How To Train a Vine

If your vines are not planted near your trellis, arbor, or arch, dig them up and replant at the foot of the structure, or move your structure near the vines.

Secure a wooden stake in the ground next to the vine shoot, and between the shoot and the trellis. Use a wooden stake that is about three-quarters the length of the vine shoot. When inserted into the ground, the stake should be about half the vine shoot’s length.

To secure the vine, starting from the base of your structure, wrap sections of the vine to the wooden stake in an upward climb, using floral wire.

Take the remaining section of the vine and wrap it with a piece of wire.

Take the wired section of the vine and wrap it around your trellis.

Once the vine starts to attach itself firmly to the structure, remove the floral wire. Typically, the wire will remain with the vine for two to four years. To help shape it around the structure, prune the vine every year in early spring, just before it begins to flower.