A few pics from a beginner

I took this today of Roguchi. It is a Brushwood liner planted in a pot with Princess Diana from SSV. Although it has a lot of blooms right now, the plant does not look good. Maybe it just needs a yr to grow. I was hoping it would bloom at the same time as the Princess, but no such luck this year.
I'm beginning to see that the clems with the larger blooms are going to be my favorites.
BTW, can you tell I have gotten over my shyness about posting photos? I think I may be going overboard now, but this is kinda fun to have someone to share them with.

Sharkey:

I just got Rooguchi from SSV and I picked up 2 clems from Dave on Friday. Great guy, we meet up and was able to talk for a while. I'm planing to go out to his place and play with the hummers around the end of the month. Can't wait to go and see all of his plants and birds...

You are not going overboard. Most of us live for pictures. So keep posting away. I'm really enjoying seeing your plants.

Janet

Your Rooguchi should do much better than mine is doing right now. Which ones did you buy from Dave? I would love to visit his GH and meet him, but that's obviously out of the question. That's no more likely to happen than my taking a trip to SSV, as I would love to do. Enjoy your visit.

Mine is very small right now and planted in planters so we will see how it does.

Yes excited to see hummers, Dave said they will even come up and sit by you and feed out of you hand. Too cool was my response....LOL

Janet

Sharkey, Trust me... you are not going overboard posting photos. It's fun to see small, young plants as it always fill me with excitement and anticipation.

i should say i got 2 regency clem from uncle green thumb this year and one of them outbloomed one i have had for 5 years. i love regency, and mine while it bloomed every year one or two blooms was in that category i call "hardy but not vigorous" meaning you can't kill it but that's about all........so i ordered regency form uncle gt. 2 of them. one did what regency likes to do, take a rest after planting, i am sure i will see it next year. the other one just took off and gave some nice blooms this year, quite a few of them. both are near the original one , but each of the three has it's won real estate so i will be able to really watch performance next year.

anyway, getting a great regency was unexpected and appreciated uncle gt. thanks.

if you are open in the early fall for business uncle gt, maybe i can come up and get some clems? do you post a variety available list?

I forgot that you both are in Ohio, CG. His clem page is on DG Marketplace. I just did a search for clematis there and found them. He also has other plants listed in another location, but I have to hurry to an appt right now. Glad you were as happy with his plants as I was.

based on if there any selections i do not have i would buy more definitley.

He said that he use to carry a larger variety, but the ones he does have are healthy and have well-developed roots.

I'm posting another photo of what was labeled Warsaw Nike. Can you help me verify that this really is correct? Or, do you think the plant is still too young to have blooms like the mature plant will have?

it looks like a warsaw nike, altho many shots show the bloom on warsaw to be darker. yours in full sun? warsaw should have more sepals, like 6, slightly overlappping not gappy at the base.
i would say wait for future blooms before drawing any conclusions it proabably is warsaw nike. i put a well rooted gallon one in one of my niobe displays a couple of months ago and it is not really growing yet, alto i have pinched it twice so it is doing the root thing i guess. i am not thinking i will see any blooms this year from it.

That's a great idea to pair with Niobe. I think they will look good together. I may do the same when I plant this fall. I've got to get very creative to keep finding good spots for these clems, however.
So many of these purple varieties look similar to me.

they do look similar in the beginning. good to look at rear of sepals too as sometimes there is a central bar on the reverse side that is part of the identity. and of course stamen and anther coloration. sepal placement as in gappy at base, or overlapping, well as number. sepal angle as in recurveing, curving, tulip shape, bell shape etcetc
shape of sepal sometimes key...as in end of sepal rounded or pointy...good to mark your plants, photograph and and label photos asa p after taking(, something am very behind on right now) and just study the flowers and then compare with cotw sometimes in the off season helps retention of detail.

The description in Donahue's pamphlet says that Warsaw Nike has a deep groove along the center, which I think this one has, but so do some other purples. However, it does not have overlapping sepals--at least not yet. The anthers appear to be a light greenish color.

You're right about labeling photos. I try to rename and date my digital photos as soon as I upload them to computer. I love taking lots of before/after photos to see progress. It's finally raining today, so I have more computer time, obviously.

Sharkey;,,

My Henryi's have done bloomed out now.. I might get a bloom or two later this fall again if it doesn't get to cold too early... Thats amazing that you get blooms on Henryi this far along in the season.. It could be that I had pruned those back before I sent them and they hadn't bloomed yet... Interesting... Glad to hear the Presidents are growing well also... I finely decided to take a break on the 4th and fool around with the camera and grab a few shots with the hummers... Heres a couple pictures of a few of my little monsters on a President bloom....

