Onward and upward

Arbors and trellises have long been standards in classic garden design, but even the simplest supports take on new meaning and importance for space-challenged or urban gardeners. While interest in edibles and container gardening continues to climb, you can help take those gardens to new heights with classic structures and an upwardly mobile twist.

Here are seven ways to inspire your IGC customers to reach for the sky and fill it:
 

1. Extol the virtues of vertical.

Going vertical with trellises and arbors is an effortless way to increase growing room and plant possibilities, but the benefits don’t stop there — especially for small-space gardeners longing for vining edibles. Trellising keeps foliage, vines and fruit safely off the ground and reduces accidental damage under foot that often happens in crowded spaces. Trellised plants enjoy enhanced light penetration and air circulation. Edibles respond to improved pollination with increased yields. Keeping plants off the ground and closer to eye level also simplifies pest and disease management — and makes harvesting those coveted crops easier, too.
 

2. Start with art that holds its own.

Help customers understand that trellises or other garden structures play more than a supporting role in the garden. Yes, keeping vines airborne is their primary purpose, but the best ones still look great doing it. Whatever the form, plant supports can deliver architectural interest and beauty in their own right. Highlight products that can stand on their own artistic merits, even when unadorned. They provide gardens with structure and year-round interest — whether vines stay through winter not. From rustic arbors to sleek, stainless tuteurs, offer selections that satisfy and bring that integral, artistic dimension to garden décor.
 

3. Turn recycled relics into trending trellises.

Intersperse your contemporary offerings with interesting relics to inspire gardeners with an eye for the unique and antique. Found objects transformed into trellises — an old bicycle, window grate, door frame or garden gate — become one-of-a-kind garden art. You provide the inspiration and the plants; then let customers recreate the look with found objects of their own. These time-worn alternatives to traditional IGC products hit home with a new generation of gardeners as they strike a balance between the thrift shop chic, instant gratification and unexpected inspiration to grow to new heights.
 

4. Get beyond asphalt limitations.

Don’t let an overabundance of concrete or asphalt limit your customers’ upward aspirations. Container-only gardens don’t have to forego arbors or larger structures just because soil is in short supply.

Show gardeners how to overcome these urban elements with arbors, apartment-scaled pergolas or similar selections anchored in rectangular planters. Keep the look classic and subdued or add brilliant colors of your own — and encourage customers to let their personality shine through. Keep your product lines packed with pyramid, towers and trellises perfectly sized at ground level for containers and small spaces, but ready to run sky high.
 

5. Let your staff’s creativity loose.

Look at your current product lines and turn the tables with fresh, unpredictable uses for product you already have in house. Short garden fencing or decorative edging becomes a free-form trellis when hung lengthwise — either single strips or back to back — and anchored top and bottom. Give standard galvanized tomato cages new purpose and life by turning them upside atop metallic containers. Join the legs together with decorative finials for self-contained mini-trellises with an urban edge. Give your staff free rein and some added incentive to rethink current product lines and uncover new trellis-like uses.
 

6. Mix it up with plant selections.

Blur the lines between ornamentals and edibles in trellis and arbor displays, and push the envelope with unexpected plant choices and surprising combinations. Instead of clematis or climbing roses draped over an arbor, show customers thornless raspberries and trailing lobelia instead. Team clematis vines and staggered bloom times with glossy baby eggplant at their feet.

Train pumpkins or squash up trellises, arbors or other structures while edible nasturtiums and borage flowers billow out below. Pair mixed zinnias with vining cucumbers and black-eyed Susan vine. Mix and match annuals, perennials, herbs and other edibles with vining ornamental standards in your displays.
 

7. Show and tell — and tell again.

Help customers catch the vision for upward mobility with seminars that showcase the options for gardeners interested in claiming vertical ground. Invest large plant material in your presentations and displays so their dreams become reality before their eyes. Include tools and tips to help gardeners — especially newcomers — make it happen. Show customers how to cradle heavy crops, such as pumpkins, squash or melons, with nylon or mesh bags to cradle heavy fruits they anchor and support. Keep trellised displays packed with ever-changing plant material and fresh ideas in action to help customers build on what they’ve started.

With these simple steps, you and your staff can show small-space, urban gardeners that you care. Start with fresh ideas for trellises, arbors and pergolas to cultivate relationships that grow onward and upward year after year.

Jolene Hansen is a freelance writer and former hort professional quietly reshaping the way people experience gardens and gardening.