Think positive thoughts and keep thinking of the swollen buds on the clematis vines turning into big, beautiful blooms in spring. Each day brings us one day closer to them.
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!
For those who celebrate another holiday, I wish you joy and happiness.
I'm really looking forward to holding my grandson, Robert, as he watches the lights on the tree.
Pirl---What a sweet grandbaby!!! Looking forward to spring here too, but probably not as much as you. Hoping for good growth from the 2 clematis I planted last year.
Thanks.
We're in zone 7 and I've been working outside three hours a day but need to quit so I can wrap gifts and shop for food!
They love manure and compost so give them a treat and they'll reward you.
I am counting down the days and hoping for a early spring and warm dryer weather this year.
I love when we reach solstice - even though we still have a lot of cold, dark days ahead of us, it means we are on the downhill side and spring gets closer every day. Sending you back warm wishes for a very merry holiday with the grandson!
We can all look forward to new growth and spring blooms no matter where we live.
Thanks, Terry. He's a little treasure and I have no intention of sharing him with others on Christmas day. I thought my son (48 years old) would never get married and having a child is just over the top joy to this old grandma.
You mean I still have hope for my son of 38. I dont know if he will ever meet a good woman for him.
I have a cyclamen that a friend gave me almost 2 years ago. Every winter it blooms non stop in the kitchen window. That helps with my winter blues.
Yes, Marie, there is a Santa Claus and the right person may show up for your son! I was so happy when my son got married (finally!) and now he is the loving father I dreamed he would be.
The coleuses in the kitchen window keep the color going all winter long and the amaryllises will follow. The porch is loaded with happy plants in bloom.
All my Christmas cactuses ? have bloomed away, so now I bought some green house plants to have something to take care of. I wish everybody a Marry Christmas and a Bluebird kind of Happy new Year. Etelka
Thank you, Etelka. I wish you a blessed Christmas and a year filled with grateful people for all the food you make for them!
Seams like Christmas for me is lots of work, finnaly finished cooking and will have 16 days off I am always behide of house work, but will catch up now, the yard needs raking and the house is a mess, but life is still good. Love you all. Etelka
I'm sure it is a lot of work for you. It's good that you get a long rest in between. It's rough trying to keep up with cooking, homes, gardens and friends.
Wishing all my good clematis buddies a very healthy and happy 2014. I hope it's filled with loads of beautiful blossoms for each of you.
Happy New Year!
Same to you Arlene...
Happy New Year All.
Happy New years to all the gardeners and hope that our plans in the garden comes trough. Love you all, Etelka
Belated Happy New Year to everyone, I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday.
We've had some crazy weather here in GA, with temps at 6 degrees and a windchill factor of
-11 degrees last week. We warmed back up this past weekend to 60 degrees on Saturday, and the mid 50's on Sunday.
I was glad to spend some time in the garden on both days trimming all of my clematis. I noticed that several of them already have pips. I'll start fertilizing them in the next month, depending on if the temps are trending on the warmer side. I'm looking forward to possibly getting some blooms from the new plants that I put in last fall.
Annette
I bet you will get blooms!
This spring I have many to move and just hope my energy lasts.
I hope so Arlene. Why do you have to move your clematis?
I am with you Arlene, I have 2 that I know of that I have to move. Tried a spot and it did not do so well, so off to a new home they go. I also hope my energy last. I did not bring in as much as I use to, I let a lot die , even my Tropical hibiscus. The ole back is not what it use to be.
I have to move three because they were at the front and sides of the tuteur, which has to be moved to the outside of the garden. Another trio just gets too much competition from the Jackmanii behind it. Then there are more at the rear fence that I don't get to see unless I work my way back there - that wasn't good planning on my part. Two more should get moved but we'll see how well my energy level does.
In August I began my coleus cuttings and I'm thrilled I did it back then and didn't wait until I was rushed later in the year.
All in all I do expect this to be the best year ever for the gardens but, like Marie, I need the cooperation of my back. It's that half stooped position that is the killer for my back and the doctor just annoys me when he tells me not to do it. Am I supposed to leave jobs requiring me to be leaning over, undone? He's not a gardener and can't understand the problem.
