Some Clematis Photos

June 21 2004 - Left to Right - 'Polish Spirit' 'Ernest Markham' & 'Etiole Violet'.

'Ernest Markham' June 21st 2004.

June 1st Clematis 'Rhapsody' and Weigelia florida 'Red Prince' with Lillies about ready to burst.

June 13th; Clematis 'Rhapsody' with blooming dwarf Lillies.

CLAP, Clap, clap!!! Your Clematis & plantings are beautiful! I especially love you the picture of C. "Rhapsody" with the orange colored dwarf Lilies! Terrific color combo!!

Did you design & build your fence? I love the 1st picture where you show a "window" at the top of your fence! How clever was that?!!

Thank You Very Much Shirley!

I did design/build the fence and have planter boxes the entire distance of the fence on every other section.

I have over 50 Clematis, many from 4" pots and like a real dummy, I didn't keep track of their names. Most that is. Some I still remember what they are, others, not the faintest clue. Some I grew from seed too...just planted last Spring so I'll have (4) of them surprising me sometime!

Thanks again!

Dax

Great pictures, Dax.

The clematis sure luv you, Dax. I luv your Clematis 'Rhapsody' with blooming dwarf Lillies combo!!
:) Donna

Thanks a lot guys and gals! You're making me feel like a superstar!

Best regards,

Dax

Those are all so pretty!

Wow, I am jealous. They are just beautiful. Thanks for sharing. I can't remember the latin names of plants either and lucky if I recall the common ones haha. So you are not alone. Fran

Good luck on those seeds, and excellent pictures of a well-done garden, very tidy and soft.
K. James

Thanks a lot K.James. I used to work at a nursery and was real lucky to get my share of the rejects. I had a boss who had to have been under a lot of pressure to keep our small upscale garden center which later got burned for tax evasion (The garden center I later learned after it was closed the next year, was a writeoff for the owners high end landscaping company as well). Heck, my boss would go around and point at plants almost on a daily basis and tell us employees to get the off the site and some didn't have a brown leaf or even a leaf out of place, just often only not as "beefy-looking" as its neighbors. .It was really crazy, I had somehow managed to walk my own way into a goldmine!

All three of the clematis in the photo of 'Polish Spirit', 'Ernest Markham', and 'Etiole Violet' were 5 gallon plants and they had root systems like a 5 year old Clematis in the ground, you know. Heck, I couldn't get them in my car fast enough, a heck of a deal! I'd work eight hours at 12 bucks an hour and come home with (3) five-gallon plants like those Clematis for example , worth 120 retail! Nuts...

Anyway, I've since planted a total of 50+ Clematis here. Thanks for the compliment. I have to say just because my garden is much different from one of the photos, that I've since removed most all the perennials you see on the ground and have planted mostly all dwarf conifers. Conifers are where my real passion exists. Then again Deciduous Azaleas and Clematis come in a close second...

Nice to meet you guys. I'm liking this website quite a bit... I joined about a week or so ago. Been a regular at GardenWeb for three years or something like that, but really liking things over here at the moment (New Place Syndrome), but still have some of my "roots" over at GW still.

Thanks, thanks again.

Dax

Hello Conifers, Your first picture is so beautiful! All the pictures are nice but the first is my favorite. So neat and crisp. Three outstanding clematis too. That is one fine display you have created!

Conifers - have you had any trouble with verticilium wilt on the Ernest Markham? I grew a seedling up and every year it gets hit by wilt, then struggles back up to grow again. I think I should probably throw it out and start over. Wonderful pictures, your Clematis look very healthy and have so many flowers compared to mine. :(

~conifers~ OMG your clematis plants are beautiful. I oh so want some
in my garden but not sure where to start. Did you start yours from seed
or from plants? How long did you have to wait for them to be the size
they are now? Oh I have soooooooo many questions!!!! (LOL) Do
you give lessons in "Clematis 101" if so sign me up please!!!!

Angela

Thanks all.

