I've enlarged and redesigned a flower bed. Although it has a few other shrubs that I moved from other areas and some lantana for summer color while the bed is getting established, it primarily has peach and coral roses with artemesia. The first 2 photos are from May when I planted the roses, and the 3rd one is from today. What color and variety of clematis would you recommend I add to this bed? I'd like to make sure the clematis do show up well against the white fence.
Generally speaking, colors opposite and next to each other on a color wheel go best. Blues and blue/greens would be excellent with your colors.
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First I have to ask, which artemesia? Some can be highly invasive.
Please don't overlook white clematises. With all the greenery of the leaves the flowers really do stand out quite well.
See what you think of these possibilities:
Lavendar, blue, and purple are especially lovely with both pink and coral. There are many clematis in the blue/purple color range, any of which would be quite beautiful with your roses.
Thanks for your prompt responses. I have been leaning toward purple because I do love rich jewel tones. I have some light pink ones in another area, and I've realized I'm just not much of a pastel gal. I have a couple of Jackmani but have been disappointed in size and color of flowers. Plus, they've never really flourished for me. I know they are supposed to be easy to grow, but I'm fairly new to gardening, so I've made several mistakes, most notably not amending my yucky heavy clay soil in the first couple of beds I created. I do have a Westerplatte and Romantika that I really like.
Thanks for your collage, Pirl. There are some beauties there. I do like white; I have one around my lightpost in the front yard.
My artemesia is Silver Mound. I actually do hope it spreads well because my bed is fairly good sized, and I love the texture. I like groundcovers even though I've not had real good luck in my attempt to establish any except moneywort. If I could, I'd have groundcover in every bed instead of mulch. (And vines on every vertical surface and flowers that bloom continuously!)
I know most gardeners rue the day they ever introduced moneywort into their gardens. I inherited mine in the front foundation borders of my house. I've transplanted virtually all of it to another inherited bed that had so much gravel I could never remove it all--I tried. Anyway, I just wanted to cover up the ground in that bed because it has been too difficult to plant much. So, I like my moneywort. It is in my red bed where I have Dynamite crepe myrtles, red daylilies, Hot Lips salvia, red carpet roses and Burning Embers azaleas.
But I digress.... So, what do you all recommend if I want the darkest purple and most floriferous clematis with the biggest flowers out there that can stand some shade? It is definitely a partial sun bed even though it faces south and is on the east side of our house because of our neighbor's big trees.
Silver Mound is well behaved so no dangers there.
The President would be my choice for purple. Amending the soil will definitely improve the performance of any and all clematises. Adding a lot of compost, manure, some bone meal, and a 3" mulch will be a huge help for any clematis you select.
Does the bed get 4 to 6 hours of full sun?
