Right after bloom the rabbits or chip and dale chewed off my Clematis Vines. This was our second year and first nice grow. We are left with five or six chewed off vine parts with about ten inches of those vine parts left. Any experience out there? What if any hope do we have left?
RABBITS OR CHIP AND DALE CHEWED
Are you sure it is bunnies not slugs? Any tell tall
snail trains in he easly morning?
I had a new, vigorous cem
chewed recently
I trimmed it down to an undamaged leaf axil
and used bug getta plus in the area,
as I was nit sure
bunnie r slug
apparently slug can chew side of vine or come up
and defoliate stem.
I am hoping it was slug as bunnie might be very hard to deal with.
There are
odor barrier products for bunnie, deer etc
at
the garden store. I will nit be in the garden till sat as I am on a business trip
and if there is more damage when u return I will buy it and try it.
Good luck!
Hi Docgipe,
I have many rabbits and chipmunks in my area. Fortunately neither have shown an interest in the clems. Crocus are another story. I have read that some people will put a wire cage around the base of their clems to protect from animal predation. On the up side, many people hard prune their clems after the blooms are spent, myself included. It's early enough in the season that you will most likely see new vine growth within a week or two. The pest pruning can be beneficial to your clems, especially since they are young!
dogcipe, in your zone it is too late to safely hard prune clematis unless really necessary. you are zone 5 a, i am 5b. the reason for hard pruning is to encourage the clem to push up new shoots. when new shoots are pushed up now they are fragile and will be whacked hard by first frost. because this is a set back to the plant it can even weaken next springs new shoots if it is a 3. if it is a other pruning group it can also hurt the 2010 season.
bastille day, mid july is the last safe zone for hard pruning to rid a plant of damaged vines or encourage a second flush.
zone 7 may be different in timing, don't know. but i would only remove damage that is necessary as many clems are already preparing to get ready for dormancy mode in zone 5.
your zone is slightly colder than mine even and when the july window is missed it is best to take care and let the plant follow the natural cycle to protect next spring's bounty!
I have the cut off samples. They show a uniform angled cut made in one bite. This brings down the critter to either a rabbit or an onery neighbor I do believe. I would hate to think neighbor but the cuts are very uniform and all at the same angle. We had no groundhogs in the area at the time the damage transpired. We also did not have any damage on two other plants. I will protect them with wire patterned small enough to keep out even mice early next spring. That is if I get new growth next spring.
I do not know about the prune numbers. Besides there are no ifs this and so on to consider. The plant was totally cut off ....all vines about three or four weeks ago. If they push new soft growth sounds like it will either be eaten again or frozen.
I will clean up the area and administer a mulch deep enough to protect the stubs remaining about a week before first frost.
sounds like a good plan. what type of clem is it?
I sincerely hope it was not a neighbor docgipe. I don't know of any foolproof deterrents to malicious human damage. But with your TLC, I think you can look forward to a beautiful display next year!
The plant is Rubro Marginata if our ClematisGuru knows anything. ROFLMAO
That's a group 3 clematis, which gets pruned each February to 12" above the ground, just above an old leaf joint/node.
very familiar with rubro having grown it for years. i hard prune my group 3's to the ground in very late winter or early early spring. if you prune it to 12 inches it develops the additional stems out of the main stem, vs new shoots from the ground. when you see a clem with one large, old stem (or just a couple) and not a lot of new stems, this is because it needs a to the ground hard prune to reach seasonal potential.
i am sure most of you have seen clems with one stem vs vigorous new stems.
of course there are a variety of techniques i am sure for different zones.
good luck with the bunnies i know they can be vexing!
Here's a collage of my Jackmanii, pruned to the second node on November 26th, and then how it looked in springtime. It's also a Group 3.
It's located between the two "X" marks on the photo. I can't get a good photo of the other side (eastern exposure) unless I'm out at 5:30 and I doubt that will happen.
looks good pirl. i can't see the base and number of stems, but like i mentioned..etc etc, different zones...the winter is harder on existing stem in zone 5 than zone 7. a classic hard prune to the ground produces more stems in my zone.
never gardened in zone 7 would be fun for sure , that is a great clem zone, and a good looking clem.
Guru, I want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly. In February or early March?? should I prune all of my G3's EVEN with the ground, or just those that have only one stem? This will be the first winter I've had more than a couple of clems. The five I planted last spring survived in spite of my ignorance. Needless to say, I have a LOT more than five clems now.
sharkey that is what i do, it is a classic hard prune. and it develops the plant differently than the one big stem with the multiple shoots coming off that stem vs from the ground. we have all seen that, and there are clems that are very hard to encourage toward multiple stems.
however, i do not know the zonal nuances and local tips. to the exact timing of when this climatic shift occurs for you.
Pirl, do you have a close up photo of the cut stems? I have one but my picture posting capabilities are not working due to PC problems.
Here's a photo of when that Jackmanii began to grow in April and you'll notice that, having broken the apical dominance by cutting each stem, there are two branches growing from each of the old stems.
They grow so fast. Five weeks later it was 6' tall and in full bloom.
your plant is nice. if you remove all those dead vines each spring and let the new shoots come from the ground vs the active stems in that bunch it will get even bigger. but it is a nice plant and there are different methods for different zones for sure. thanks for posting. o love thinking about and learning about clems and so many folks aren't able to post pics of that they are talking about , it is great that you so!
okay I have a question How do I know which to hard prune or or not This is all new to me I have 8 of them and I'm just learning I have
Blue Dancer
Vill de Lyon
Killian Donahue
John Paul
Belle of Woking
Ascotiensis
And 2 that I got from Lowes with no tags last year that did real good this year I'm z5
Gloria
Gloria, an absolutely invaluable source for clem questions is COTW
http://www.clematis.hull.ac.uk/index.cfm
I forgot the warning:
Spending more than 1 minute on COTW can be dangerous for the pocketbook :)
thank you venu I'll TRY to heed the warning :0)
Gloria
docpip...try using melorganite,bunnies don't like it!
This is an area where the only granite is adorning the kitchen sink or the graves of those gone by.
Opps I see,but maybe around your granite or your graves...
Anyone looking for granite small grind or stone it is the base material that a lot of chicken or turkey grits is made from. Look to feed stores for foul grits.
The process dust from burial markers is mixed with grinding product that makes it undesirable for garden use or potting mediums.
The firms that cut sink tops and such are small and did not show any interest in my hunt for granite dust.
if you are buying poultry grit, make sure it is one without vitamin or animal feed additives. i use a lot of plain poultry grit in my soil and top dressing and have had great results with it, but am aware some if it may have addititves you don't need.