My Nelly Moser came up well this Spring and began growing and blooming like crazy. For the last few weeks, however, she's been just sitting there at about 4 feet. No more growth and no more blooms.
Was it something I said?
Seriously, she's supple and green, getting plenty of sun with shade at her feet and I water her. This is my first year growing a Clematis and I don't know if this is "normal" for them -- or if I need to take action.
I'd appreciate any suggestions!
Nelly stopped growing. Can you help me?
How old is it? Takes about 3 years to get full size I find, mine was sparce last year and doing great guns this year. I lime and feed them with orginic fertilizer twice in the spring and that seemed to help this year.
I didn't lime it. Is that something they particularly like?
I bought it last year and it got roughly this big then. I haven't clipped off any of the seed heads this year. Would that help as well?
I don't clip the seed heads...they do like more alkaline soil, so do some lime around it...might take another year to get to full size, I would not worry too much. Make sure you follow the pruning groups for it...
Pruning groups?
Your "Nelly Moser" is just "resting" after working so hard to give you all those glorious blooms..Now she wants you to fertilizer (feed) her again! "Nelly" is a pruning group 2 which means she blooms on the vines grown from previous growing seasons and is ONLY PRUNED after she has finished her bloom cycle and ONLY to keep in a certain shape or within the bounds you wish to confined her to..She will have another flush of blooms for you later on in late Summer and is known to spit out a bloom here and there throughout the season!.You have treated her well with your watering etc! Keep up the great job!.I never "lime" my clematis..You didn't say how old she is?..If she is newly planted then a good hardpruning will benefit her..and she'll reward you with years of beauty for allowing her to grow a bigger and stronger rootsystem..Jeanne
Jeanne -- thanks. I bought her last Summer (mid- to late-) and she put out a few blooms then. I was so worried that I'd done something to offend her this year! Thanks for all the advice, both of you. Here she is from a few weeks ago.
HMM, Clematis peak blooming period in our zones is the Month of May. Most hybrid clems. they're like fine wines. They become better as they age. Well sorta like us women too. lol.
GOT IT!
Lily you can say that AGAIN!!..I like the analogy!!...Jeanne
^_^
March 2009, I had a landscape man that works for many people here prune back all my clematis and feed them and I think he said he fed them lime and Dr. Ruppel was a showstopper last year. This year is the 3rd. year for my Westerplatte and she produced more bloom this year. I had already decided if she didn't, she was history so now that she gave a good showing, I'll give her one more chance. Make sure that when your clematis start their growth cycle, that you get them tied to the trellis as their stems fall down and will attach to any other flower and it is almost impossible to correct its growth then. This year the bottom part of Dr. Ruppel bloomed the first part of the spring and the top is blooming now. strange, but I think it had something to do with no feeding this March.
You're right, Pippi, about keeping the tendrils out of plants that could be weighed down by the clematis. Mine seem to leap towards lilies so I have to keep an eye on them.
A local horticulturist grows clematis and each year gives each plant a handful of lime. They bloom so beautifully. Since I heard that I have buried a fist sized chunk of cement with each one and they do seem to love it. Our soil tends to be on the acidic side so I'd suggest testing the PH as well before you try it.
Good information. When you lime it, exactly how do you do it? Is it a top dressing or worked into the soil? Is there a certain distance from the plant to keep it? Water?
I haven't limed anything, as you might guess. Never thought about the cement idea.
Nellie's kept her tendrils to her arbor and has latched on quite well. No problems there.
Mary, don't add lime to your soil unless a soil test indicates that your soil is acidic. If you soil it already alkaline, the extra lime will be too much. If I were you, I would buy a good organic rose fertilizer and apply it following the directions on the package.
I have a soil testing kit and would always use that before applying something like lime. I used Miracle Gro on my gardens last week, Nellie included. She's looking well still, just not growing, reaching or blooming. I'm content to just let her rest right now. Just wondered how to apply lime, as I have Lilacs as well and I know they like it.
As I specifically said, "Our soil tends to be on the acidic side".
I add a handful and scatter it then work it in lightly to our own compost I always use as mulch. It works very well for me, in our gardens, as evidenced by the lush growth and gorgeous blooms on 'Omoshiro', pictured here.
A PH tester isn't expensive and can resolve many issues.
You did get some blooms, HelloMissMary, so was it that it wasn't as profuse as you wanted it to be?
Omoshiro is truly gorgeous, pirl! So full and delicate-looking. Love the color! I believe we cross-posted there.
I was quite pleased with Nellie's blooms. Her abrupt stop made me think I should be doing something differently or that I need to take some sort of action. I'm okay with her resting. I see pictures of Clems covering arbors and fencelines and I thought something was wrong with Nellie when she came to a screeching halt.
Yes, we did! If she bloomed for three weeks or more you did just fine with her.
Our 'Nelly Moser' gets morning sun on one half and afternoon sun on the other half. I feel what it likes best is cool (not drenching wet) roots and here it's well established and does have the cool roots.