If I work on the attached brick planters early in the day, I'm lost for the balance of the day. A few weeks ago, on a beautiful day, I cleaned out all the old plants and the planters are in great shape for spring planting...if I can get it done. Maybe just using a few coleuses would be easiest...or a lot more driftwood!
Arlene,
It's unfortunate that some people don't understand how important gardening is to us. For me it's therapy, I love spending time outside playing in the dirt. The next time the doctor tells you not to bend over or to stop gardening, tell him to stop practicing medicine, and see what he says.
Having had my spine fused surgically 3 times, I have to modify the way I garden, but I'm not giving it up! I also have a ruptured tendon in my left ankle, and I have to work around that too. Ice packs and Motrin or Aleve are my best friends. The DH knows after I work in the garden, don't expect much out of me for the rest of the day. He's really good about taking care of things inside, and this weekend had dinner ready for me.
I do have 1 clematis that I need to move, Kardynal Wyzynski. It's planted along my back fence, but I now want to plant rose Variegata di Bologna in that spot, with KW in front of it. The rose reportedly only blooms once per year, so I want KW to climb through it, to provide color during the year.
Too many people think of gardening as planting six marigolds and watching them grow. My doctor is hopeless at understanding the passion of it but our plumber does get it! The doctor would tell me practicing medicine doesn't hurt him. I bet dieting would harm his mental health.
Having dinner ready would be the major blessing of the day. While I haven't had any spinal fusions I do have Degenerative Disc Disease (which is not a disease) but my ankles and knees are fine. I do admire those who won't let physical problems get them down. My role model, the real PIRL, didn't quit gardening until she was 95 though she slowed down at 88 when arthritis got her spine.
Good idea to have something blooming on the rose so you can get double duty out of it!
I bet gardening kept PIRL young, and to be able to do so till age 95 was a true blessing for her.
Never mind that doctor, he'll never understand. That's why I'm so glad we have our gardening forums, so that liked minded people can learn from each other.
I agree with you about PIRL and about the doctor. His wife, who is also his RN and his office person, loves to grow tomatoes and cucumbers. It took her 3 months to get his cooperation in setting up a very tiny greenhouse, about 5' tall and 18" deep.
If we didn't have each other I think some of us would feel so alone with our problems in the garden. Sometimes just seeing a photo of what someone else did helps us solve our own problems. It's so much easier to ask a question and get the thoughts of ten people than to go through a dozen gardening books and still not feel we've thought of all possible solutions.
I agree with you Arlene,
This forum does help me. I have those books but they are all done by a professional. Also half the plants they talk about you cant even get. I like seeing plain ole people doing gardens. I see how they did it and I want to do the same. Having them to help me choose the proper spot or what not to plant is a great help.
I thank you all for the help and wonderful pictures. Now just to get the back to agree...lol
Arlene, can I say ditto! I've learned so much about clematis care from you over the years. And my plants are better for it, so thank you for sharing your knowledge.
During the dank dreary weather, I've been digging out some of my gardening books, and here's one I bought over 10 years ago, and had not looked at it for years. I have to agree that some of the plants they list I've never heard of.
Sometimes it's the easiest answer to make a plant work but our brains won't engage or we don't know where to start or the right questions to ask. That's where the photos are such a big help. We can see which clematises really need a sturdy structure to grow on compared to those that barely need more than a branch to climb into a welcoming tree.
I know just resting in bed will help my back but resting more than ten minutes usually results in a nap!
You're welcome, Marie and Annette, but I'm just repeating things I've learned by trial and error or things I read that make sense. The online article by Hummingbird Farm in Maine was SO helpful when they said you can't kill a clematis by pruning it. I am forever grateful to them for that gem. Look at their mini slideshow: http://hummingbirdfarm.net/clematis.htm I love that tubulosa!
We could have fun digging out our gardening books! Once the internet came along I seldom looked at the books again. Books are great for dreaming, but like Marie said, they are done by professionals (and photographed by professionals) and that leaves us amateurs feeling we've missed something or maybe we've done something wrong.
