The message
from Dave Poole contains these words:

I don't know whether they are still available, but many moons ago you
could get trainers for weeping roses - rather like very heavy duty
hanging baskets around 3 feet in diameter. I nailed one to the top of
a 7 foot oak post and ran a white Wisteria up it. Partly in the
interests of getting coverage a.s.a.p. I allowed several stems to run
up the pole, plaiting them as they went. The theory being that in
time, the resultant trunk would also provide greater strength and
aesthetic appeal when exposed in winter. Whether either of these
proved true is unknown because I moved from that garden over 25 years
ago.

In my garden I have a varigated ivy tree. For quite a while I thought it
was growing up a dead tree because the multiple stems looked like old
gnarled bark until examined carefully.

I found on examination that it was one of three old steel irrigation
pipes set upright in the ground, and the ivy had been given its head, so
to speak. It's bushed out at the top and looks for the world like a
tree.

I commend the idea to anyone who wants to plant a tree, but has nowhere
which is far enough from drainage or foundations.

However, the short term effect over the first 6 or 7 years was
extremely pleasing. There were 7 or 8 main laterals trained over and
down and from these, sub-laterals and flowering spurs, which provided
a magnificent show every year. Of course the training is a little
more fiddly compared to when you grow it on a wall, but its well worth
the extra effort. It is far simpler to train to a smaller, self
supporting head and you will be pleased with the outcome. But if you
train to a broader crown, it will yield far more flowers and much
greater impact.

Hmmm. I was thinking of getting a self-fertile Chinese gooseberry and
growing it up one of the others, and another vine which fruits for the
third.

--
Rusty
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