Improved Devices for Supporting Plants.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 10th May, 1898-Accepted, 2nd July, 1898
Improved Devices for Supporting Plants.
I, ERNEST HAVELOCK HENLY, of Calne, Wiltshire, Solicitor, do hereby declare
the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to improved means to be used in the support or training of
climbing, creeping and other plants, the invention being designed to provide
simple and inexpensive means of enabling clinging plants to secure themselves at
short intervals to means of support whereby they will grow gracefully and accord-
ing to their natural bent and will be prevented from growing into a tangled and
unsightly mass, and of enabling such and other plants to be tied to regularly and
systematically spaced means of support, whereby the beauty of their appearance
will be enhanced as will also the likelihood of the fertilization and fructification
of their flowers be increased.
The improved devices are equally suitable for gardens or open culture, or for
wall culture or for pot culture, or for vineries and hothouse and greenhouse culture.
Essentially, the improved device consists of a metal or other suitable rod, bar
or the like suitable for insertion into the mould or for connection to suitable sup-
ports and formed or provided with series of regularly spaced or systematically
arranged projecting arms serving for the plants to cling to or to be tied to, and
which may occupy either relatively fixed or relatively adjustable positions. The
device may be made of a great variety of forms according to its intended use,
whether for open garden, wall or pot culture, or otherwise as above referred to,
and examples of which are represented on the accompanying drawings.
In Fig. 1, the device is represented as consisting of a single straight support, a,
of wrought or cast metal having laterally projecting branches, a, welded or cast
with the upright on different sides alternately and spaced equidistant apart. In
Fig. 2, a like arrangement is shown for pot culture. In Figs. 3, and 4, a like
arrangement is represented, excepting that the ends of the branches, a¹, are shown
upturned at 2, to prevent the " ties of the plant from being blown off in exposed
positions. Figs. 5, and 6, represent front and side views of a similarly branched
rod to that represented in Fig. 1, but show the same bent into an arched formation
with both its ends inserted into the ground.
As the uprights, a, may be made of any required or convenient length, so also
may the branches, a¹, be made of any desired or convenient length.
Fig. 7, represents a like arrangement to that of Fig. 1, but wherein the
branches, a, are made of an extended length, suitable for wall culture, and the
ends of which extended arms may be screw-threaded and united by screw eyes b
or the like, so that by placing two or more of such branched supports, a, a, in
position and connecting the adjacent ends of their branches, a', by such screw
eyes, a row of such supports can be erected in a few minutes and as readily dis-
connected.
Figs. 8-9, and 10-11, respectively represent arrangements of the branched
supports suitable for training creepers in pots; that of Figs. 8 and 9, being suit-
able for training a plant over the top of the pot, and that of Figs. 10 and 11,

page_text: being suitable for training a plant over the sides of the pot. Each such support
has a peg or pin, a³, adapted to be inserted into the mould, and, in the case of the
device overhanging the pot, may be fitted with a strut, a, serving to keep the sup-
port, a, at the desired angle and distance from the pot sides.
-
In lieu of the branches, a', occupying relatively fixed positions, as in Figs. 1
to 11, they may occupy relatively adjustable positions, and this may be effected,
either (vide Fig. 12,) by forming the branches with eyes, a³, and threading the
same onto the rods, a, and securing the same at any desired position thereon by
screw bolts, c, or the like; or (vide Fig. 13,) by slotting the rods lengthwise, as
at a, and passing the branches through such slots and securing them in the
desired position by screw nuts, a', or the like, and such rods may be flat, or may
be four-sided so that the branches may project from all sides.
The branched rods may also be used in vineries, hot houses, conservatories and
the like as roof supports to the branches of plants, the ends of the rods being suit-
ably supported by the structure of the vinery or other plant house.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:
A device for supporting or training climbing, creeping or other plants, con-
sisting of a rod, bar or the like adapted for insertion into the mould or for connec-
tion to suitable supports and formed or provided with series of regularly spaced
or systematically arranged projecting arms which may occupy either relatively
fixed or relatively adjustable positions and serve for the plants to cling to or to
be tied to, as set forth.
D
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1 ,
P
30
1000
DAY, DAVIES & HUNT,
Chartered Patent Agents, 321, High Holborn, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.