JuliaJayne - Your Etoile Violette is scrumptious; A couple of pictures of it shows it as a really dark wine while your's looks more pink (which I like). Is the color in your picture pretty true, or is it maybe a little darker in real life? Have you posted a photo of General Sikorski?
Guru - You talk of dressing the clematis with more manure or compost, etc. when pruning back......I just cut my 3 Ville de Lyon all the way back to about 5 inches. I had someone else do it and that's a little shorter than I intended. Anyway, they don't look as if they could handle a higher soil line - should I scoop out some of the older topsoil and add fresher dressing? After all, that hasn't been done in 4 or 5 years.
The John Huxtable that I bought from SSV - maybe 4 weeks ago - is still just sitting there doing nothing. It did not have a very big root system, but looked healthy. I have done everything according to directions, but it simply isn't growing. I've fertilized it twice - maybe I should try the "miracle fertilizer"? I would like to see something happening before fall.
Thanks for any and all help.
Dathen
couple of questions?
Dathen, the color in the photos are pretty close, but it was bright. It's suppose to rain tomorrow, so I'll take photos again. Otherwise, I'll snip a few blooms and take a photo indoors. I find I get truer color when photographing the blooms indoors.
hi dathan. i would give the huxtable some time. not the worlds most vigorous clem and even 4 weeks ago might have been a transition for it. i would hold on more fertilizer for now. maybe pinch or sizzor off a little growth right now. i know that seems counter intuitive but it will help the plant. how much stem is there on it? good for you for pruning back your ville. i am trimimg my big one this year, not sure if i will hard prune now, but so good for the plant. on a ville that age, i would place a ring of potatoe size rocks in a circle around it and fill it with about an inch more of top dressing...that won't be too much and the plant will appreciate that, will keep it cooler and the rocks will hold the top dressing more securely thr rain and watering. looks nice too. what do you think? i personallly would not dig out soil and replace it.
send photo of the huxtable if you want. some do sit for a while when planted in summer...i have a huxtable planted fall 08 fromchalk hill sale, not blooms to date and slow starter . in time it will be good. you will have a better plant faster as ssv planted in spring or summer will already be better root than chalk hill fall planted root in our zone.
JuliaJayne, thank you - you are a sweetie!
Guru - I never thought of the rocks - I'll try that. I would send a picture of John, but theres really nothing there - about 5 leaves close to the ground, but at least they are still there ;) I really wasn't expecting a lot this year, although the Proetus has grown about 8 inches. I just want him to hold on until next spring. Probably looking at him 10 times a day isn't helping any. Thanks for your so much for your input.
Dathen
Dathen, I've had a lot of clems that sat doing nothing for a long time after planting. I assume they are probably putting on new roots and getting established. I've learned to like that, and now when the clems start growing too quickly, I pinch them back. If they want to keep growing... great, if they stall again, that's fine too. I pinched back Pink Champange three times since I bought it and noticed today that it has buds! I'm pinching it again before planting because I decided to save that one for a surprise for next year.
For some reason, all my new clems this year started growing soon after being planted. Never happened for me in previous years. The only thing that I did different was not to use any fertilizer right after planting. Now that they've had some time to settle in, I will give them a dose of root stimulating fertilizer, which I love using on all my new plants and transplants.
Clematis "John Huxtable" has been growing in my gardens for 4-5 years now and while his blooms are much more larger than "Huldine"..he is not as vigorous as "Huldine" in my opinion.He has done much better with each passing year and gets hard pruned 2-3 times during my growing season as I get 2-3 flushes from him with my long growing season..but in all he is a very beautiful clematis and I am glad he lives in my gardens...Jeanne
JuliaJayne - You give me hope. I will just stop with the worry and fertilizer and let him come to maturity on his own terms. Sort of like watching children grow - fretting over them, then all of a sudden they are THERE with the physical and mental spurts.
Jeanne - Yours is so pretty - I love that fresh, clean look.
I wanted to mention that my pic is mislabled as that IS Clematis "John Huxtable" growing with my climbing rose on my white arbor...thanks..Jeanne
I like that analogy, Dathen.
i like that analogy too dathen. you just can't judge too quickly. but pinch back has great power,even on small plants.
sometime when a clem disappears after planting,( i had one from ssv do this this year , clematis kamilla) if there is a one inch brown stem, i wait two weeks or three weeks or and then, if not resprouting, i cut the brown stem off flat to the ground level and it spurs the re sprout. fertilize and water the real estate as if the clem were there with it's peers. kamilla has not reappeared yet, but i know it will. a root does not die that quicky unless de hydrated seriously....
hope this helps, you may not even get regrowth till spring 2010. keep us posted on that ville de lyon too. we are in the same zone, not many of us and i love keeping up with everyone in our zone!!!!
