 Clematis - Denise Hodgins
by Agnes Burroughs
Whether you say Clematis-Cle-matis-or ClemAtis-they surely are one of the most beautiful shrubby vines to have in your garden.
They do come in a wide selection of eye catching colors including white, pink, red, blue, purples, and now bi-colors as well. If your thumb is a shade off of green, the Jackmanii is one of the hardest to kill so perhaps start there.
Clematis grow best if their heads are in the sun, and their feet in the shade. This can be achieved by planting other perennials around the base, or placing a brick on top of the plant to keep it cool. When planting be sure to keep the top of the plant 1" below ground level, as this will form really strong roots all along the stem. Always mulch the soil to retain moisture, and use well rotted manure or compost in the planting hole, which should be 18-24 inches deep. Use water soluble fertilizer such as a 15-30-15 or vine food once a month. Never fertilize after August 15th, as you don't want a lot of new growth going into the freezing season, and you want the plant to go dormant.
There are 3 groups of clematis, but Denise has found that the best thing if you don't know what kind you have, is to just cut the plant back by 2/3 right after flowering.
Stagger the length of cutting from the ground, so you will have varying heights of flowers- 6"-12-18"-for a better show of blooms.
The 3 groups are Group A-Blue Bird and Montana-blooms on the previous years wood.
Group B-Nelly Moser-Vyvan Pennell-Blooms on new growth-so prune very early-first part of April.
Group C-Golden Clematis-Polish Spirit-In April remove old growth and prune 12"to 18" off the ground.
But as mentioned earlier, if in doubt prune back by 2/3 right after flowering. Water well after pruning, and fertilize a week later-too much attention all at once can shock the plant.
You can propagate clematis by laying a stem of the plant down-putting some soil on top, and it will shoot out new growth-detach from mother plant.
Clematis are fairly tough, but they sometimes get Clematis wilt which is a fungus--remove and destroy any infected growth-and hopefully it will recover. If it develops powdery mildew, this is generally due to a lack of air circulation around the plant. If it continues you can use a fungicide to help care for the unsightly leaves.
If slugs are about -use slug and snail bait to deter. If it is earwigs causing the plant grief, use dampened rolled up tubes of newspaper at night. In the morning, the tubes will be full of earwigs-simply drop them into a bucket of hot water, or do the Mexican Hat dance all over them-OOOH.
Tripods and obelisks are good supports for the clematis, but the plant must overwinter in the ground.
If Clematis is not your cup of tea, perhaps Boston Ivy which is green in summer and red in fall might appeal to you.
Then there is the Honeysuckle Dropmore Scarlet which has an orange-yellow heart.
Perhaps you would like some privacy really fast-apparently the Silverlace Vine is the answer-it grows more than 15' in one season and is covered with white flowers.
The climbing Hydrangea is becoming very popular, as it prefers the shade but you will need to add aluminum sulphate to the soil to keep her happy.
The Orange Trumpet Vine shoots runners below the ground, and is very invasive, so use caution when planting this vine.
The chocolate vine has burgundy-chocolatey colored flowers, and no it does not smell or taste like chocolate-oh well.
Lots of people talk about Wisteria --hard to grow--never flowers etc. Denise suggests to not water it, do not fertilize it, prune it very heavily and enjoy the foliage until it flowers in perhaps five years--Once it flowers, apparently it is worth the wait--Gardeners are patient folks-they have to be.(2010-05-30) |
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