I have a Jackmanii growing from a container. It suffered from aphids last year but seemed to have perked up this year and seemed to be doing well....until today!! The plant has only one main stem and that was severed by the furniture movers. The best repair I could think of was to cut the damaged ends at an angle then set and bandage them together with peat moss and gauze. I watered the roots and the "graph" section with some diluted liquid kelp.
Will the repair work? Will the plant grow again from the roots? Can I root the cut end of the plant and save it? Where can I find info on how to do this? Please help. Thank you.
The furniture movers broke my clematis. Can it be saved?
rooting from the end i will not comment on, plenty of on line advice on rooting cuttings. if the stem was in bloom, probably not. if not in bloom, maybe will root from a middle piece following good practice cutting instructions.
re your plant, it will not only be back, it will be better. make sure the break is neatly cut, fertilize and water your plant. make sure it is in good quality , adequate quantity soil, composted on the top and you water it well when it dries out vs dribs and drabs daily.
this is always traumatic, but rarely does it not result in a better plant long term. it will encourage new shoots form the base, which is what you want. if new shoots are not appearing within a few weeks, fertilize again with a weak mixture of a liquid type fertiizer.
good luck. you will have a better . is there any reason you are not planting it out vs keeping it in a container?
Guru knows more than me I am sure -- I only have one Jackmanii and because did not know better-- after it blooms and the winter arrives... I pull it all off the trellis and chop it off at the ground. (I have done this for at least 4 years running.) The next year..come spring...it sends out shoots and by the summer the trellis is covered again. It blooms beautifully. So, I think that your clematis will be fine if you do what Guru says to do --if my vine lives through the rough treatment --your's will too.
It will be back and even better? I am soo glad to hear that. Thank you both for your responses.
Guru, the plant was put in a container 3 years ago because there were no other suitable spot for it then. And since I didn't know that it can be cut back, I couldn't bear to chop it off after it started climbing up the trellis :-P
Should I remove the bandage then?
if it is a break, or a serious wound, the bandage will not help. that said, a thick single clem stme can sometimes withstand wounds and still support the plant.
i would remove it and make a clean cut, carry on as above. there is anther vote of confidence above as to her hard pruning habit...note her word "shootS" vs "shoot" as singular. you want to develop shootS.
however, this is a personal decision. if you want to wait to spring to hard prune your type 3 jackmanii clematis, watch it closely as bandaged and if the vine is suporting the foliage and flowers you can wait till
it wanes or next spring.
personally, if it is a bad break, i would take the course of action for the future not the present, but i understand this is a personal and emotional decision, which is yours alone to make.
I will "bite the bullet" and remove the bandage tomorrow. This is a great opportunity for me to move it to a permanent location...and in the ground.
Thank you!