My Favorite Indoor Climbing Plant Supports

If you’re in a hurry, here’s a spoiler alert for my best climbing houseplant supports: 

Have you ever wondered why we use supports for climbing plants? While we may train a plant to climb taller with its creepers and vines, it can’t do this without support to give the plant’s stems additional strength.

I know that my lush vines tend to have quite a bit of weight, which means that without support, those vines will end up lying on the floor. It’s so easy to trip over a tangled vine carelessly lying on the ground instead of reaching its full potential with the help of support.

Vine supports help you tame the wilderness of a plant growing too wild and fast. Supports also help you encourage a plant to grow into a pleasing shape. With support, you can ensure the plant spreads enough to make optimal use of light and the available space.

Because I love vining plants so much, I have tried every possible support under the sun, from trellises to moss poles and bamboo stakes to unique wire supports. Each is best suited to a particular plant type and offers specific benefits to help your plant climb.

Not sure which supports to get for your beloved indoor climbers? Here are my best tips, which I follow religiously:

• Choose the right support for your plant.

Floratrel’s bamboo trellises come in many forms and shapes, making them suitable for various indoor vining houseplants.

However, if you are looking for a specific support that matches how the plant grows, consider:

Arch supports: Jasmine, climbing lily, wax plant (hoya), and passion flower.

Trellises: English ivy, grape ivy, and plush vine

Moss poles, coco coir poles, and stakes: Arrowhead vine, philodendron, and Schefflera.

• The sturdier, the better.

While you can opt for lightweight support like a daisy chain made from copper wire or use thin stakes for petite plants like the string of hearts, you’d need much sturdier plant support for monsteras and other top-heavy vines.

A bamboo plant trellis is a firm favorite because it’s sustainable, strong, and durable.

• Get creative if you’re in a pinch.

The plant support you use doesn’t have to be the final choice. If you’ve blinked and your favorite climber has grown vines fast (and you’re in a pinch), you can use a stake and secure the vines with cable ties (twist-ties) or twine.

However, don’t wait too long to get your climber's proper (and permanent) support structure.

• Don’t tie the vines too tightly.

I ensure I secure the climbing vines securely to the support but never tightly because I don’t want to damage the stems. The purpose of the tie is to guide the stem.

If you have a plant or chain trellis, you can carefully braid the vines through the openings, but if you use a tree branch or stake, use hemp twine, cotton string, plant clips, copper wire, nylon stockings, velcro plant ties, or other plant ties.

Climbing plants often grow bushy when young, and only when they are a little older do you appreciate their beauty as the vines grow. Decide whether to let the vines trail downward (from a hanging basket or off a shelf) or climb.

Follow these steps to train your indoor vining plant to climb:

• Choose a climbing support for your houseplant.
• Insert the plant support into the container when the plant is young. Alternatively, repot the plant and add the support in the container with soil before transplanting the climber to avoid damaging the roots.
• You can also use wall hooks, permanent rings in the wall, or other wall-mounted support to train your plant’s vine to go up.
• Gently guide the plant with clips or ties or by braiding the vines through a trellis to train it to grow in the desired direction.
• Follow the care instructions (regarding light, water, fertilizer, temperature, and humidity), deal with pests, and prevent disease to ensure your little climber matures.

While you can let the vines trail downward or creep across the ground, add vertical interest to your indoor space by training a climbing plant, such as a philodendron, pothos, Swiss cheese plant, or creeping fig, to climb a wall, statue, marble pillar, or plant support like a trellis or moss pole. It’s essential to support indoor climbers to optimize their growth.

Add plant supports to a container while the plant is very young or repot the climber to prevent root damage. If you use wall-mounted supports, tie the vines to these to train them where to go. Or, if you use a wire room divider, use plant ties or twine to gently secure the stems to the object, and the plant will grow in that direction.

Climbing plants attach to structures by wrapping, adhering, or curling around them. For example, passion flowers use their stem tendrils to wrap around a bamboo stake or branch with many offshoots.

Jasmine, purple bell vine, and wisteria have twining stems and leaves that attach to a trellis, a chair leg, stake, or wire, while the bougainvillea and climbing rose are scramblers that climb best with a trellis. With the adhesive pads on their stem tendrils, Boston ivy and cissus like tree branches and walls. English ivy has clinging stem roots and can adhere to almost any surface, like a wall, trellis, stakes, moss poles, or wall supports.

My indoor vining plants bring me such joy. I treasure their progress, and I am passionate about the unique and exciting ways I get them to climb higher. They allow me to create excitement in the double-volume entrance hall of my home, and even the smaller vining plants contribute a burst of green explosions from their hanging baskets.

Of course, to make this all possible, I need quality vining support with trellises, moss poles, and wall anchors. My next project is to vine a delicate string of hearts on a wire guitar I picked up at a local flea market. I can’t wait!

Why not add some meaning to your indoor climbing plant garden with a few trellis toppers, proudly announcing your words of power.