DATE: Sunday, August 10, 1997               TAG: 9708090034

SECTION: HOME                    PAGE: G3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ROBERT STIFFLER, GARDENING COLUMNIST 

                                            LENGTH:   46 lines

BOTANICAL GARDEN TESTS CAGES TO KEEP VOLES FROM DESTROYING CAMELLIAS

AFTER THE NORFOLK Botanical Garden lost 14 of its prized camellias, Curator Kunso Kim decided something had to be done. Even then, two more plants were wilting.

This happened just after the Hofheimer Camellia Garden was named a National Collection by the North American Plant Collections Consortium. It is the only camellia garden so designated on the East Coast, and only the second in the nation.

Garden staff had tried using Ramik, a rat and mouse poison, to halt the spread of the little varmints. That helped, but Kim still saw evidence that voles were crawling up the trunks of camellias and gnawing off limbs. Something had to be done.

Not only did the camellia roots need protection but also the trunks.

Kim devised a wire cage made from very small mesh hardware cloth, often sold as ``chicken wire,'' and bent it into a box shape. It had a bottom, sides and a top. Then a curved section, like the neck of a bottle, extends about half a foot up the trunk of the camellia.

Six weeks ago, volunteers were requested to come help ``cage the camellias.'' The plants were carefully dug, laid down and the ``vole cage'' wrapped around the root ball and trunk. Then the camellias were replanted.

Kim hopes this will keep voles out of the root zone of the camellias and prevent them from climbing the trunks.

Many gardeners notice elevated runs in their gardens caused by moles and blame moles for killing plants. Moles, however, primarily eat grubs. But the moles' tunnels provide a hidden highway for voles to run through and eat the roots of woody plants.

Voles have become a nationwide problem and now thrive in most climates of the United States. They particularly attack fruit trees, bulbs, nandinas, fatsia, azaleas, camellias and hostas. It now appears they're like deer. They'll eat almost anything if they're hungry enough.

Time will tell whether Kunso Kim's ultimate vole control will work. Stay tuned. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

ROBERT STIFFLER

Curator Kunso Kim shows the wire cage he designed to protect the

Norfolk Botanical Garden's prized camellia collection from attacks

by voles.

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