Treillageurs

Brief History of Trellis

The grape is thought to be the original impetus for the development of trellis work, since vines were an important crop in Egypt around 2,000 B.C.

The Egyptians realized that angling trellis over a roof projection increased the amount of vine that could be trained and cropped, as well as providing a welcome area of shade. Because of this, the earliest trellis took the forms of pergolas and arbours.

The heavy diamond mesh of the early Persian garden provided both shade and privacy, fulfilling a cultural aspiration for a secluded paradise (derived from the Persian word Pairidaeza).These ideas later began to move west, first by the Greeks and later the Romans.

Trellis design lay dormant through the Dark Ages until the Medieval garden came into being. The Renaissance mind took considerable pride in the design of symmetrical and ordered gardens. Italy was most notable for the use of iron in the structural components of trellis, however woods such as Willow, Hazel, and Juniper were plentiful and easily carpented for use in a variety of designs. Trellised fences, arbours and pergolas became a common feature in the European garden and remain so to this day.