Dave

No. #2

No.#3

My dirty fingers got in the way so I cloned em out...^_^

Please enter at least one of those photos on the photography contest! They are all wonderful.

ugt(uncle green thumb) love those shot of the h bird on the clem. really nice. thanks for posting and sharing. i love h birds. last year we had some, this year not. is that a rufus hummingbird or an anna? i can never remember which is which!

Dave, these are fantastic! I also have a little "redneck" hummer friend. I absolutely love watching my hummers every day, but never seem to have my camera ready. I'm not sure I could capture a photo this good with my camera.

it is a great shot. not sure what the photo contest is, but you should enter it!

Dave's Garden photo contest: http://davesgarden.com/contest/

Sharkey, thanks so much for the info on clem watering and care. I've been on DG regularly, but I tend to be over in Roses most of the time. As my clems aren't doing a whole lot just yet, I don't really have much to post on them!

I think my biggest problem with the clems has been the severe weather we've been having. They all got "crispy" leaves from the heat. I had been told by Debbie at SSV that the biggest cause of death for clems was overwatering, so I think I was too timid in watering them. I have them all in raised areas, so I should have been more aggressive in keeping them moist instead of worrying about overwatering! I have only lost one (or at least, I think I've lost it), and it was the one with the smallest root system. Most of the ones I received, even from Donahue's, filled out their containers completely and took off with vine growth after I planted them... but one of the Donahue's liners that was in the crushed box had very few roots. All in all, considering the 110 degree weather and no rain, losing one out of fifty isn't bad at all. I actually had a few more with buds in the last few days, but we FINALLY got some heavy rains and they were all knocked off before the blooms fully opened. =( Hopefully I will see a few more this season, but as I planted with the future in mind, it's okay if they use this time to develop roots instead of showing flowers.

blissful losing one out of 50 is not bad at all. i would be at that rate i am sure. you have had some big learning variables with weather, retained bed hydration etc. the one you think you lost maybe back. always good to help young plant out by trimming some height when the plant is stressed from anything...being planted out, getting too dry, etc etc.

you can go by watering when the top 2 inches of soil seems dry to the finger.....i also have experienced over watering as an evil, but when plants are very young they need more water as the roots are not as deep as they will be. is your soil very sandy? clems love sandy well drained soil!

you are right too to not worry about buds and blooms, that will al be along if you get the plant off to a good start!

BG, one out of fifty "ain't bad" as we say in the South. Like I said before, we, as beginners, can't afford to get discouraged. My confidence level is a little higher now than before since I've seen so many pretty blooms. But, I'm still learning something new every day from these forums. My biggest problem is learning to pinch back, as Guru as mentioned in several threads. I've GOT to make myself do that today. It's hard to know what to do when you read in one place about danger of overwatering and in another place to keep new clems moist. We're finally getting rain every day this week--badly needed. (My neglected household chores needed it, also.)

I may be joining you on the Rose forum soon, as I'm considering planting a couple of what I call "old-fashioned," continuous blooming climbers on the front of the house. Jeanne recommends Sombreuil. I would devote all that space to clems, but it is facing west and I'm so afraid they would get entirely too much afternoon sun in the middle of our summers. I need some advice on that issue. I want to pull up the ugly shrubs that have been there 30 yrs and completely re-landscape the front.

I'm disappointed in a few climbers I planted last year and in severe weather, my porch swing has blown off the deck twice and broken two trellises so far this year holding the ones with the horrible thorns. I'm thinking of digging them up this fall and planting clems there. I will keep my 4th of July, as the red looks pretty with the clems nearby.

Among my failures was a Mrs. Chummie from Donahue's that died back a few weeks after planting. I ordered a mature Mrs. C from SSV and planted her right next to the liner in the same hole and she's doing great. Maybe the baby clem will re-appear later. Barbara H. still hasn't come back to life and I have a Belle of Woking that doesn't want to bloom, but it came to me as a liner anyway.

I think we both just have to be patient, put up with this heat wave a little longer, pray that we don't have a hurricane, and look forward to some gorgeous clems next spring!!

sharkey, gentle after bloom pruning is good when you are timid about harder pruning after blooming. plants do well in spite of us if they are off to a good start. there is only one time in my whole clemming history i gave pruned something, regardless of result and felt like i did it wrong. last year my 5 yr old pupura plena elegans looked very ratty and damaged too so i hard pruned it early in the season (maybe 6 to 8 weeks after it's spring hard prune, and it pouted and did not appear till this this spring. but aside from that expereince(i thought it would bounce right back), agressive deadheading ...removing the whole pedicle the booms were on and such only does good and you can usually see the benefit within days or weeks.
the ppe looks ratty again as blooms are waning. i am not hardpruning it this week, but will remove much of the blooming growth (again, an agressive deadhead) and see how it responds.

good luck with your roses project. they are greek to me!

