This jasmine plant fell over and I'm trying to figure out how to save it. It looks like there is a fan trellis that it was attached to, which was tied to the house(?). I didn't plant it, but have been in the house for about 8 years and never really knew how it was standing up like it was. It had been about 7-8ft tall.
Does anyone have suggestions on how I can save it? It's almost too heavy to pick up, and even if I could the support is broken. The two options I can think of are:
- Keep cutting it back until I can lift it and support it with in a new trellis
- Cut it way back and put in a new trellis to train it up.
Appreciate any suggestions.
by Strlck
5 Comments
You wouldn’t kill this thing if you tried. Cut it back aggressively to make it manageable then tie it onto a new trellis. It will bounce back like nothing ever happened.
you need to spend the excruciating amount of time it takes to train it so it doesn’t end up looking like spaghetti. It also doesn’t really die back in most winters, so it starts growing early in the season and you can cut it back and just let it regrow.
Cut it way back to the main trunks, install a heavy-duty anchored trellis (not the flimsy wood ones), and it’ll explode with new, healthy growth by next season!
You can make a T bar to prop it up half way. Putting some screw eyes in where you know you have solid timber under the facia. Look for the nail heads. Then you can slowly tension with wire or strong cord and keep shoving the t bar up. Might need a couple of T bars to get it wedged back into position. Use a bit of hose pipe where it runs around the stems. Just take it slowly and do it in rotation.
Predrill the facia board so it doesn’t split.
Personally, Id go with what the others have said though and remove a good proportion of the younger growth. Taking it right back to a basic framework. Possibly removing 100% of the greenery. Just keep going until you have a neat basic structure.
I’d go with cutting it back first, those vines get top-heavy fast and trying to lift it as-is usually just causes more breakage. Once you reduce the weight, you can stand it back up and put in a sturdier trellis (anchored better than before), then slowly retrain the growth. Jasmine is pretty forgiving, so even a hard prune usually bounces back fine.