Trellis

Discussion

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Fig. 1, Batty Langley, “Frontispieces of Trellis Work for the entrances into Temples of View, Arbors, Shady walks &c.,” in New Principles of Gardening (1728), pl.XVIII.

Trellis is a term used to describe a network of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal posts and rails designed to support vegetation. The term “treillage” was also used to refer to trellis work, especially in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century treatises; in the early nineteenth century the term “treliage” was noted on Charles Varlé’s plan of Bath (Berkeley Springs), Va. (later W.Va.). Trellis was also closely associated with espalier,especially by the mid-nineteenth century when the latter term referred to the support material (including trellis or lattice work) upon which fruit trees and ornamental trees were trained (see Espalier). Trellises also fulfilled a decorative function in the garden. In Batty Langley’s New Principles of Gardening (1728), the trellis was recommended as a framing device to direct a view to a distant focal point [Fig. 1]. Trellises could take on elaborate forms and were used for garden structures such as arbors and summerhouses (see Arbor and Summerhouse). A.-J. Dézallier d’Argenville’s The Theory and Practice of Gardening (1712) indicates that such structures decreased in popularity in the early eighteenth century because they were relatively expensive for impermanent wooden structures. While Dézallier d’Argenville recommended treillage for decorative structures found in the pleasure ground, Thomas Jefferson (1804) insisted that “treillages” belonged in the kitchen garden, which suggests that he used them primarily for training fruit trees.

Seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and early nineteenth-century gardening treatises all generally describe the feature as supports for fruits trained against walls; therefore, trellises were located frequently in the walled kitchen garden. Placing fruit trees or fruit-bearing vegetation on trellises attached to walls was beneficial; the wall sheltered the fruit and radiated warmth that hastened its ripening. Moreover, affixing and spreading a tree or vine against a trellis often stimulated fruit production. For similar reasons, the trellis was used in hothouses and greenhouses, especially in the nineteenth century when specialized forcing houses became increasingly popular. In 1826, J.C. Loudon set forth seven types of trellises for hothouses and greenhouses, each differentiated by its location within these structures.

Fig. 2, Anonymous, “Suburban Cottage,” in A.J. Downing, The Architecture of Country Houses (1850), pl. opp. p.109, figs.33 and 34.

By the mid-nineteenth century, treatise writers such as A.J. Downing (1851) promoted the trellis for both cultivation of plant material and use as an ornamental feature. Trellises supporting decorative and sweet-smelling plant material, such as roses and honeysuckles, could be attached to the structure of the summerhouse, arbor, seat, outbuildings, and the house itself, often along the veranda[Fig. 2]. Trellises not only embellished the structure, but also, as Downing noted, offered “an air of rural refinement and poetry.” When used as freestanding elements in landscape designs, trellises functioned as semi-transparent walls. Like those at the Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House in Cambridge, Mass. [Fig. 3], they were placed along borders and walkways and positioned to mask unsightly structures or elements, as Edward Sayers recommended in his 1838 treatise.

Trellis construction varied widely from simple post-and-rail grid patterns to intricate systems composed of horizontal, vertical, and diagonal elements of different lengths and widths. Many treatises contain detailed instructions for the construction of trellises, whose requirements depended upon the type of vegetation to be supported. George William Johnson’s Dictionary of Modern Gardening (1847), for example, explains different trellises according to the type of plant, vine, or tree to be supported, as well as describing their placement in greenhouses, hothouses, or along walks.

Fig. 3, Richard Dolben, “Plan for Flower Garden,” 1847. A “trellis” was marked at the garden border, at the upper right.

Until the nineteenth century, wood was commonly used for the feature, although in 1789 Thomas Sheridan also mentioned the use of iron. Some treatise writers recommended specific wood types. Philip Miller (1754), for example, reported that fir was commonly used, Bernard M’Mahon (1806) mentioned pine, and Downing (1851) suggested cedar. Treatise authors also debated whether wood trellises should be painted. By mid-century, the availability of relatively inexpensive metalwork (which could be worked into a variety of forms), allowed wider use of materials such as cast iron and wire.

