Who has clematis?

Just curious to know how many of my fellow Canadians are into clematis? I am also curious to know which kinds you are growing and which ones you feel are the best in your gardens.

I have a clematis named 'Toronto', which I bought at the Canada Blooms garden show. My daughter got one too - hers blooms at the bottom and mine blooms at the top. We think that may because of the different ways they get sun. Anyone have any other ideas?

It could have to do with the sun.....but how are you two pruning it? Do you prune it in different ways? Do you know what pruning type it is?

OH btw very pretty clematis. I haven't heard of that one.

I love clematis. I currently have maybe 14-15 A and C types ( I avoid B because they are not reliably hardy here although I would love to have some of them!) Some grow on the side of the house some on the fences and I have a clematis fence ( chain link) between a flower bed and my veggie garden with A's growing on it. 2 years ago I had a small pergola built and started growing clematis up each of the 3 posts. I plant a couple every year so I am g radually covering my fences!
Here is a pic of my clematis fence unfortunately finished flowering.

I love Clematis as well .. however .. Clematis does not like ME :-(
Have purchased 3 to 4 plants over the past maybe 6 years .. have planted them with either a southern exposure or eastern .. babied them .. .they ... do well for about a month .. then .. B L A H !!!
I do have one that is virtually 'clear' .. it has no colour .. the pods go from green an open to expose an almost traslucent furry lil flower .. and .. it has completely encircled one of my Globe Cedars. I hacked away at the vine thinking I most likely would kill it .. NO WAY .. it seems to thrive on my neglect.
Perhaps this year I will again try my luck .. the old gentleman down the road has THE most gorgeous purple/red one that his deceased wife planted years ago .. and it gracefully makes its way up his downspout (south facing) he has NO idea where she got it.

I would sure be wide open to any suggestions and or tips ^_^

~M~

DawnLL, no I don't know what pruning type it is. It starts new from the ground each year. Does that help?

Joan are you saying that you cut it back every early spring or that you don't cut it back at all and just let it come naturally?

Marilynne I say try a type 3 clematis...maybe one of the vitacella's? They tend to do really well. And you cut them back every early spring down the the ground.....I have several of them and I haven't had any troubles.

How is the weather wayyyy up there? I am in Sudbury....today was gorgeous...more mild for sure!

DawnLL, It dies back and comes up fresh in the spring, so I don't do anything.

Thanks for the suggestion Dawn .... I'll give it another whirl.

Thunder Bay was awesome today .. took my little WHITE Westie out and she is now sort of white with brown feet coz of the muddy country roads .. but .. it was just WAY to nice to stay inside ^_^

~M~

Hmmm I am not sure what to say Joan....your clematis sure is gorgeous though....I tried looking up but I didn't find anything....

Marilynne I too was outside with the kids...it was way to nice to stay in for sure.....

Love that "Toronto" Clematis.. Gotta watch for it now.

I have one Clematis, Star of India. Very reliable. Cut it down every Fall and away it goes again in the Spring.

Toronto is lovely - it is not listed on Clematis on the Web, probably very new and not submitted yet. Sounds like a C group Joan - I assume you are trimming off the dead foliage every year?
I really like that type of flower.

fancyvan, I don't do anything with it. The vine dies down to the ground and starts fresh each year.

Hi folks! I'm growing Clematis x texensis 'Duchess of Albany' (I think). It is supposed to grow through a purple-leaved plum bush, but instead has spread along the ground. I have noticed that whenever I plant a clematis, it grows in the opposite direction than I intended. I don't know anything about pruning clematis, as rabbits do that job for me in the winter. The 'Duchess' is pretty resilient!

Joan if you dont do any trimming and it 'dies back to the ground' every year then you have an A group clematis which flowers on old wood.

June Duchess of Abany is a C group which is usually given a hard prune late fall or early spring. I think your Duchess looks lovely with that purple plant! ( what is it?)

Sometime you need to give the plant some help in the growing direction ( which for most varieties is up) but there are some that do not climb and can be left to scramble along the ground.

That's a pretty combination, June.

Sandy

Thanks for the compliments! The purple shrub is Purpleleaf Sand Cherry (Prunus x cistena 'Atropurpurea') and it is also highly regarded by rabbits. They strip all the bark off above the snow line, and I remove the dead branches in spring. It grows back strongly, and I give it a haircut when it overtops the deck railing.

