5 b, slightly warmer than you maybe? i have found over 3 years first week june is best for most blooms at one time. clems are blooming from mid april to end of growing season, sometimes that is mid nov here, but first week june is a great viewing time.
i am def going to do this barring any unforeseen obstacles. will have one or two days a open house outside in garden. hope i will get to meet you!
what i will now do differently in my garden
That sounds like fun...I admire all your pics.plus your good advice..love how you taught us to make those collars for our clems..plus I did other plants thay way too!!!
Above I said about using peroxide,learned that from my aunt...I even use listerene,when I'm out of peroxide!hate bugs...:(
any recommendations on what type of clems would do well in zone 8B? I'm about 65 miles SW of Houston TX and it's hot! I have a pergola and arbor with roses on them and would like to add clems to climb with them. Thanks for any ideas!
Deb
dstarr, here ya go. This is the list I compiled with the help of many lovely DG'ers when I began my clem addiction. I'm 8B as well, in Baton Rouge, LA. My best friend lives in Baytown, and I can tell you we get the EXACT same weather a day apart. All of the ones on the list were recommended for our zone. If you see an "X" in the column titled "Planted by BlissfulGarden" then it's already in my garden and doing well.
http://www.eveysblissfulgarden.com/clematis/PlantingSuggestions.htm
Good luck!
Evey =)
Awesome! Thanks Evey! I did most of my "growing up" in Baytown - my mom still there! I'm in Sealy TX. Baytown has gotten more rain than we have this year but the clems will get all the water they need! hah!
Deb
where us a good place to order clems from? They're not easy to find even in Houston!
best size plants and amazing first year results is silver star vinery website. great selection and good size plants, brushwood gardenvines. both very reliable, good customer service and reviews.
not sure if they are shipping now or you have to wait a few weeks till it cools off.
Also check Garden Crossings and Joy Creek for good sized, nice plants. Both Sharkey and I have also had good luck with liner-sized plants from Donahue's, but they take a bit more care as they are so small when you get them. If you plan on planting a lot of clems this year, you might want to try a few from each vendor so you can see the differences in starting size and growth.
This message was edited Aug 9, 2009 1:59 PM
CG, are you going to plant into the fall this year since we are having a somewhat "mild" summer? What about those baby Omoshiros and Parasols? Have they been planted out yet? I believe you mentioned somewhere earlier on that you did not have as good as success when planting in the fall, while our warmer zone friends like it as well or even better.
punkysmawma..hello there. hot enough for you today? gggrrrrrr. our thermometer hit 90 and then started dropping back into the 80s. too much after all our fab weather since april.
anyway i usually don't plant after june 15, unless i get seduced into a sale or late summer ordering for fallplanting. i have always had better results with spring planting.
this year i bought come clems on my trip out west to see the clem gardens. bought some out there at joy creek and had some shipped too from ssv. i was so inspired by some of the displays and wanted to get a jump on next year. these plants are growing so well, for being planted mid july, guess it is a combo of the soil i am mixing and the great weather we have had.
so i maybe planting in mid to late sept if weather is nice and we are not feeling like early frosts.
i just recently moved some oak leave hydrangeas from behind a low boxwood hedge in a very visible spot and then had my helper dig 11 clem holes in the area. it is nice and sunny and i guess i started a new garden, even tho it is really an extension of another one. i am holding some clems for these holes in gallons, so i will def be planting a bit.
will plant those out later this summer (mid sept), but may have some spots left for spring plants. depends on what i can buy in sept from you know who.
i did so much pruning mud july and some even later that , so weather cooperating i think it will be nice end of sept out there and that may keep me inspired.
the baby omoshiros and parasols are still quite small. i actually am going to take them out of the large decorative containers they are in and put them in a different soil in one gallon pots with some other needy clems in my triage holding area. they were pinched back twice, and not are just stuck on hold. the containers may be in too much shade, who knows. but they were embryos as sharkey so aptly put it.
i was lucky to get a larger omoshiro later in the season and it is establishing well and should do well bloom wise next year.
what's going on with your clems, neighbor?
