I just dug up 4 climatis,that have never preformed well for me ,nice and green not a lot of blooms,what kind of fertilizer do you use ? How much sun? I potted them up,trying to decide where to put them.ANY HELP MUCH APPRECIATED
help basic care of Clematis zone 5
Can you give us the names of the clematis? Most of mine are in full sun but a few have to live with some shade but still give me blooms, just not as many as if they had all the sun they want.
If they're nice and green with a lot of growth I'm wondering if you fed them with too much nitrogen.
I use a lot of manure, 5-10-5 or 10-10-10 (or an equivalent), Epsom Salt (1 TB to a gallon of water per plant) and cover with a lot of pine needle mulch to keep the roots cool. Since I don't want any root competition I do not plant anything to shade the base of the clematis but other people do and seem to have success.
I'm sure others will come along to help you.
the sad thing is I really have no idea what they are ,I planted them so many years ago.I can tell you this much 2 are I think an old fashion deep purple almost black 4 -5 petal ,they bloom summer,the other 2 are light pink larger blooms and later bloom time.I had them planted on the west side of the garage,I have sun issues,our eastside is completely wooded.I kept them well mulched and watered.the dark purple did ok the 2 others did not.I have them potted up now ,they have great root systems,boy did i have to dig!! Now I have more control over what sun they get,being in the pots.How much shade is too much shade,for the lighter colored ones? I have a north facing area gets sun 4-6hrs Iam guessing not enough? Id like to maybe try planting 1 of them,on one of my terraced beds and let it be a ground cover,hanging over my boulders?
Six hours would give you some blooms. If the soil is well prepared with manure, compost, etc. you might want to give it a try.
Look at Plant Files for clematises that might ring a bell with you and then we can go from there. I'm just guessing that the two old purple might be Jackmanii. Check the photos.
Here's a Nelly Moser that grows on a stump so each half gets sun and shade for half the day and it grows very well.
pirl,beautiful,beautiful, yes I think its a Jackmanii too,but i didnt want to make a stab in the dark or foot in mouth !!!! Iam thinking my soil wasnt quite as good as I thought ,ran into yellow clay about 14inches down.I think the west sun was brutal on them !! I will probly keep them potted for awhile until I find spots for them.Iam sure with a little help I will be able to ID them by summer.I get sun on the eastside now ,but after the trees leaf out i get no morning sun till after 10:00am,then in some areas by 1 i have shade again .maybe this photo will help you see ,although the big tree on the right will be cut down in aweek or so.Wild cherry in bad shape,and it shades the veggie garden by 2pm,4 hrs of sun on the garden not good enough!!! i have a hard time getting 6 hours of sun in certain areas for sure.execpt on the west side arggg
Well that photo didnt help at all,did it !!!! house faces directly north,Iam shooting to the east.
Such a lovely autumn photo!
There has to be some side of the tree where the clematis will have shaded roots and sun at the top so why not keep part of the stump from the tree? Just three feet will work though the Jackmanii can handle covering 12' without a problem. Just loosely tack up netting or use anything like this: http://www.farmandfleet.com/products/226551-hot_dipped_galvanized_fence_panel.html
Here's Jackmanii covering a 9' copper trellis. From there it went back to cover all three of the compost bins behind it.
pirl,And we are leaving a large stump,I have another stump in the photo,down towards the house,Iam thinkin thats another spot that would work and your food recipe !!! Our power co. will be dropping the tree for free,they take every thing but the logs ,yippie skippie,and all we will have to do is put a sign up free cherry fire wood,Ill bet the wood will be gone the day after the tree is cut !!! Iam much better now at amending my garden soil,those climatis have been in the ground for years.Your climatis is huge maybe this is my year,with a little help from my friends at Daves thank you soo much.I will keep posting with up dates
DG's fly_girl posted the photo of an article about planting tree stumps if it's of any interest to you. That's just in case any part of what is cut down is of interest to you for other places in your gardens.
Pirl,OMG SWEET !!! that is soo cool and do-able,I cant believe we didnt come up with something like that,we can be kind of creative,definitly do it yourselfers,we built our house ourselves I did all the landscaping 32ton of field stone,terracing.SWEET !!! Thank you thank you
You're quite welcome. I'm always glad to pass along a great idea.
pirl,you have no idea how happy you have made me,Iam soo excited,I have 2 big old stumps to play with !!!!! SWEET
I'm jealous , wish my garden could use one.
The stump planter would last just longenough for the plants to need transplanting.
g,Iam going to plant annuals in them,climatis will go in the ground!!!
of course.
I found a picture of the deep purple one , dont know if thats the other color or what ??? !!! I had all 3 planted together. Iam thinking that was one other color.
This message was edited Mar 28, 2010 6:22 PM
Funny! I have the same combination on a tree but I never planted the pink one knowingly. It had to have been mislabeled.
as you see the purple one did pretty good last yr,I must have used my organic fertilizer on them ,cant wait to see what other color I have .Iam going to go through my pix and see if maybe I got a shot.
Well the tree is down,the guy down the road is cutting and taking all the fire wood,I didnt have to lift a finger !!!! Sure looks weird,more sun yes !!!
Hurray! I do love how they left the top of yours!
We had a big limb removed to give more sunshine to the Asiatic lilies, the clematises, rose and other plants. I told the tree trimmer, George, it had to be done before 4/1 or the lilies would emerge.
As of 4/1 the lilies emerged as I knew they would.
That was a big limb Pirl. Bet it makes a big difference.
It will be nice to see the lilies growing up instead of sideways!
I know what you mean ,I have a huge blue spruce ,anything close does the lean !!!
Look how they leaned last year!
Hardy buggars arent they !!!
Yes, they are. It will be a thrill to see them upright.
Pirl !!..How Beautiful..girl..you do have the touch..that area is magazine worthy...Jeanne
Thank you, Jeanne!
There are six clematises there as well so they should perform beautifully with more sun.
Oh my that is beautiful,making me want to get digging.Beautiful,Beautiful
Thank you, huggergirl. There are so many Asiatics and a few Orientals in that garden along with clematises and now that we've had the limb removed it will get a lot more sun.
Are you planning on adding some support around the tree for your clematises? I put wire fencing, very loosely, around the tree but as the tree grew it has now broken the fence so we'll have to reinforce it.
I have to completely dig the whole bed around the stump,because of moles and chipmunks,it is a mess , And The power company guy said the stump is going to sprout,that I need to paint the top with roundup,that makes me real nervous,so I do hope to put something around the stump for the climatis to climb,just not sure when.but I do have the other stump to plant around .We need to get some good soil,Iam out !!! your flowers are just beautiful,cant wait for blooms !!!!
That's an interesting idea about painting the stump with Round Up. Would the RU be diluted as directed or is it full power?
I think I will try mixed 1st,and he said to paint the top of the stump,I will try that and see what happens and I will go from there.I didnt even think about the stump sprouting,and I know how the wild cherry does sprout from stumps !!! Not happy about this ,I hate R-up !!!
Ours is what we call a "junk maple", Box Elder in reality but in any event it grows way too fast and does sprout from limbs cut back so I'm very thankful you mentioned the RU. I'll do it today with big time protection for the lilies below.
I'd rather the RU than the sprouting. It's just the lesser of two evils. Somehow I was always thinking RU only works on actual leaves. I don't want to kill the entire tree!