After marvelling at how quickly a star jasmine had started to grow up my wall over the summer and autumn (moved home in June), last week I was suddenly met with the horror of the bottom 4/5ths having been eaten by caterpillars. I removed the caterpillars, but it now only has the top shoots in leaf and the rest is skeletal.
Is anything to be done? Chopping to the base and hoping for new shoots? Or is this a sign it will happen again and I should chose a different evergreen - weep - climber?