Seeing a photo in a book, of a five year old established clematis in a picturesque setting, is grand. Then we see the little foot tall clematis that we're about to plant and we know it will take years for it to be "a thing of beauty". It's a testament to our will to garden and the faith gardeners seem to have that the plant will grow and will be lush with blooms...not floppy, black and wilted! We all must be optimists, thankfully.
Today, I ordered my 1st. clematis for 2014 from Brushwood. I got 2 montana Fragrant Spring, that I'm going to combine with rose Mme. Alfred Carriere, along my front and back fence. I want these husky clematis for the spring blooms, then the roses will take over later on for a nice long season of color.
I'm thinking about getting armandii Apple Blossom to plant on my trellis with rose Souvenir de la Malmaison at my back gate.
My mission this year is to get more height by adding trellises, I've already ordered and received 3 garden arches that I'll put together when it warms up, and place outside in the spots where the new plants will grow.
How far away should the clematis be planted from their suppor!
I would also love to know what everyone is thinking about ordering this year.
Annette
On these cold wintry days, I sit and dream of spring, browse websites for ideas, much to my DH dismay, because I get the urge to order the plants right then, before the nurseries run out😁
Sounds like it will be beautiful. The optimism we gardeners have is always such a good sign!
I ordered one trellis/box combination and it's still in the original box, in the garage, since late October!
I'll check the distance of montana grandiflora from the fence by using photos. Okay, mine is about a foot from the picket fence (which is falling apart very fast after 20 years and we will replace it ASAP) but if I were planting it again I think I'd go 18" from the fence.
Maybe I'll break down and order Annabelle and you know you're the reason for it! I still have more work to do on transplanting (using photos) the clematises I have to move.
I've taken to cleaning out vanities, closets and bookshelves (cookbooks galore) to keep from ordering. Sooner or later I know I will break down.
Arlene,
Thanks for the answer about the distance for the plants. I won't be putting my trellises together for some time. I have no where to store them before it warns up, the ground is frozen solid now. So I can't place them outside.
Arabella is a lovely clematis, I think I posted I now have 6 of them. I also have Durandii, which is also non-vining, that I'm going to move and plant the trellis with rose Evelyn from David Austin.
Thankfully, when I told the DH that I ordered the trellises, and planned on taking out more grass to add the clematis and roses, he responded with "do what you want to do" with a smile I guess he's learned I was going to do this anyway.
Do you have others that bloom all summer? If so, I'd love the names.
I felt similarly to you. I wasn't ready to use mine so I didn't bother with assembly.
They do learn eventually so I'm glad he's a good guy about it. I've known one person who had to hide every purchase and only put things in gardens when the husband was out on an errand. I was not built to tolerate that - spousal abuse in the gardening sense.
Durandii also put out blooms sporadically, but I believe it would have done better if it got more sun, so I'm moving it when it warms up. It was planted in spring of 2012.
I'm glad I don't have to be sneaky about what I do in the garden. My DH will even help periodically, but not as much as he used to, since his 2nd knee replacement.
I checked 3 nurseries today to see if they had any clematis in packages. I was told at Pikes that they have delayed getting plants in due to our unseasonably cold weather. I did find some roses ao Lowes, I got climbing Golden Showers and Climbing America. They were only $5.98 each, I'm planning on training them on the fence, and later adding clematis at the bases to grow through them, once they get established.
Annette - my Durandii goes most of the summer. I have 2 that are planted on opposite ends of aflowering almond.
That's great to know, I'm hoping there'll be more blooms this year, after it's moved. I really like the color of this plant.
Has anyone grown, Little Mermaid or Wild fire?
I am trying to find more that bloom later in the season. That way I will have a continuous showing of blooms all season one after the other.
I planted Little Mermaid in spring of 2013, but I can't comment in it's bloom habit yet. I'll give an update as it grows this year.
I haven't tried either of them, Marie.
I'd like blooms all summer rather than just May and September.
Arabella and Hayate are now topping my list even though I didn't want another purple!
Roguchi goes for almost all of the growing season for me. It is probably my longest bloomer. It is another purpley blue, but I love those bell shaped flowers.
Thanks for the good thought. I do have a lush one so maybe I should move it.
I'm not feeling closer to spring yet.......
