I am itching to see more beautiful blooms.....please post 2-3 of your favourite photo's......I am sure that will curb my need until spring arrives......
This is The President....
I want to see more photos! Post your fav pics!
This was my second year for The President....
A mixture along my fence....2 summers ago.
My nelly moser that always gets washed out from the sun...I still like her that way though....
your clems look very healthy dawn. can't wait for the season.
i did a complete check out a couple of hours ago, pulling back the leaves and mulch from many of the clems. there was more sprouting than i thought there would be.....i gently recovered some of them with a little less than i pulled off. some of the plants that bloom on old wood are sprouting alone the vine so i have to get out there and clean up the damaged vines soon.
here is etoile violette from last summer. it is the second flush of blooms. i hard prune etoile v as soon as the first flush starts waning and get a good second show. if i wait till the first flush is finished the second flush is not as good. but takes a cold heart to hard prune when there are still blooms!
ps the reason the photo above does not go over the fence is the hard pruning. i keep it small.
Dawn,
I love your Clem pictures. The President and Nelly Moser are growing and blooming their heads off! I especially like the combo planted together. Nice contrast in color. Yes, Nelly will fade in the sun because her tepals are so lightly colored. Hopefully with time, The President will provide shade for her tender blooms.
Niobe,
You know I''m a huge fan for Etoile Violette. That Clematis blooms profusely!
Here's my Etoile Violette doing its thing!
Guru and Shirley your EV are real special....just gorgeous.....Mine will be in my garden for her 2nd year...I can't wait to see what she does. I have mine gowing with John Huxtable.
Keep the photo's coming!
I think Henryi is my current favorite, because it has such huge flowers. Also like my General Sikorski, but I don't have a picture of it. Here's Henryi & Ville de Lyon. Sun's at the wrong angle in the picture.
wow I can see the size of your flower on the Henryi - huge! I have Ville de Lyon too and she is so pretty!
Dawn, I love your combo--which ones are they? I wanted to put a combo by my patio but couldn't settle on which two so I ordered two Guernsey Creams (I have a riot of colors all around the split rail fence they will go on--my butterfly garden). Also, I was afraid colors would fade because this is a western exposure and the sun gets soooo hot down here.
CG--your ET is so pretty! I just planted a Venosa Violetta because I love the dark purple--I hope it's as pretty as your ET.
I don't have any pictures of my clematis but I have buds on one (can't remember which) so I will get pics of it as soon as they open. Sure have enjoyed all these pics though.
Naturelover - thanks for the compliments.....the three of them that you can really see from the right are Jackmanni, Comtess de Bouchard and the President.....
here is a different angle...
That's absolutely glorious, Dawn!
Thanks pirl....I love clematis....can you tell?
Good morning folks;,,
Just sitting here having a cup of joe and looking at all the gorgeous clematis.... Some nice looking plants and blooms... It's getting to be that time of year again... The birds are singing and the plants will be waking up soon.... All the clematis in the greenhouse are growing like made... Some even blooming already.... Looks like another nice day to get back out and do some chores in the yard...
..Dave
Uncle - that is picture perfect!
I have a Rebecca on order, and planned on leaving it in a planter. Anyone have one? Will that work, do you think?
ok uncle, that can't be blooming now in your garden.
give us the dirt on it!
dawn, your combo is amazing!
Dawn: Absolutely LOVE your trio of blooms!
the president 08. 07 blooms were bigger, but i pruned more agressively for 08. the plant needed a big clean up and i gave it one. i noticed 08 blooms were a little smaller, but it was still a delightful show from the president.
going to keep my hands off it this spring and see what 09 brings.
Well it will be some time before I see it again but I think this is currently my favorite- Rouge Cardinal This is taken a couple of years ago - it is much thicker now.
Beautiful Guru....The President is awesome and so is your RC....why is RC your favourite right now?
Probably because of the color! My bedroom is close to that shade .I am fond of rose/wine shades.(My LR/TV room is wine!)
