Re: Future trends?--clematis

Hi Bill,

Thanks for these tips. I will try the compost. I used all I had in amending a large bed. What can I buy bagged at the store? Humus? Humus and cow manure? I can get llama manure from a nearby farm. It's been offered free but I haven't tried it yet. Maybe at the end of the season?

You've confirmed something I wondered about -- weeding causing problems. I noticed this in previous years as well but thought it must be a coincidence of timing, couldn't see how weeding would be a problem -- the clematis roots are deeper than the weed roots around them, and the base stems still have shade afterward in most cases. I thought maybe voles were eating the roots after I loosened the soil. One clematis even decided to give up on the stems it had grown already and grew nothing this year subsequent to my weeding =gently= around it.

On the other hand, I cleared out an weedy out-of-the-way bed entirely, giving up on two clematis that were apparently not going to show up. I even took their trellis away. To make a long story short, I had to put the trellis back. A couple weeks later I found them both crawling along the bare dirt among new weeds in this neglected garden. These two happen to be Ville de Lyon and Comtesse de Bouchard, and they are looking quite happy right now. So this would be a garden that doesn't comform to your 100% results.

What do you think about training on metal wire loosely spiraled up a post? I'm suspicious some clematis do not like the metal. I have several different types of trellises -- I like old-fashioned straight wood trellising attached to a building, or tuteurs, or arbors for the clematis. A new vine combo I like is C.v. Venosa Violacea growing with Ampelopsis 'Elegans' on an arbor.

Well, it's a relief to know I'm not imagining that some of my clematis do =not= want to be weeded around in the spring.

Thanks again,
Alyce Elliott
Northern New York Zone 4

At 02:42 PM 7/25/2006, you wrote:
I don't have quite 50, Alyce, but I grow a lot of them. Two things I learned
this year:
1. An application of compost at the base as they start to grow in the spring
makes a HUGE difference! I had great growth and lots of bloom this year, the
first time I had enough compost to do this.
2. Do not weed anywhere near them until well after bloom. Every place I
weeded I apparently disturbed the roots just enough to cause wilt. This was 100%
true. The ones I did not weed around did fine, the ones I weeded around
wilted.
Bill Lee

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