TexasAngela,

A Clematis of those sizes have to be 8-9 years old or something like that. I have no idea what I'm doing here for the most part. I know the early bloomers, some of these being repeat Fall Bloomers, bloom on old wood and the Summer bloomers you are supposed to cut back when you see new growth... Well, I don't exactly follow those rules yet! My plants all bloom like mad however and some of the smaller ones I'm going to help branch little by little until I get some series multiple vines... I have to first identity a lot of what I have as I haven't labled most of them except a few, so, Things are not good for the teaching around here.

Grafting, sure. Come on over around December-March!

Hi Alyrics,

I have had a lot of problems with 'Ernest Markham' (I have three of them) and they do wilt and die out on occasion. My worst plant and the only one I have trouble with other than 'Ernest Markham' is Clematis 'Jackmanii'. I forget what I read recently but I think someone suggested for struggling Clematis to cut them back severely at least one year and several more I believe, and they could possibly become a strong plant and stop wilting. The information is on the tip of my tongue but don't quote me, it's a vague memory.

See ya all!

Dax

Conifer, Thanks so much for the awesome pictures! You are a master at mixing colors! I am so afraid to use orange but loved the dwarf lilies in the pic (Asiatic?), it looks great. The pic on the corner of the house, purple clemantis with red bush on the side...was the red also a clemantis? That was gorgeous!

Can you tell me, is it true you need to prune clemantis to 12" each year? Seems a bit much. Are clemantis evergreen (guessing no)? And lastly, what have you found to be the longest blooming clemantis?

Thanks for your knowledge!


This message was edited Jun 2, 2006 4:26 PM

Aimee, I told you guys I don't know what the heck I'm doing other than knowing that only on my own thinking at the moment including those with repeat blooms on the same plant are usually lightly pruned or not pruned until after they bloom (they bloom on old wood). The others that bloom like mad in the summer, those I usually forget in addition to cut back! lol

You're asking the wrong fella..!

Some answers to your questions:
The red bush is in fact a bush - a deciduous shrub; Weigelia florida 'Red Prince'.
Regarding evergreen Clematis - yes some are especially in your climate. I used to work (and live) in Portland, OR as a nurseryman. I think it was off the top of my head, Clematis armandii. Now, don't quote me because I'm not going to dig out my old Sunset Garden Book, but I'd bet 99cents on the dollar that I'm correct.

So, for as to pruning, if you aren't sure what to do - I suggest to leave them alone!

I think the (viticella) clematis' are fantastic long period bloomers. And that blue Clematis up there, it blooms like a son of a gun too ('Rhapsody').

Take care (with regards),

Dax

P.s. I haven't checked on another thread I posted to I think two days/nights ago, but I commented on my opinion as to what to do with somebody elses new clematis (to get it established). I guess now since I'm talking about it, I'll have to take a look.

Toodle doo! (That means "Lata")

Dax.

Yah, nobody posted. Let me know what you guys think???

Here's the link:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/578733/

Dax

You know I was just standing in my basement potting up some tree seedlings and it occured to me that stressing a plant is a good thing as well. I might just tell someone who chops off not only the above foliage that they might as well give the roots a little or equal haircut as well.

Seems very logical to me..

Dax

Wow Dax...I sure would sign up for one of your classes,they all look beautiful but the first picture is awesome..!! ;o)))

Loretta..

Thank you Loretta. I like stuff that blooms for a long time. Even though almost all those in the first photo were part of the freebies and I dug them up, I still know pretty well what blooms when just because it's my life's interest.

I was once watching HGTV and that real delicate and beautiful person of a human being which her name escapes me at the moment was visting a garden that was mostly Japanese Maples, at least that was the backbone of the garden. Anyway, that's not the point. She had asked him about how gardening affected him and his answer was, 'It's a never ending cycle of life because just when you had thought you'd seen it all, a new group of cultivars comes out the next year.' He was of course referrring to the Genus Acer (Maple), generally speaking.. I've embraced his simple thought and stored it close in my mind and refer to it at times.

Gardening truly to me is making the earth as fantastic as it possibly can be.

