Spring before last I set out a Sweet Autumn clematis because I had heard they could handle a tough site. This site was tough, all right. The scoured-off side of a hill already covered with other vines and creepers. But I tried to clear a place for it, and I lugged a piece of driftwood up there to shield the roots from the hottest sun, as I had read they like to have cool roots.
This year I couldn't find the clematis. The leaf looks surprisingly like the leaf of a local wild honeysuckle. Also there was some chameleon poison ivy mixed in there. I wanted to cut the poison ivy vine but was afraid if I did so the roots would only get stronger. I was afraid to pull up the roots for fear of uprooting the clematis. If it was still there.
So during August I lugged water uphill each week for the poison ivy and the honeysuckle and the clematis if it was still there.
Today the clematis bloomed. Huzzah! It is unmistakably the Sweet Autumn, and it is halfway up a nearby beech tree. Now the sky's the limit, literally. This time next year it probably will have covered the entrance to the driveway so you can't even find the house.
All my hard work is more than rewarded and I am happy.
Huzzah! The Sweet Autumn is alive!
What great news! That's what we clematis lovers yearn to hear.
A few weeks ago I was working at one end of a long border and my husband was working at the other end. He came over and proudly told me he got rid of a terrible vine that had taken over an area...you guessed it, Sweet Autumn Clematis!
Oh, no! I had exactly the same experience. I had worked so hard to get a Virginia creeper groundcover started on a troublesome slope and my husband pulled it up when he was looking for something he had lost. He proudly showed me the entire vine coiled over his arm!
In a way it is funny! My husband showed me the whole bag filled with the awful vine and I looked at all the buds. They were so close to blooming!
Oh, dear. It's hard to lose a lovely plant - whether to frost or to wind or to a husband! Did you plant a Sweet Autumn again?
No. He was very apologetic but that doesn't replace it.
Did you replace your Virginia creeper?
Yes, I did - I am desperate to get that piece of ground covered. But it's all the previous work that can't be replaced. Not to complain, though - he was pretty nice about it when I backed into a tree.