hang it against was about 2 meters by 1 meter so the lady said to buy two plants, and place them one meter apart.  I obeyed.  She gave me some quick instructions on how to take care of it, and was off.  The decision was made.  The next problem was a trellis.  

The nursery had dozens of fancy trellises made of wood, wrought iron, plastic, but all of them were too big for my wall.  In the end I decided to make my own, and  I bought a piece of plastic fencing from the local pet shop.  I figured the plant should hide the trellis/fencing anyway, so there was no need to go for anything elaborate.

My Trellis

The wall where I wanted to attach the trellis had a small shelf stuck to it which we removed.  I relocated the cactus and succulents that were on that shelf onto another shelf.  They will not get as much light there, but it will have to do for now.  Next we got a few wire clips, and attached the trellis to the wall, cutting off the extra bits to make it fit just right.

Shelf to be removed

Trellis attached

It was time to attach the passion flower to the trellis.  This proved harder than I had anticipated.  The plant was intertwined with a piece of wire in the pot, that's how I got it from the nursery.  To untangle the passion flower was quite a challenge.  As I was removing the tendrils, they seemed to have a life of their own, grabbing onto other stems, and leaves as I removed them.  As I was untangling it I realized how long the plant was, when I finished it was over 3 meters long already.  I couldn't help thinking, this could get me! 

The actual attaching to the trellis then was a piece of cake.  The tendrils proved quite strong, and it was just a question of winding them round a piece of plastic.

Tendril attached to the trellis

I attached both passion flowers opposite each other.  I placed each plant at the edges of the trellis, more than one meter apart, but I will train them to go to one side as they grow bigger.  When I finished I had a lovely display already. 

passion flower stuck to the trellis

Both passion flowers attached

I hope that as the plants grow bigger I will be able to train them to fill up the entire wall.  It might take a couple of years, but it has already made quite a difference to this yard.  This space is finally looking better.