Hope people don't mind me digging up threads... I had the same question and this thread was first on Google. I think I'll stick around too, this forum looks very interesting. So far looking up what squash will grow on a trellis, it seems any squash will. I intend to have some on the ground while others climb, so I'd rather the climbers do so on their own. I know Cucumber and Watermelon plants have tendrils from growing them on a trellis, but I don't know about others. If anyone grows squash this year, could you post which ones have tendrils? Funny space was mentioned. I don't have much space (4x8 cinder block raised bed) so I grew 5 plants in a 4x4 area of different types with 3 seeds per mound w/o thinning them as a test because I use to do it a little more spread out in Nevada. The watermelon grew up the trellis and grew a green golf ball, the cucumber also grew up a trellis but produced a lot of fruit, the straight-neck & zucchini turned into bushes turning out a lot of zucchini and a few straight-neck, and the pumpkin produced no fruit. Learned that watermelon and pumpkin need their space, but cucumbers need very little space with a trellis. Zucchini have a tendency to outgrow the competition and leaving multiple plants per hill let me leave one to grow a big zucchini while the other 2 grew small ones ( I shred big zucchini for bread and cake ). I had corn in among the squash and on the other side and in the cinder blocks I had sunflowers, peas, tons of lettuce & spinach & carrots, a huge tomato plant and a new artichoke. All except the corn grew well. It's amazing what can grow in such a little area. BTW sunflowers have huge roots and will take all the dirt out of a cinder block, but they make a great trellis for peas.

jeanr I don't know if they "need" to, but I know that they sure like to. This is the first year I have planted speckled swan gourds and after they over-ran the small string trellis that I started them on, I "bridged" them over to a large (30'X10') pergola that runs along the back of our garage. Once they got to the top of the pergola they exploded and have about covered the entire pergola - along with 2 chinese wisteria that were already there. For a while they did not seem to be setting much fruit on the vines that were on the pergola, but after a healthy dose of compost and a shot of balanced fertilizer there are now about 2 dozen gourds hanging down through the pergola. It looks pretty wierd - my wife now calls it the Gourd House. Since they are hanging, gravity has straightened the necks. About half of them have the swolen section near the vine end typical of speckled swan variety, but the other half doesn't. I couldn't tell you if this was the result of allowing them to hang or not. So far I have not had to support any of the gourds artificially and some of them are in the 8" to 10" diameter range and feel to be about 10 pounds or so in weight. I have separated several of them that were growing together. I don't know if it was necessary, but I thought that the places that two gourds were touching would be a spot for damage from fungus, rot or insects. That is about all I can tell you. Like I said, I don't know if it is a requirement that they climb, but it sure hasn't hurt. By the way, the string trellis that I used to start them was barely strong enough to support the vines. Now that I know what to expect with the size and weight of the gourds that will develop, next time I am going to build something more sturdy, attractive and permanent to get the vines from the garden to the top of the pergola (don't tell the wisteria I said this, but as soon as the gourds are harvested the wisteria is getting moved). Good luck and have fun! Matt

I have lots of Lobelia cardinalis, it self sows here and there in interesting places, and I usually transplant and expand or create another patch. Transplanting L. cardinalis is easy, however I would not try to divide a Cardinal flower as they make a rosette of foliage and my instinct says it should stay intact. However I've never tried it. L. cardinalis has been fairly long lived. If you deadhead and pamper a bit with water and compost, it will successfully make offsets each year. The original 2 pots I bought at the nursery in 2007 are still alive, and also 2008 winter-sown plant and their seedlings. I have been growing Cardinal Climber for 3 years and it has never reseeded, but have successfully collected seed. Last year the deer went to town on the CC and the MGs on my new trellis and so I constructed barriers, which allowed some recovery to the vines and decent showing of blooms. The hummers nectar regularly on CC, but they LOVE cardinal flower. I think it is their very favorite plant in my garden. Here's a pic from last year -

Pandorea Jasminoides. It needs more water than Bougainvillea but if it gets partial shade as you say, it could qualify as a low water plant. I had it on a long section of fence that also had Lonicera and Trachelospermum. The Pandorea was the least aggressive of the three. Lonicera was the worst by far.