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Instantly adding style, even when they’re on their own and unclothed by plants, obelisks act as eye-catchers and relieve the repetitive uniformity of one-level planting. In a larger border, regularly spaced repeated obelisks make for a truly dynamic design.
Sturdy, wooden, four-sided obelisks add grandeur and can be painted to suit other elements of the garden. Try Andrew Crace, whose pyramidal wooden obelisk comes in small and large sizes, with a decorative lattice infill and turned wooden finial. Oxford Planters offer a straight-sided, pillar-shaped Cotswold Obelisk or the slatted London model, while Stuart Garden can provide hardwood obelisks that are simple and contemporary in style, like the company’s New Obelisk, which comes in three sizes.
Metal obelisks have the benefit of longevity. They can be left in a border for years without rotting at the base of the legs – a variety of styles from elegant wire designs to chunky steel are available. Agriframes’ range is diverse, from pointed pyramid-shapes like the Classic Square Obelisk to those with curved tops like the Classic Obelisk, all available in a variety of colours. Try Harrod Horticultural’s Southwold range if you like bold steel, or garden designer Janey Auchincloss’s range of blacksmith-forged galvanised steel obelisks, which are available through Gedding Mill.
Woven willow or rustic arrangements of hazel sticks or prunings perfectly suit an informal cottage garden border, as do metal supports with a rusty finish. Weave your own willow if you’re feeling dexterous or look to suppliers such as Water Willows for ready-made supports – they can also supply willow rods for weaving. The ‘rusty’ obelisks in Muntons’ range – pyramids or cylindrical columns – wouldn’t look out of place in a grand herbaceous border or within a melee of cottage garden perennials.
However beautiful the obelisk, it would take a strong-willed gardener to resist the urge to plant a colourful climber at its base. Unless the architectural qualities of the obelisk itself are the very essence of the design, why not use it to support something attractive that will flower at a higher level?
The choice of climber is key – something too vigorous, like a rampant rambling rose, will soon outgrow the obelisk, even if it’s as tall as 2.5m. It’s also nice to glimpse a hint of obelisk through the climber – if the support is completely hidden beneath thick layers of foliage, the overall effect can look a little odd, especially if the climber mushrooms outwards at the top, as they sometimes do.
Smaller climbing roses are ideal. Many of the English Roses from David Austin can be grown as shrubs or small climbers and would lend themselves to this. Or try a ‘miniature’ rambler such as pretty ‘Open Arms’ with flowers in pale shell-pink, or ‘Warm Welcome’ in hot orange.
Rosa ‘Rambling Rosie’ – A 2.5m tall with clusters of small crimson flowers, this rambler would look perfect on a stately metal obelisk. It’s the rose used to great effect in the red-themed ‘Lavinia Walk’ at Cholmondeley Castle in Cheshire.
Rosa ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ – One of David Austin’s perennially popular varieties, ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ is a short, 2.5m tall climber bearing glowing pink flowers all summer.
Rosa ‘Ghislaine de Feligonde’ – A short rambling rose reaching 2.4m with apricot-peach flowers turning cream coloured as they mature and fade.
Rosa ‘Peach Melba’ – Rose of the Year in 2023, ‘Peach Melba’ reaches 2m tall so just right for an obelisk, and its stunning flowers in peach and pink will appear from June to the end of summer.
Perhaps the best choice for refined obelisk scaling is clematis, however, especially since many have such a long flowering period. Clematis ‘Prince Charles’, for example, will produce its blue-mauve blooms from June to the end of August, while magenta-red ‘Madame Julia Correvon’ will flower freely from July to September. It’s just one of the shorter, more compact clematis you’ll find in the Viticella group.
Clematis ‘Olympia’ – One of Raymond Evison’s Boulevard clematis, bred to be compact enough to grow in pots, and also ideal for an obelisk, with lovely mauve-purple flowers.
Clematis ‘Warszawska Nike’ – Velvety purply-red flowers on a clematis that grows to around 2m tall.
Clematis ‘Fujimusume’ – Robust and compact, reaching just 1.5m tall, and bearing pale blue-mauve flowers in early summer. After the flowers have faded, you’ll have the bonus of golden seedheads.
Clematis ‘Arabella’ – This cultivar is more of a scrambler than a climber, but if you plant it in the middle of an obelisk, that will offer the perfect support for it to form a more upright plant. Lovely small purple-blue flowers.
Annual climbers are another good option. Most will quickly clothe an obelisk within their short growing season but won’t have time to overgrow it. For a border that’s planted for early-summer interest, sweet peas might be the best choice, but if something that looks good later in summer is required (sweet peas are usually starting to die off and look straggly by August), choose more exotic ipomoeas, thunbergias or rhodochiton. They need a spring sowing or can sometimes be bought as plug plants. Cottage gardeners could grow a pretty runner bean such as peach-flowered ‘Aurora’ or red and white ‘St George’, or even let a decorative squash scramble up the support.
For more obelisk ideas, take a look at our Buyers Guide featuring 12 great options in a range of different materials from steel to stone.