I put in around 53 this year. Most all SSV, 12 liners (to include the 2 Omoshiros & 2 Parasols still in pots) and a couple HomeDepot rescue plants, one of them MultiBlue (it was blooming) to put with an existing MultiBlue and the other one I hope is Ville de Lyon. Ordered a few from SSV early on, Rebecca being the star, and then really got hooked. My Niobe and Westerplatte were nice roots but bloomed just so so. Hope they are doing good things underground and are waiting for their official debut next year, Same with Piilu. My existing Avant Garde was really pretty so I ordered another one of those. Find that I am really loving the viticellas (ordered Little Nell and 2 Minuet about a month ago) and wish I had realized just how much as I would have ordered more of them and the integrifolias and skipped the liners of the others! I did just order Juuli and Savannah so that will be fun to see what they do. Have Pagoda, Semu, Wisely, Margaret Hunt, PPE and Rhapsody with some big buds on them. Am excited to see if Rhapsody is as blue for me as others have mentioned theirs is. See it is a group 2-3?? Betty Corning is coming along well, have her planted with Perle de Azure on a large, sturdy arbor. Other side of arbor planted with VDL and Minuet, all four are SSV plants so am hoping for a nice show next summer. Moved an existing Patricia Ann Fretwell and Ruutel they other day as well as the big existing MultiBlue. I put Guernsey Cream in this spring with an existing Blue Light but am now thinking on moving both to better locations after seeing the post of the Blue Light someone posted that was absolutely gorgeous! Always something going on with the clems, but now I feel I am better prepared to make the right plants selections and choose better locations for them than before! When does Deb at SSV open up again....:-)
Oh, how could I forget the Madame Julia C's? One is planted Etoile V, the other with viticella Blue Belle. Have Blue Belle planted in another area a Margaret Hunt. Prince Charles from SSV was also a star, wanted another one but she was out. Ordered another from JoyCreek but it has not come along very well. Have them planted on either end of a fence with a couple Duchess of Albany's (they were the liners, but coming along very nicely) in between. Planted 2 Rouge Cardinals on either side of Minuet in the corner of a fence facing road, hopefully it will make a nice display. Another combo I think others have planted as well is Blue Angel and EV. They were also planted early on so hopefully will be showy next year. Many more out there..oh dear..
Thanks, CG and blissfulgarden for the information. I love this place! Dave's is a truly special community, with everyone being so helpful and nice. Sure makes it easy to get questions answered quickly - no matter which plants you're asking about! Keep up the great work and good luck with your clems. I'll update when I decide which/how and soforth!
Deb
CG-
After going out and REALLY pruning my clems it occurred to me that maybe, as long as I was on this butchering kick...I should just dig up the poor babies and make a new bed for them-with rotted horse manure and chipped gravel. Don't have an auger, but a small tiller which would really shake things up. Is this a good time for such drama or should I wait? Thanks for all your great help! Susan
dstarr, it's my pleasure to help. I agree, DG is a special place full of wonderful people. It seems everyone works on the "pay it forward" principle... when we start with a plant, we ask for help. After we have some experience, we provide the help. It's a good system!
skeeler, i would probably move plants right now only with caution. if you can keep them really really watered an dyou know they are in a location where they will not flourish it is do-able. but if care will not be consistently perfect and the move needed, i would wait till it cools a bit or even next march while still dormant.
i have dug a few up and potted them in 3 gallon pots, for special care. these were new ones form the spring that just were not cutting it where i had located them.
what is the main motivation, for better soil? more sun? better structure for climbing? give a bit more detail , but waiting till sept and the heat wave is behind us might be better.
if they are stuck in unammended clay soil and not doing well, and haven't been in the ground that long they probably do need to be moved ...and can be easily re located.
give us more detail. like to problem solve for sure with clems! pic too of existing location and planned?
