Paraphernalia: Plant supports

How do plants cope in the wild, without friendly gardeners to give them things to climb up? It's a mystery. Presumably they just sprawl pathetically, getting stepped on. But cultivated gardens are a miracle of engineering, with greenery scrambling, rambling and clambering for all it's worth. The desirable thing is to make all this look effortless, as though the plant has spontaneously decided to climb the wall/circle the pergola/twine in a perfect circle. This is why trellis is considered slightly naff - it's too visible. Instead of the simple step of hammering up a nice, big, wooden, criss-cross panel, many garden designers prefer to use unobtrusive dark green wire, stretched between nails hammered into walls or fences (this makes for great fun on the inevitable stormy night when the plant's weight is suddenly doubled by rainwater and yanks the nails out of the wall, necessitating immediate repair).

Rose arches and pergolas are often features in themselves and don't have to be hidden in a mass of leaves and flowers. For borders, there is a whole range of stakes, hoops, grids and rings - the theory goes that installing them when the plants are young means the plants grow up through them, are anchored securely while hiding their supports, and then stand straight as if by magic. The lazy gardener, however, plants a few things, ignores them for a while and is furious to find they have suddenly grown 2ft tall and fallen flat on their faces. Cue a frantic rescue operation with a motley selection of old canes, bits of stick, tatty twine and string.

Pinnups Plant Supports include stakes, rings, grids and scalloped border edging. For stockists, call 0114 2302600.