-- Anne L. Helmreich

Texts

Common Usage

• Jefferson, Thomas, 1804, describing Monticello, plantation of Thomas Jefferson, Charlottesville, Va. (quoted in Nichols and Griswold 1978: 111)

“The kitchen garden is not the place for ornaments of this kind. bowers and treillages suit that better, & these temples will be better disposed in the pleasure grounds.”

• Varlé, Charles, 1809, describing the improvement of the square and the town of Bath (Berkeley Springs), Va. (later W.Va.) (Library of Congress, Map Division)

“E. Reservoir or Fountain covered with a vine treliage in a form of a dome or copula [sic].”

• Dearborn, H.A.S., 1832, describing Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Mass. (quoted in Harris 1832: 83)

“the latter [monuments], at least, should be exposed from its base to its summit, and to accomplish this the space must remain open, or only be enclosed by the lightest constructed trellis, formed with iron posts and delicate pales, or small stone or iron posts and chains.”

• Teschemacher, James E., 1 November 1835, “On Horticultural Architecture,” describing the vicinity of Boston, Mass. (Horticultural Register 1: 411–12)

“The vicinity of Boston abounds so much in every variety of beautiful landscape, that there is scarcely any place where art is less required in laying out pleasure grounds . . . the trellis covered with climbing roses leading to a rosarium . . . all this, owing to the natural advantages of the country surrounding Boston, may be accomplished at a comparatively trifling expense and loss of time.”

• Loudon, J.C., 1838, describing the Lawrencian Villa, residence of Mrs. Lawrence, Dayton Green, near London, England (p.584)

“and looking northwards, we have the statue of Mercury in the foreground, and behind it the camellia-house, the wall on each side of which is heightened with trelliswork for creepers.” [Fig. 4]

• Loudon, J.C., 1838, describing Kenwood, seat of the Earl of Mansfield, Hampstead, England (p.662–663) back up to text

“The impression is not lessened when we come within sight of the house . . . or when, passing through a walk covered with trelliswork, in the flower-garden, to the lawn front, we look down the declivity to the water, at the foot of the rising woods on the opposite bank.” [Fig. 5]

• Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, c.1847, describing the Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House, Cambridge, Mass. (quoted in Evans 1993: 43)

“The green trellis-work by the flower-garden was a part of an old covered walk to the outhouses. The gateway is from the old College house which stood opposite the bookseller’s in the college yard. In taking up this covered walk was found the skull of a dog, with a brass collar marked ‘Andrew Craigie.”

• Hovey, C.M., February 1850, “Notes on Gardens and Gardening in the neighborhood of Boston,” describing Bellmont Place, residence of John Perkins Cushing, Watertown, Mass. (Magazine of Horticulture 16: 50–51)

“The inclosed space [between the greenhouse and the peach houses], of about two acres, forms the kitchen garden, which is finely laid out, trellised and planted with the finer sorts of pears, peaches, &c. These latter were on trellises, and protected with spruce branches, from the frost, or rather from the hot sun that succeeds it. I think this an excellent method; it is extensively practised with much benefit in the northern parts of Great Britain. In fact, without such partial protection, the culture of peaches would be all but impossible. The principles upon which the various operations of gardening are conducted about this place by Mr. Schimming, are thoroughly scientific, and manifest a perfect understanding of the numerous details connected with the higher branches of horticulture.”

• Ranlett, William H., 1851, describing Waldwic Cottage (formerly Little Hermitage), property of Elijah Rosencrantz, Hohokus, N.J. ([1851] 1976: 43)

“Ground plot for Waldwick Cottage. . . . These grounds are to be laid out and executed, and the out-buildings all placed according to this plot. . . . N N, grape arbor and trellis.”