I have a summer jasmine planted in a border in my garden. It is freestanding (away from walls or fences) so needs its own support structure.
Until last winter the plant was grown on a tripod of stout tree stake like poles which allowed to to grow vigorously and form a bushy column of foliage, needing only the occasional trim to tidy it up. Last winters storms changed all this, the aging support poles were badly damaged and no longer supported the plant (rather the other way around!). it was time to replace the structure with something better.
In the spring i hard pruned the jasmine, removed the old supports (what was left of them) and installed a columnar metal obelisk like this:
http://www.greenfingers.com/product.asp?dept_id=200602&pf_id=LS8910DThis looked very pleasing and the jasmine soon covered it over the summer.
However recently there has been a problem. We suddenly started noticing the obelisk moving more than it should in the wind and on investigation found that the obelisk had come detached from its (seperate) legs, and once again the plant was holding up the support rather than the other way around.
It seems as if the plant itself was to blame, its vigour had actualy pushed the obelisk off its legs and there was/is no way of fixing it without cutting the plant down again. I have now temporarily staked the obelisk but I am now thinking about changing the support structure for something more substantial. Thing is i am not really sure what? Could anyone offer some suggestions or ideas please?
The plant is in quite a windy spot and is too old/mature to move.