Handsome trellis and I think you've chosen a good spot for it. Your front beds are lovely as well. Will you be widening the back beds so that they have similar depth to them? There are two issues with climbing hydrangea in this setting. One is the enormous size that Mad G referred to. The other is that it holds on via aerial roots that once detached for painting won't readily reattach themselves and will also leave residue on the trellis that's difficult to remove. A summer blooming clematis (or 2 or 3) would look wonderful on the trellis, but won't easily grab onto such large diameter pieces of wood since it's the leaf stems/petioles that wrap to help it climb. You would want to give it some netting or twine or fishing line woven loosely through the slats to give it something to grab onto. Otherwise you'd be spending a lot of time guiding the clematis. The summer blooming clems (type 3) are pruned to about a foot (1 or 2 leaf nodes) during the winter, so you could easily paint before the clematis did too much growing. The type 2 clems bloom on old wood as well as new vines, so if you pruned them hard early in the season, you'd lose the first bloom, but get a good second bloom. I think a noninvasive honeysuckle would climb it since the stems twine and weave, though it might need a bit of help initially to start it weaving through the lattice. I have a relatively young Lonicera sempervirens 'Major Wheeler' that has red flowers that are popular with insects and hummingbirds.

Oh, cupshaped, you are such a help and encouragement. It sure has been a mixed bag today, got up dead tired, fooled around on the computer a bit and went back to bed for awhile. Then I felt perkier. So, first I put those clematis in the ground toward the fronts of the arbor in front (so it will leave me more room to dig a larger hole for the roses for each side. That went ok, watered and mulched them. Then while I was waiting for my cereal to cool, I went and moved Artemesia, was a snap, think it will be ok, it looks a lot better to me, and I feel better about it. So I CAN try an Arctic Queen! That was what I wanted when I first started looking at clematis and mixing them with roses. Amazing that clematis on your shed! They must be pretty versatile. Only a couple hours of sun! That can wait until next year. I may not have the trellis done and painted until next season either, the temp one may have to do or I can pick up a bigger one if I have to or improvise something if it starts getting too big this year, maybe a chain link fence section or something from Habitat Restore or somebody's trash. Thank you for looking some more up on C. Roo. Doesn't it sound heavenly? I sure hope it grows for me. That place was expensive, but I can't find that exotic stuff in the nurseries around here. If you want something different, you have to pay the price. Second year in a row now, can I find a true blue columbine without running and calling all the different places? Nooooooo. I'm not a PS expert, but I can certainly make your sketch darker, not to worry about that. And thank you again for it. I'm kind of excited about it now that I finally have a good plan. I can grow something else on my Victorian door trellis. It's huge for a screen door. A big downer. I planted the big clay pots, wish they were bigger yet but I can't carry them when full, hardly, as it is. Dusty miller went in ok, too big for the pot, the odd grass stuff went in ok, bigger than I wanted. Then I cram my marigolds and salvia I started in the house. It doesn't look so good, and the salvia is wilting already. The potting soil is good quality but too wet this year, so I tried to pack it in as best I could and threw in some lobelia seeds I'd saved around the edges and just misted. It will take them forever to sprout and catch up. Next year I'll put something simpler in them. It's so darn frustrating. But I feel better about the whole business than I was last night. Six more roses to plant, one I rooted and 5 ordered, and that's it for this year. Then start some cuttings for my pepsi bottle ghetto. My family will help if I beg, my one daughter is especially good. But she has a fussy baby now, and that means I have to babysit while she works which I don't like to do any more, my nerves have been shot for several years and I have no patience with little kids, except the neighbor ones, they go home after they find out what I'm doing, etc. My son just does not like to help, he's got his own place looking like a palace, and between that and his gf and job, he doesn't want to take much time for me. I'll be lucky if I can get him to spray the lawn. Last year I was in tears over their not helping after all I went through for them raising them, so my sister is wealthy and that's where I'm getting some of the extra money to hire people to help me. My other daughter I paid last fall, and she did a good job, but her husband I don't want around, spooks me and let me down bigtime when he quit in the middle of tilling the front. And I paid him for what he did anyway, so it's not that I was expecting it all free. Bless my sister! She understands, says I'm not alone with adult children who don't want to help their parents.

Should have figured it was an integrifolia of some sort but it does add to the confusion when a clematis is not called by its official name. I like the color of the integrifolia flowers in the picture but integrifolia the species does not vary in color like in the picture. I figure that what is pictured and being sold is a mixture of generic integrifolia seeds. That isn't necessarily bad since you don't know what different colored flowers you might get out of such seeds, but the catalog shouldn't be listing them as clematis integrifolia since that can easily be confused with the straight species.

Hi Swellcat, Yes, the trellis fence done a year ago is beautiful and made a sculptural durable unique addition to our garden. I had also asked Miller Library Answer Line the questions as well as googled for answers. One man carved birds out of different woods including photinia and said it was dense and should be long lasting.Miller Library said the same. I later dropped by photos of the completed fence to the Miller Library. I tried to post a photo here but failed. I just returned from Japan and our builder used some of Japanese fence construction methods. 4 trees were cut to roughly 9-12 feet high. The other 3 removed trees were cut in lengths to make an free form open lattice between the rooted trees. The main horizontal branches were then bound by dark brown rope to the upright trees. No nails were put in the living trees. He then made flowing lines with the smaller branches which were held by tiny nails I can't see. It's very creative and we have now planted shrubs on the road side which further block out the road and a couple houses across the road. In addition I have embellished the trellis/fence last winter with berried holly branches and also this summer put moss from the woods on some of the branches. I also talked to Ciscoe Morris about different uses of old diseased photinia .I think your uses for the wood are great. Please post photos if you can, Swellcat. All the best, Annie