I propose that we come up with say 10 clem varieties to study over the next few years. Ones that even some of us newbies might have or could get by October this year. Hopefully we can get enough of the same ones in all of the different locations from the south to the north. (And those in counties outside of the US, we of course welcome your input as well)
We will start in October and for those that would like to participate, Wonderful!
Here are some of the guidelines to get started with. Please post any other things that we need to take into consideration.
I love creating spread sheets and once we decide on all of the factors, I will then create the spread sheet and make it available to the group here.
Where you purchased yours from
Groupings
A. Just purchased 2009
B. 1- 2 year old plants
C. Established 3-5 year old plants
D. Well Established over 5 Yrs old
Names of the Clems (these will be filled in after we decide on them)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Liner or Large rooted
Color
Bloom Time of year
Prune Group G1, G2, G3
Method of planting, what did you use to amend the soil (provided you are comfortable with sharing this info)
How often you water example: weather in 90's watered 4 times this week.....
When and how often you fertilize, and with what?
Any set backs due to animals eating the clems...... snails, rabbits, deer, beetles etc.
I'm sure there are other items that we should include, so I'm waiting for YOUR reply to this thread...
Janet
Clem Research South vs North, no this isn't another war..LOL
This should be fun, Janet! We've got members spread throughout the country... from West Coast to East Coast, in Canada and all along the Gulf. What are the most commonly owned cultivars that will grow in all the regions? Maybe the best thing would be to find who wants to participate that has the smallest number of clems, let them post their list of what they have, and then we can all chime in as to whether we already have that one. Does that sound okay?
Yes and I would say I have the least....lol
I'll get a listing of mine tomorrow after work and post tomorrow night.
Great idea.
Janet
This sounds interesting. I'd be happy to participate also. I might draw a blank on where some of them came from though.
venu....
not to worry, if you can't you can't, but if we can then it would be a great resource to have.
Janet
janet, you may have my master spreadsheet of all clems? if not i can send to you if you are doing the tracking. if you have mine and do not understand some of the abbreivations i can explain. all purchases year, season and vendor are noted on it form 2003 i believe. the only thing not detailed in some cases is how many clems in a display. but columns are there for each garden the clem is represented in.
of course it is in continuous update. i can resend to you or answer questions if any of the info is of interest to you.
in progress, i am rating each clem based on a score sheet i have in development to rank time to establish, problems or set backs, vigor , floriferousness and size with routine /standard pruning practices. can't really complete this till the winter and i get thru some work commitments and the end of the growing season in the garden.
only now have enough actual data and experience to be able to do this, but i already know some of my highest scoring clems.
hint, margaret hunt so far has the only perfect score out of points possible.
I knew you had this as I've got the one you sent for our garden club tour... Just didn't want to say anything until you came forward.
Would you mind if we used some of the same headings as you have? Just let me know what is good to start with.
I was thinking more and seeing as how I most likely have the fewest clems, I don't think I would be a good one to say use for this study.
So I will leave the selection up to the more experienced Clem growers who would like to see the comparisons.
Janet
edited to make a sentence sound better....LOL
This message was edited Aug 26, 2009 10:23 PM
Ah, well... that sounds like more record-keeping than I am prepared to do with now almost 100 different clem cultivars. I'm already doing that level of record-keeping with my roses and my irises. My clems are my "easy" plants, and I'd like to keep it that way!
I am happy to do the record keeping the work is for those who want to share their experiences is that they have to post. Then I'll collect and compile the data.
But as I'm reading through more threads there is a lot of shared info but I'm not comfortable just going and collecting the info without them coming here a posting it.
Will see over the next few months what comes from this.
Janet
Sounds like a great experiment, Janet, but I already have at least 12 clems to get into the ground, Plus, everything else that needs to be done before my garden gets buried in the white stuff. In other words, I'm not going to buy any more clems this year, and this time I mean it. lol
I could give input from the North, Pacific Northwest. Sounds like fun.
Julia and others.
I'm sure many already have some types of records they are keeping which would cut down on the amount of work for each person who would like to contribute, and since this won't get going until October (which I think it would great to have photos starting in October and then continue each month until they have been covered by snow (for those of us in the North) and those in the south could continue to take photos (only once a month during the winter).
Photos can say more than words can and it would be a great picture volume along with the spread sheet.
So this is a work in progress and will continue until we have most if not all the kinks worked out.
I knew i should have gone to college for research as I love this and with so many in so many locations it would be a great tool especially should someone need to move to another location they would have an idea about their clems for their area. Cause who would move and leave them behind....LOL
Janet
I would love to participate but don't have many clems YET. I have 3 established (poor buggers have never had ANYTHING done to them), I planted 4 from ssv (thanks to this forum) in early July and and I have 9 coming from BlissfulGarden from the lot she just put together. kim
Sounds like a great idea. I usually wonder when I see a beautiful northern Clem display if it would love the hot here. I don't know if I am willing to buy many more plants, but would certainly record the ones I have now. Well maybe a couple more!
kimmy coco, will be interested to see how your fall planted vs your spring planted clems do next summer if you can keep an eye on that. i am one of the few who really , year after year, get a better success rate with spring planted clems and not a lot of extra growth going into spring.......
sometimes i plant in the fall, even tho i keep learning this lesson. maybe is just my timing or something else. you are in a close zone so look for ward to it.
CG: Will do.....I think I'm trying to play "catch up to you guys" this year so I will, most likely Spring plant more often than Fall but we can see how they do. The ones I planted in July (from ssv) look pretty good and have new growth. Before this forum, I would have NEVER considered planting in the summer. But, since this has been a VERY wet and cool summer, I thought I should try ! I think keeping track of them will help me learn more too......kim
I would love to partcipate. All of my clems are new this year. I have purchased from Walmart to SSV it will be interesting to compare liners vs gallons, top of the line vs bottom of the barrel going into year 2.
As long as someone else has time for the record keeping I would be happy to report infomation.
kimmy, i planted more clems this summer than ever too. i usually don't and wouldn't. but i have good watering helper this year and i just got so inspired by my time at joy creek garden and meeting folks out there and also visiting the ssv gardens. talk about gorgoeus.
i put in 4 really nice size etoile violettes (mine are getting old and may poop out) and grace, sundance and augustifolia.
design/placement inspired by the trip.
hope we have a nice fall. i have a lot of gallons to plant out from bargains and my clem hospital area...maybe 20. luckily all my holes are already dug and i am that step ahead.
Well, it looks like folks are interested in this idea.
I'll start working on the spread sheet this weekend and post the beginnings of it next week.
Janet