Clematis chat for spring

Time for a new thread. We came from here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1242565/

This is the greenest clematis I could find, Duchess of Edinburgh, to wish you all a happy St. Patrick's Day and welcome spring.

The Duchess must be Iris? LOL, she's just beautiful Arlene. Thank you for the new thread. Happy St. Patrick day to you and everyone here. John, which zone are you on or is it the unseasonably warm winter has changed your gardening progress? Marie, I hope you continue to feel better, and that you will celebrate your Birthday right onto the weekend and beyond Marie. I've found more clem. buds, flowers buds in the garden, can't wait for them beginning to pop.

lily, I am zone 6b/7a . Generally, the louisville area is considered 6b and the traditional planting out day is derby day which is the first Saturday in May.

The Duchess is a clematis. In morning shade it appears green but soon enough goes to all white, as it should be.

Hello everyone. Hope all are doing good.

pirl - love the Dutchess...

I may not be on here, my subscription is running out. So can you send me your email Pirl?

I have my Duchess of Edinburgh full of buds, planted on a little obelisk with the mini climbing rose, Work of Art. Hope it's a good combo and that the small rose blooms don't get overwhelmed by the larger clem blooms. http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/pl.php?n=6614&tab=36

Hit a couple of nurseries today despite the rain, guess I'm just a die hard plant nut! Found a 1 gal. clem, Ramona, with several buds, for $8, not a bad price I thought, plus a white lilac tree. Getting excited for blooms!

Happy Spring (I sure hope we get one) and St. Patrick's Day....what a gorgeous clem. Yesterday was near 80 as is today and tomorrow. I was able to get out last night after work and my clems are growing by leaps and bounds. My durandi, which wasn't up on Sunday, was up about an inch yesterday and I've found growth on pretty much every other clem. But, it is freakishly warm so I'm hoping we don't get that dreaded cold snap that socks everything back. I'm pretending like that's not going to happen.....kim

Beautiful Clematis Pirl

Thanks! How are you doing with your own hybridized daylilies? They are such fun!

Tonight after I got home from work, I discovered that some critter had nipped ALL the stems of my Nelly Moser and Hagleys Hybrid clems off about six inches from the ground! They were budding so nicely...six weeks ahead of schedule. My favorite, Guernsey Cream was untouched, so it is now surrounded by hardware cloth, as is Etoile Violette.

Had to be bunnies. The clems usually are not budding this early and the rabbits are hungry. What a sad learning experience. :(

Goldenberry, so sorry to hear your lost. That would upset me too. I've lost a mature 'President' clem due to voles. I've thought about making chicken-wire cage underground, and plant new clematis root ball within the cage, as an experiment to see if that would help with Voles. Don't know what clever way to deter deers and rabits other than seeing chemicals ads. to deter them?

Happy birthday marie, sorry am late.
Pirl...such a pretty clem. I can hardly believe I still have two months before any blooms here, phooey. Not much evev showing green yet, few weeds, lol.
Was 75 today, very nice, little light breeze. gosh would have loved working in the garden but too wet.

Just checking my clems. Many have shoots.These were new plants last fall.
I will ad Dof E to my wish list.

Goldenberry - so very sorry for the damage. I'd agree with rabbits being the culprits. Spread some Blood Meal to deter them. The clematises will rebound and probably surprise you with their vigor. They love the tender new growth on many plants so feel free to sprinkle the Blood Meal, lightly, to protect other cherished plants.

Kim - what a loss! The cages will keep them safe. My California friend, Zuzu, uses them for all of her 1200+ roses.

Kathy - we, too, have a two month wait for the clematis blooms. Yesterday I worked for four hours planting peonies, lilies and clematis. I also finally got around to feeding a lot more clem's with manure and bone meal and hoisted many back up since the obelisk fell during a storm and took a few down but the roots are fine and they are all sprouting. We had 67 degrees and full sunshine - glorious!

Jo Ann - I was very surprised to see fat leaf buds on many I planted last fall. What a joy!

The 'Duchess of Edinburgh' keeps growing taller and gives a big flush of blooms high in the Crape Myrtle. It's a winner for me. Since hurricane Gloria took out the big tree and limbs crushed much of the Crape Myrtle (photo 2) this will be interesting come spring to see if the Crape Myrtle will rebound enough to support the clematis without having it just hang in the air.

I am going to put some hybridized Daylily seeds in the fridge today. thanks for asking

You can put the seeds in a plastic bag with just damp soil-less mix and they'll sprout right in your kitchen (or any room).

Edited to add: don't seal the bag so it gets a little air.

This message was edited Mar 15, 2012 1:08 PM

So Arlene, Daylilies seeds don't require strattification? It's good to know.

Hah, I've a imposter; a "green" bloom. Anyone can correctly identify this? Hint, hint. It's a shrub. Happy St. Patrick day.

Kim - when the seeds fall to the ground they begin to grow before winter. I never found it was required to stratify them.

I'd bet that's an hydrangea.

Thank you Arlene for your response. Oh good guess, but actually that's a 'Snowball' Viburnum which hasn't bloomed for me for several years... until now. The new pompoms first appear greenish, then will turn white eventually.