Regards,

Dax

Here's a photo of larger plants yet the same that I have growing in that same bed. Remember the blue-blooming clematis and orange lillies "+" These trees and shrubs.

In front of the Weigelia florida 'Red Prince'

Abies veitchii 'Pendula'
http://www.coenosium.com/Aug00/random/tvtchpnd.jpg

And then going right from the Abies veitchii 'Pendula' with the orange Lillies clumped in groups the entire lenght of the garage:

Abies koreana 'Silver Show'

Here's a 12 year old 'Silberlocke' which 'Silver Show is a seedling of and the foliage. (Both plants are practically identical):

Bickelhaupt Arboretum - March 2004 Abies koreana 'Silberlocke'

And then a close-up of 'Silberlocke' foliage:

And then a prostrate (completely flat) conifer that gets 6-12" tall as it spreads horizontally:

Juniperus x media (Juniperus x phitzeriana) 'Daub's Frosted' which will grow up to the 'Silver Show/Silberlocke' and the last tree which is to the right of 'Silver Show' - Fagus sylvatica 'Purple Fountain'. (only two more shrubs to go which are planted side by side and facing the 'Purple Fountain' - Azalea hybrid 'Mandarin Lights' - Universtity of Minnesota introduction.

Anyway, here's the Juniperus x media 'Daub's Frosted'

Then a Fagus sylvatica 'Purple Fountain' photo from Hidden Lake Gardens in Tipton, MI. August 2005.

And lastly behind or to the side of the Fagus sylvatica 'Purple Fountain' and up against the fence (which has a Clematis 'Blue Moon' on it!) 'Mandarin Light's' Azaleas...bring the "orange" back into the equation and blooming up against the dark purple foliage of the Weeping Beech.

Azalea hybrid 'Mandarin Lights'

Also the entire side of the garage (not my home - doesn't make any difference) but... is a continuous line of Yellow Daffodils which are up 3" already!

Hope you enjoyed the show. As you see, I like contrast and texture, and form, and color. My Conifers and Deciduous are small yet, but in 10 years, even five, I'll have something quite attractive.

Since you guys enjoyed the few Clematis photos and the color of the perennials, etc. I'll post some others of what the landscape looked like and maybe some after the transformation.

Thanks for all your compliments!

Dax

Clematis 'Blue Moon' taken at night:

Universtity of Minnesota Azalea introduction - 'Golden Lights'

Here's that bed with the plants above described:

June 2004 - My Garden

From front to back:
Abies koreana 'Silver Show'
Juniperus x media 'Daub's Frosted'
Fagus sylvatica 'Purple Fountain'
The (2) 'Mandarin Lights' Deciduous Azaleas - Fall Color too!

And a favorite photo of mine before and after (I always will like Lavender):

After the Fall transformation 2004:

Same Area:
(I put an odd-shaped lawn in with a weeping blue upright conifer in the center and removed all the color! You guys probably think I'm looney!!)

Just two more photos:

The same bed in the above Clematis Photo with the 'Polish Spirit' 'Ernest Markham' and 'Etiole Violet' (June 1 2004):

Last Photo - Not much has changed if anything - my West side of the house where deciduous trees give me good filtered light for Rhododendrons and Azaleas. Notice the same 'Golden Lights' Azalea is in bloom as the photo was taken on the same day.

Tree: Acer palmatum 'Seiryu'
Pink Rhododendron 'Spring Dawn'

This is another favorite area of my landscape/garden.

Dax

Ok. One more photo where all the Lavenders were after I removed all the perennials.

Acer japonicum 'Acontifolium' October 25, 2004.

Maybe a few more!

The Alley View of the Lavender and other perennials bed (2) photos (May 2004):

(Alley View)

My Mom still thinks I'm nuts for removing all the perennials. Well, I sort of agree so this year I'm going to load the gaps with annuals (I'm growing tons of them) (May 2004):

My dog "Onyx"

Wonderful, wonderful pics Dax. Thank you for sharing them with us. I enjoyed
looking at them and getting some ideas for my yard. And YES you were NUTS!!! (LOL)
I agree with your mother. :)

Angela