Another Clematis I planted is 'Kaiu'. My idea was for it to festoon a rose bush, but it had other plans and grew through a clump of daylilies instead.

I have a couple of Clematis - a regular Jackmani which started off real slow and then took off like a shot. It obviously likes where it is.

And I have this one at the front of my house. I have no idea what kind it is - anyone know?
I do remember planting two at the same time and only one has survived. It has done MUCH better since we removed a Mountain Ash tree and a pyramidal juniper that were close to it and it gets more light. It looks quite white in the picture but is actually pale blue or mauve.

I'll keep looking for a better picture of it close up.

Here's one from 2005 quite a bit closer.

That is a nice one Ann.

Here is one of my favorites - Rouge Cardinal, it grows on a lattice at the end of one of my raised veggie beds.The first time I ever saw it it was growing in a very shady spot - some clematis do very nicely in the shdae apparently.

What lovely pictures! I'm starting to think about what clematis to buy this year. Has anyone else looked at all the goodies on the Gardenimport website? Go to www.gardenimport.com and click on the shrubs and vines link, and be prepared to drool.

Their clematis are pretty expensive but I think this year I will indulge in alpina Stolwijk Gold which I have coveted for several years now!

Gorgeous photo's fancyvan...I LOVE your Rouge Cardinal...what a stunning colour!!

June_Ontario I love how you have them growing through other plants...or at least trying to LOL Sorry to hear about the rabbits...gosh they can be bad little critter eh?

ViolaAnn I have the Jackmanii too....sure is pretty!

Don I have Star of India too...

Here is a mixture of three clematis....The President, Jackmanii, and one of my fav's Comtess de Bouchard.

Dawn
I love the Clemy wall! The two colors look delightful !
Ann

Wow, your pictures are beautiful. I have a few, but nothing like the blooms all of you have posted. Very Nice!!

It did nt have so many blooms as usual last year but this is my very old Hagley Hybrid- my first clematis, planted probably in 1990 or 1991.It climbs up the arch at the side gate with honeysuckle on the other side.

The Star of India is pretty. I'd like to plant another next to my nearly white one. Might be a good choice.

That would look lovely Ann

good morning everyone. I just joined this morning and hope I can be involved. I live in the Windsor Ontario area which is zone 6. I own a garden center (small one) that I really enjoy. I have started a lot of my seeds and do cuttings year round. The nursery sells annuals, perennials, trees and shrubs.

Welcome presco4875. Nice to have you with us. I hope that you will introduce yourself on the Canadian Gardneing Forum in general as well. DG is an awesome place. I hope you'll enjoy it here.

Please do tell us about your nursery and if you sell Hostas, be sure to let those of us on the Hosta forum know what you are doing to avoid plants that are affected with HVX.

Do you do any mail order? Windsor's a long way for me to travel, but in some cases I would order.

Ann

I have a few clematis, most started from seed. I've bought a few more of the climbers in recent years to go with rose bushes, but none are performing much yet. I really like the non-climbing clematises, heraceifolia, integrifolia and recta.

I've had Blue Bird (Group1) for a few years and it does pretty well here.

Welcome presco - yes please do start a new thread so you dont get lost in this clematis thread!

Welcome presco - glad to have you join us here.

Echoes that is such a pretty flower!

echoes - that's pretty.

Is there any way to tell what group a Clematis is in if you don't know what variety it is?

Anne you mean if you dont know the name? Well you can always try to ID it - the ID or clematis forum here for instance or Clematis On The Web but of course there are hundreds of varieties!

The clue would be how it flowers - A flowers on old wood so you never cut it down every year, although you might trim out old growth from time to time, B flowers on both old and new growth and C flowers on new growth.

for instance what do you do with your white/blue one? Do you cut it down every fall ? And then it flowers again on the new growth next year - that is a C group. Or do you just leave it, it looks 'dead' all winter and in the spring there is lots of new green leaves all over and it flowers all over it is most likely A.

This one is John Huxtable....I really wanted Henry but I couldn't find one around here.....

This one is Ville de Lyon.....I just planted her last spring.....Love this one so far!