CG-
Thanks for taking the time to help me out. My motivation is for better soil. I think the location is OK. After I pruned them, I worked some rotted horse manure into the area and shall continue to water it. Will have to postpone making a new bed for them (am going into the hospital on the 20th-shouldn't be too big a deal!) Think a March transplant is going to be fine. Hubby will keep watering for me while I am on the mend. Thanks again! S
sounds like a great plan. march better for moving plants that have been in for awhile here in our area. ocnsider a ring of sweet potatoe size rocks in a circle around the area at the base of the plant, maybe 18 inches diameter, then build the enriched soil, manure, compost mixture up to the top if the rocks. everyone has rocks around like this so it is not extra work and the fastest way to get the most from the ingredients.
good luck with your hospital visit and keep us posted on everyones progress!
CG-Thanx again for your great advise and encouragement. The Clems and I shall be just fine. Be back later. Susan
CG, I know I am a bit slow, but what is the purpose of the rocks. Is it to keep mulch off the base of the plant? Thanks, again!
no the opposite, to build up the enriched amended soil soil around the base of the plant. helps keep erosion and watering from moving that away from the plant. rocks are a quick way to do it and hold good up the soil around the clem. i use plastic collars on most of my newly planted and young clems. even old ones.
the rocks are a quick and easy way to do it in the garden.
have you ever had the crown (root ) of a clem start showing? or seen watering move your compost away from the clem to who knows where? nearby shrub? lawn?
Large broken pots also work well to keep compost in place. I've done it for the last 18 years.
good idea pirl. i use the top 3 inches cut off from a 3 or 5 gallon nursery pot...i have it round most of my clems. has really helped me with the clems, if i lose one, i know right where to look for it!!
i got the idea out of desparation as i am a hard waterer and it seemed like i couldn't retain the goodies where they belonged. recently i saw some photos of a clem garden in finland and they were all in ""collars as i call them.
Have you ever used a copper collar? We have such a terrible problem with slugs and snails, and copper seems to repel them.
Is it too late now to hard prune a type 3 clem ?
Mary
where dO u get the copper collar or what do u make them
out of?
My nursey pot tops help keep slugs off
have Never seen copper.
Re hard pruning
I think too late in your zone. Right now I would clean up dead dry vines to a few
feet from ground, and let plant cycle itself as it wants.
Mine are back up with vigor from
July pruning and will rebloom in Sept.
I hard pruned alot of mine and see they are gonna bloom before the snow flies..sure will do it again next yesr..thanks for the advice Guru..
Kathy and I are going to plan a trip there for your garden walk next Spring...plus we have a friend that lives in Ohio..should be fun..
Quick update: Got out of the hospital on Monday and yesterday ventured out to the gardens to check things out. Each of my clems which I had pruned hard two weeks ago was sprouting new growth. Hubby had kept them damp and they are on their way to a happier fall season. Shall get out today with some miracle-gro. Thanks for your help! Susan
Did any rebloom yet???2 of mine did,and looks like the others are!
Need to bump this up so it does'nt get lost...lots of GOOD info here!!
Glad you bumped, Demstratt. Was just out looking at the clems -- Etoile Violette and Blue Angel have lots of buds for rebloom. Chopped EV to the ground in July; Blue Angel just to below the first flush of blooms. I chopped another Blue Angel to the ground, and it's having a harder time rebounding, as it's shaded out by other plants at the base. Others I hard pruned have good growth, but no buds, including Margaret Hunt, both my PPEs, and Venosa Violacea. The integrifolias, of course, have done great after being whacked to the ground. They're all reblooming on lots of new stems. It's wonderful to have these blooms to look forward to, just when everything else in the garden is tuckered out.
Noticed two buds this morning. Keeping my fingers crossed. Do you all mulch after the first killing frost? Susan