Cardinals Built a Nest in Our Clematis. Here’s What We Learned From It.
By Diane & Larry | Scroll Trellis Garden Journal
One of my earliest clematis, Clematis 'Candida' and three Scroll Trellis units created something Larry and I never planned.
This was probably only the second clematis I had ever grown.
Larry and I were still experimenting with Scroll Trellis, too. In 2011, we planted Clematis 'Candida' beneath our deck in Minnesota and installed three of our narrow trellis units near one another in the shape of a traditional wood trellis.
Partly, we wanted to see what would happen as a clematis grew across multiple narrow supports.
And partly, we hoped that if gardeners saw they could combine several units, maybe we'd sell more trellises.
Sometimes product development is very sophisticated. Sometimes it's, "Maybe this will work, and hopefully we'll sell more."
July 2011: The clematis in its first year, beginning to climb three separate Scroll Trellis units. We were experimenting with combining narrow trellises to see how the plant would fill the space.
There was something else I didn't know at the time.
I was so new to growing clematis that I didn't even know there were pruning groups.
So I never pruned it.
Years later, we discovered something hidden inside.
We Found a Nest Inside the Clematis
By then, the clematis had become a substantial mass of older stems and newer growth. Growth from two of the three trellises had begun to come together, and tucked well inside it was a bird's nest.
From the outside, it was remarkably well hidden. Even knowing where the nest was, you had to look through layers of clematis growth to find it.
First, we found eggs.
Then there were babies.
And before long, those tiny nestlings were getting considerably bigger.
The nest belonged to a pair of Northern Cardinals. Whenever we got too close, Mom and Dad appeared nearby, chirping loudly and making it very clear that we were unwelcome visitors.
The location itself was interesting. The clematis grew against our house and beneath our deck. The nest was elevated above the ground, which was particularly fortunate in our yard because we had two dogs. And since our mature climbing plant had never been pruned the growth from neighboring trellises beginning to overlap.
And within that dense vine growth, a bird built a nest and successfully raised its young.
That pattern fits with broader wildlife-gardening guidance: dense vegetation and vine tangles can provide nesting sites and cover for some birds, and clematis is among the vigorous climbers that can contribute this kind of garden structure. And we were lucky to enjoy it in our yard.
What I Didn't Know About Pruning
I now know this was a Group 2 clematis.
Group 2 clematis normally aren't cut to the ground every year. Their early flowers develop on shoots arising from the previous year's growth, so pruning generally retains an older woody framework while removing dead or weak growth and selectively cutting stems back to healthy buds.
But that wasn't what I was doing.
I wasn't deliberately preserving old stems for flowers or wildlife. I simply didn't know I was supposed to manage the plant.
So year after year, older stems remained while new growth worked its way through them. Eventually, the clematis became much thicker than it likely would have been with regular selective pruning.
I wouldn't recommend leaving a Group 2 clematis completely unpruned simply because that's what I did. Proper pruning can help manage the plant while retaining the older framework needed for its early flowers.
But the experience did give me another reason to look before I prune.
A mature climbing plant may be supporting more than we realize. If you find an active bird nest containing eggs or young, leave it and the surrounding vegetation undisturbed until nesting has ended. Many native migratory birds in the United States are federally protected.
The Same Clematis, Later That Year
There's another part of this story that the nesting photographs don't show.
At the time the birds were nesting, the clematis had only begun its seasonal growth and flowering. That's why the photographs show so many older brown stems mixed with the new foliage.
Later that same year, those stems were largely hidden beneath new growth and flowers.
This was the same clematis:
The contrast still fascinates me.
What looked brown and tangled early in the season became a wall of green foliage and white flowers later.
And underneath it all were the same three narrow trellises we had installed years earlier.
What Three Narrow Trellises Eventually Became
When Larry and I put those three trellises on the house, we were thinking about a climbing plant.
We were also thinking about our little business and whether showing gardeners that they could combine multiple units might entice others to try it too.
We certainly weren't thinking about birds.
Looking back at the first-year photograph now, what strikes me is how clearly you can see each individual trellis.
They're narrow. They're separate. And the young clematis is just beginning to climb them.
Years later, you could barely see the trellises at all.
The supports hadn't become wider. The plant had.
As the clematis matured, new growth extended beyond the four-inch-wide supports and intertwined with growth from the neighboring trellises. The individual supports became the framework underneath something much larger.
And somewhere along the way, the structure Larry designed to support a climbing plant became part of something neither of us had planned.
The trellis provided the framework. The plant created the garden.
And the birds made it home.
Author's Note
I know quite a bit more about clematis today than I did when I planted this one in 2011. That learning process eventually became an important part of Scroll Trellis: understanding how climbing plants actually climb and designing supports around that biology.
Scroll Trellis uses narrow mesh with frequent attachment points for climbing plants such as clematis and is designed for vertical spaces where conventional wide trellises often don't fit.
Sources
Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Group 2 clematis pruning guidance. Group 2 pruning retains an older framework because early flowers occur on shoots developing from the previous year's growth.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology Dense vegetation, including vines, can provide nesting, perching and escape cover for some birds.
RHS / NC State Extension RHS specifically includes vigorous clematis among climbers useful in nesting gardens, while NC State notes that birds may nest in clematis vines. That's strong enough to support our carefully qualified statement without claiming clematis is uniquely valuable wildlife habitat.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Guidance regarding protected birds and active nests containing eggs or young under federal law.