Re: clematis troubles

My Dad is a vegetable gardener and swears by epsom salts for tomatos.  By
size and quality of his annual tomato crop, I wouldn't argue with him.
What's that got to do with clematis?  I have a couple of reference books
that say to fertilize clematis with tomato fertilizer.  (I do and it seems
to work.)  I'm reaching here, but I figure what's good for tomatos is
probably good for clematis.  In other words, I don't think it's the epsom
salts.

Since your clematis is probably too old to develop clematis wilt, my next
guess (and a wild one it is) is that one of your neighbours was spraying
their lawn with 2-4-D and it caught on the wind and drifted into your
garden.  

It happened to me last year. Fortunately it was was further along in the
year. Nothing died but I had some pretty sick plants.  I took me about 2
weeks to figure out what caused all the wilt.  Next time there is the smell
of 2-4-D in the air, I'll be out in the garden washing down foliage.

Good luck.  

Leslie
zone 3 southern Manitoba



At 01:04 PM 1999/04/24 -0500, you wrote:
>Last week I put a half cup of epsom salts around a shrub rose and watered
>it in, since I had read in a rose catalog that the magnesium in it
>enhances rose color. I have a 10 year old clematis planted fairly close
>to it ("Jackmanii") and not long after I noticed that the young spring
>shoots of the clematis have all withered. I can't tell if the plant is
>dead yet. Did the epsom salts have something to do with this? Or is there
>something else wrong? No frost here lately, so it isn't that. Any info
>will be appreciated...

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PERENNIALS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index