Did I mention my 'Empress' is sending out buds? I'm so excited with this one clem.

I have seen Viburnum in the Ga mountains, at Dillard Ga, but they where white, and beutiful. My clematis are doing good even the sleepy Neibe is sprouting, also my Gypsy Queen is 2 inches tall next to my white Landy banks rose. My leatriss bulbs are coming up and I am waiting to see if the lillies are good bulbs, since I ordered them from Michigan bulbs. A few are few inches tall but have some that are not showing yet. It has been very hot here, I have four days off, so it is happy digging time. Etelka

That's one beautiful view there Ekelta. Hope your bulbs will turn out well. I potted up some Asiatic lilies that already sprouted out in the bag. When you mention hot. Yes, it's typical of our Southeastern weather, we usually skip spring and go straight to summer from winter months. lol

It's a lovely viburnum, Kim.

Etelka - that's a wonderful view. Glad to hear your clem's are coming up and some bulbs. Try to order from a lily company instead of Michigan Bulb Co. They've been such a disappointment and waste of money for so many people. You can check Garden Watchdog for reviews.

I think I'd miss spring terribly if we missed out on it.

Etelka, please pardon my misspell your name. Thanks Arlene for helping me remember. Here is another viburnum, the 'snowballs' has no fragrant. But this one it perfumes the entire yard. They're like Clematises-- eye-candies. I wanted more, and more of them only there is no space left to plant in the garden.

My Clems are putting out so much I swear they grew an inch in the past few days.
I got my little babies put in pots with some bone meal. I hope that was the right thing to do. I want to get those roots growin. The little growth is so fragile now, I have them in the back room where it is cooler and more light. I will keep putting them out during the day to get them use to it.
Almost all of my lilies are planted and I finally got all the beds cleaned out. I will not leave another leave in those beds next year. I am so sore.
It just gave those nasty voles more stuff to hide under, I found so many holes, But each one I found I put more poison in each one. I did find one dead vole. One down and many more to go.

Kim - please tell us the name of the fragrant viburnum. I'd love to know though I'm also short on space.

Hurray for the clematises and the dead voles, Marie. There are no good voles or deer in my opinion. I recently said to someone that every hour I spent outside cleaning up during November, December and January was worth it. So many jobs were done before I even started spring work, like planting. Even if we can manage to do one bed or one part of a bed each week it would be great for a winter project to help avoid the sore bodies we have now.

Arlene, my fragrant viburnum was identified as Viburnum x carlcephalum. It needs moderate sun to do well. I once planted under a thick canopy of trees, it didn't bloom well at all. I moved it to a sunnier location and it has been a jewel in the garden.

Two more wonderfully smelling viburnums are carlesii and davidii, absolutely outstanding. Hope I spelled those correctly. Both are on my to get list.

Etelka...B&DLilies is a great mailorder for lilies, and they are HUGE.

This message was edited Mar 15, 2012 5:53 PM

Thanks, Kim and Kathy. I bought viburnum opulus last year but it's not in bloom yet. I'm looking forward to it.

I am looking forward to all the plants that I planted a year ago. This will be their 2nd year, so they should be a good show. peonies, iris, day lilies, strawberry van hydrangea, my other hydrangea's that I got new last spring, the name had city in it . I would have to look that one up. All the clems I planted in the fall of 2010. It is going to be a pretty summer I hope.

Viburnums take a while to establish, just like clematis...in a way. They are lasting beauties added to the garden, among other perinnials. I'm looking into finding way to safe-guard my clems. Lots of work to be done.

More clem buds this week.

Marie - Rio or Berlin? Maybe Venice?

It is an exciting time of year, Jo Ann.

you bet

Anyone who has a rabbit problem, I strongly advise putting cages around the base of your clematis! It would have saved mine. A friend told me that bunny teeth grow continuously, and they like biting narrow, woody stems to 'file' their teeth. Not sure that is true, but it would explain why the critters bite the stems of lilies, and now my clematis, and then just leave the bitten-off plants there without even eating them. My remaining clematis are now protected with a ring of 1/2" hardware wire cloth. Perhaps it is time to gather all the rabbit-fodder plants together and fence that garden.

I appreciate the reminders that it's time to feed clematis now. Hopefully that will help what's left of mine to sprout new stems.

It's so exciting to watch the development of the buds! This is Duchess of Edinburgh.

Sue - it's probably the most interesting of all clematises to watch from the very start through all of the stages.

Great shot pirl!! This will be fun!

Beside DOE, Belle of Woking buds have similar bracts that make them different from the rest. Love those double blooming Clems. Oh this evening I also found Niobe also puts out flower buds. Spring is here!

Love the pics of DoE. It was back to reality this week, as vacation is over. I hadn't seen the clemies all week until this evening, and wow, what a difference a week makes. Most of them have grown tremendously thanks to the early warm weather and rain we've been having. Here's Josephine behind the Parrot tulip mix now blooming, Omoshiro finally is growing and has the nerve to have a bud, Yipee!!!! Miguel Viso has also had tremendous growth, and Jackmanii was layered, the flat spot seen is where the neighbor's kid has taken the brick, Grrrr!!!!,