Guru, I didn't know we were both typing a response the BG's thread at the same time. Wasn't trying to steal your first sentence. At least your grammar is better than mine.

I'm not afraid of pruning after blooming season or deadheading, as I have been doing that. I've been reluctant to pinch back when I plant a new clem (a mature one) as it starts to take off, as the SSV and Dave's vines do. I've seen you mention several times that you do that, but I wasn't sure how much you pinch.

I have two PPE's planted (both liners). Both have lots of growth, but no sign of blooms. I guess that's fine this year, though. One is planted with Prince Charles, which has already finished his blooming and has been partially pruned. I assume that it is not too late to prune clems and expect a second round of blooms before frost???Maybe next yr I can see the Prince and PPE blooming together.

Ever since you mentioned Negritianka in the other thread, I've been trying to decide where to plant one--IF I can find one. I hope Debbie re-stocks, but I'm also on the waiting list at Brushwood. I'm thinking of planting it behind my white iceberg rose and letting it mingle with it, since I have no more room for trellises in that flower bed. Also, the combo you mentioned, putting it with MJC, sounds beautiful. Do you think these would be okay in afternoon FL sun? I wish I knew someone in my zone that has tried to grow clems on the west side with no shade except a.m. I know to avoid the pink ones that tend to fade.

Sharkey, I think we're pretty much on our own down here, save for the southern advice from JeanneTx. I even wrote to every member listed on the ACS website who lives in Florida, Louisiana and Texas in hopes of some regional advice. All except one who responded was a newbie like us, and several suggested I come to Dave's Garden to talk with Jeanne! I think we're reaping the "best of the best" for advice from the lovely ladies and gents right here on this forum. =)

This message was edited Jul 8, 2009 4:06 PM

sharkey in the scenario you mention with a bigger plan just in and growth starts, pinch back one node down form the top, or two if it is a very vigorous vine. should stop pinching a month before flower buds will set up to bloom, if you want the plant to bloom as well as it can. with a brand new plant that is usually not the goal. but with a established plant do some spring pinching, but stop well before you expect to see flower buds forming.

i think negritana and mjc both like sun and do better with a good bit of sun. negritana wouldbe gorgeous with a white rose for sure.

just thinking of those clems makes me smile they are so good! glad you are having such hotter zone success and enjoyment of clems. what are you growing that is not hardy up here???

Are you referring to clems or other flowers? I'm sure I'm not growing any clems that are not hardy in Ohio. In fact, it's probably the other way around since they like harsh winters.

Hey don't forget about me! Hopefully I will be able to add to how clems do in the hot weather.
When I plant a clem in a more exposed area, I place a pot, rock or plate near by to shade the roots, along with the mulch of course. I water every 2-3 days. I bought a soil moisture indicator to check....easier than using my finger...I have a hard enough time keeping my nails clean! (that could be a thread on it's own)

what moisture indicator did you buy bananana? how deep do you measure it? i am interested in these too.

scrape nails on bar of ivory soap to lodge some soap under free edge before putting your gloves on, this keeps dirt out from under the nail (assuming your nails are not super long, this is for nails just out to end of finger or a litte longer)..really helps keep hands in better shape.

change gloves every hour or so while gardening and run thru washer with garden clothes nightly. that is what i do. we then measure our garden productivity as a "2 glove day" or a 4 glove day, etc. LOL

Funny how we measure gardening days! Ours is the number of "wounds du jour".

maybe i will switch to gloves du jour. can relate to the wounds and bug bites for sure.

A tremendous Wellington Thorn was the reason for the name. We ripped it out and it shredded our skin.

Thorns are awful. I started with buying thornless roses and somehow got sidetracked by the amazing beauty/vigor of those thorny ones.
The moisture meter is something like this, although I found mine for $10 at a local store.
http://www.unbeatablesale.com/bci16480.html?utm_source=nextag4&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=BCI16480&srccode=cii_9324560&cpncode=17-33780858-2
I will try the soap..now I use moisture cream which helps somewhat.
I am limited by the heat here, so when the 2 20oz water jugs are gone, it is time to go in.