Thanks, Guru. Husband keeps asking about the VdL, "Are you sure that was a good idea?" I'll let you know :)
Edited to say, Thank you too, JuliaJayne. I hadn't scrolled up enough to get yours at first.
This message was edited Jul 7, 2009 7:46 PM
dathen , my hubbie would probably say "they all look better cut back like that"
feed and water your vdl so you have the last laugh. and show us the outcome, the first year i did the big prune in july, i was fearful and then estatic when the shoots started coming up. you can recapture a bit of spring right now!!!!!!
you reallly get the pay off the next spring from this, alto the late summer pay off seems fine vs a spent, browning tired plant.
we need to get an ohio clemmers fest organized next summer??????
I'm already watching for new growth - but that's ok - I love the expectation stage.
We really should get the Ohioans together.
dathan , should we do that in off season or shoulder season or peak season? people hate to leave their gardens in peak season, no?
i agree we can have a zone 5 clem fest....
I can't go anywhere for sometime because of lung and rib(s) removal, but I'm finding it hard to want to leave my gardens this year. It starts with hundreds of daffs, goes on to iris, then daylilies (I'm running out every morning to see a new one open) - and now I'm checking the clems every morning too.
I was out very early this morning and thought I saw green on the VdL. It was so dark that I went back inside and got the maglite to check for sure since I can't get down to ground level easily. LOL - I'm still not sure - but I think so.
I don't know how the ones of you who have mega clematis ever manage to get away.
datahan, didn't know you had had that massive surgery. hope all progressing well.
it is hard to leave the clems mid april thru mid sept or oct, but when i do coming back is fun. i do have someone water them while i am gone so do not have that stress, and always fun to see the positive and negative changes when returning.
love checking plants in morning in fact heading outside to do that now!
Thanks, Guru. Yes, I'm doing well. As my niece said to me, "Auntie, you're in great shape for the shape you're in". I get no sympathy around here. LOL
Another question? I've put John H on a brick chimney - a wide one. I'm not sure if one is enough and I don't want another color on the brick; I'm thinking about putting Paul Farges with him just for more depth, texture, a different, smaller, bloom, etc. Do you all think that Paul would take over the spotlight? I've only seen pictures, not the real thing? Brushwood carries him and I've asked to be notified when he is back in stock.
Thanks
paul farges is a sprawler, vs a climber. it does climb eventually in a traversing kind of sprawly way. i have some up into some pines like 10 ft. but it does not attach, it needs to lay. and forcing it straight upwards does not work with a true sprawler.
so you are looking for fast foliage coverage and only white blooms? alba luxurians is the fasted growing white i have ever grown, being a vitacella, except for terniflora.
here is paul farges form my garden, blooming earlier this season. has stopped blooming now, but it will start again in a month or so. the bloom is lovely creamy white, almost pale yellow and it is larger than the bloom on terniflora (sweet autumn)
Aw shucks, and he is so handsome - but I do not want a sprawler. I decided not to plant anything more this year - I still have gardens that I need to spend a lot of time on before fall. It will give John H time to grow before next year. I checked out the alba luxurians and it is nice -I like the green tips. Thank you for your help, Guru. I really do appreciate it.
Dathen
my pleasure dathan. i am thinking i will have a garden open day in in first week r two of june next year and all the ohions and zone 5ers who are close may want to stop in for a bit and some clem talk?
i have several paul farges as i have layered and even done some cuttings before, today i moved one of them from an area with too much shade and no room to to sprawl really to a hillside that has sun and enough space. most of mine are far from the house on retaining walls or street guardrail. have one that has been able to traverse up a willow tree, not directly up.
anyway this one got moved to a hillside i have recently moved all my big herbaeous species types too, jouinana praecox, mrs robert b, heracafolia, wyvale, cote de azure. they wil fill in the hill side, which was bare except for some trees and it will be nice next year. they all moved well even tho i should have done it earlier in the spring.....
dathan, i will start a paul farges for you as it is not a registerd/royalty type clem, it is a species, no harm in propagating this. i love PF and it will be my pleasure to grow you one. it is an underutilized clem many creative ways to use it in the front of a border, bottom of a wall, over a wall, etc etc.