Quote:
> I plan to plant about five climbers this spring, and need to build two rose
> arbors. I am in the historic district in my town, and will probably need to
> have the arbors made of wood, and they also probably will have to be
> painted white.
> One of the climbers will be "Conrad Ferdinand Meyer", with fierce
> ***les...
> Is there common wisdom about the type of wood I should use, the most
> resistant shapes, and the types of paints which will whistand the best and
> the longest the *** of climbing roses? Are there books which discribe
> this process? As I am building it, I would rather not have to redo the job
> regularly...
First of all, you don't necessarily HAVE to use wood. My wisteria and
clematis climb arbors of PVC plumbing: cheap, easy to use, and will resist
weather for thousands of years, as far as we know. Wisteria and clematis
are true climbers, however, meaning they will entwine themselves around a
support. My first instinct is it wouldn't be strong enough for a hefty
Cecil Brunner et. al. unless wisely engineered.
Copper pipe is another good choice. Whether painted or allowed to age
naturally, makes great arbors that should easily outlast you and your
roses. I've done some copper plumbing, the techniques aren't too hard, but
they involve molten solder and strange cutting tools, could be more than
some people want to get into.
With wood, you have two choices: treated and untreated wood. The good
thing about treated wood is it should never rot, so you never have to dig
it up, disentangle it rrom your rose, and put up another. Treated wood
takes paint and stains just like normal wood, however sometimes because
it's treated the home centers leave it outside, where it gets very wet.
Won't hurt the wood, but it could affect how it takes paint.
The bad thing about treated wood: the reason it doesn't rot is because
they chemically fumigate it under pressure with EXTREMELY toxic chemicals,
usually chromium copper arsenate, a relative of arsenic. Now, supposedly,
those chemicals bond themselves quite strongly with the wood and don't rub
off or leach out into the soil. I have heard reports, however, that they
will leach over time, but those reports were delivered by very breathless,
sweaty people who clearly had their own opinions about treated wood
regardless of what studies said, so I don't know. Whether it leaches or
not, there are legitimate questions about it, such as, if it never rots
and contains toxic chemicals, what's going to happen to it after it leaves
the garden? Landfill? Can't burn it, that does release the chemicals.
Without treated wood, it isn't a question of if outdoor wood will rot,
especially in contact with soil, but when. Redwood, cedar, and locust will
last longer thanb other woods, but that may only be three seasons rather
than one. Painting helps. In your area, white and dark green are the usual
colors, I think. If you can think of a way to keep the wood away from the
soil, and dry, and painted, it can last for centuries.
I live in an old house in a wet area. I just had to jack up the center of
my house and replace all my posts because you could kick them and they
would sort of swing around. Not good, architecturally. When I replaced the
posts, I used treated wood. There is a structural need, and water is
present. I generally don't like using it for gardening applications when
other things are available. No solid evidence to support that inclination,
I just don't want to find in ten years that it made my backyard a
superfund site.
Hope that helps.
Patrick Burke
Project Services Coordinator
Biological Sciences Division Information Services
The University of Chicago
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