Clematis Cages

The Joy Creek Nursery hillside collection of Clematis is not the easiest or most preferable environment for the Clematis we grow. The plants there have to hold up to a hot, southern exposure, occasional spring hail storms, overhead watering and summer drought. Despite these obstacles, we have been pleased with the performance of most of the members of the collection.Many of them have performed beyond expectation and taught us valuable lessons about the resilience of this versatile genus.

There is, however, one area on the hillside that has refused to flourish. At first we thought it was the fault of the plants themselves, mostly newer cultivars from Poland. On closer examination, we began to realize that this particular section was repeatedly undermined by moles. Last year, our gardener Manuel decided to build cages to protect the roots of a few of the plants. His efforts paid off. This spring, the plants he protected survived; those that he did not protect, perished. This year he built more cages and now the entire row should give us a good show. The first photo shows the tunnel system of the moles. The second shows the cage itself set into the hole before planting. We will report more on the success or failure of this technique in the coming year.

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Photos: Joy Creek Photo Archive © all rights reserved