This message was edited Mar 15, 2009 4:28 PM
Jaw dropping gorgeous!
love rouge cardinal. it is known as a clem that is not a floriferous type. but mine have been good the last couple of years. i gave in to multiples of it and have it in a couple of different garden areas..who can resist those sales or those pot bound victims needing rescue?
hard to do.
here is rouge cardinal with blue angel. a nice combo. they do wilt back, but just cut off and wait, it comes back and says "i am sorry i did that"
that doublish bloom near the bottom is violet elizabeth, also in the combo. but not looking too violet in this shot.
The combo looks great....love the contrast again......I love planted two clems together to intertwine....I just love colour everywhere!
OK Guru,,, I confess..... That is one of my container grown plants inside the greenhouse..The ones I keep in the greenhouse break dormancy in January... Nothing like an early jump on spring huh!! .... Then I get to go through this whole blooming thing again with all the clematis I have planted outside....
Another one of my favorites... Have two of these getting ready to bust loose...
...Dave
Dave - IDs on the vines you posted?
It would also be cool to see your setup in the greenhouse. How warm do you have to keep it to get these guys going so early in the year?
Good morning Katie;,,
Look at the lower left hand side of the images,,, I put the names there....
Average daytime temps in winter are around 50 degrees... Warmer on days that the sun shines.... I have temps reaching 100 inside now with the doors open... First of the month I'll be getting ready to put the shade cloth on... Took a couple pics earlier this morning... Without taking a count, I'm guessing I have close to 300 clematis inside growing in various stages from seedlings to mature plants...
..Dave
A few seedlings that sprouted this winter..
truth be told,i am jealous of a greenhouse in one way but i know then the obsession and work would be 12 months a year. the winter break may be keeping me form burning out on clem-itis!
your look great. clems are amazingly hardy!
the seedlings look like terniflora.
Wow, Dave -
You are way too organized and polished for the likes of me. Imagine that I didn't even think to shift my eyes from the blossom to look at the name there. Oops. Thanks for so delicately pointing that out.
UncleGreenThumb is surely right. That is wonderful. It almost sounds like you have a little conservatory there - a place where you can sit and read and 'listen' to your seedling-children germinate. Thanks for sharing your photos!!
I agree with with you ClematisGuru - I am envious, but then have to remember all the work that "fertility" involves.
It reminds me of a funny story (off-topic, imagine that!): When my nephew was about 11 he came home from school and told his mom that they had learned all about sex in school that day. He proudly stated, "I can father hundreds of thousands of babies!" His mother, thinking quickly, replied, "Yes, but can you afford hundred of thousands of pairs of soccer shoes?" Joe, just as quick as his mother (he's a trial lawyer now, no surprise) said, "Oh, we learn about responsibility tomorrow."
The story still makes me smile.
cute story katie. yeah i would probably burn out if i had a greenhouse. i did have my obsessive seed starting days about 10 years ago. started hundreds of petunias etc inside under lights, uppotting them 2 and 3 times before warm enough to go outside, then putting them out and taking them in. it was something i did for about 3 years. as i got more into clems, i dropped it all. appreciate taking the winter "off" form gardening, but by march i am frantic to get started.
on that note just went to nursery and bought 30 bags of composted cow manure with peat moss added, 10 bags of nias posy power horse manure with amendments and 10 large bags of pea gravel. plan to top dress the clems with pea gravel this year.
using less nias this year in favor of the manure with peat moss added. i will throw in bone meal, small amount as i mix it to use it.
am going to fertilize the very early bloomers today , which are the alpinas and macrotpetalas, atragenes. don't have that many of them, but they need their food earlier. will fertilize the doubles that bloom on old wood next week and will fertilize the early large flowered in about 2 weeks.
and the rest by mid april. using Bloom and Grow for this task, then top dressing with the manure and pea gravel on top of the top dressing.
should start the year off right. at least i hope so.
also, got some good used books on clems from GoldenGate used books out in calif. good selection. barry fretwell from 2000. an older one devoted entirely to species clems. and 2 of the ones by marigold someone, who i am not familiar with. will def order from golden gate again.
have a green one everybody! let the season begin!
Holy cow. You are ambitious today. About how many clematis would you estimate that you have?
Quick question for those of you who know (sorry, Dawn, for getting off-track on your thread): My SIL has a mature clematis that has not ever, from what I can see, been pruned. She has no idea what the cultivar is or what pruning group it's in. I believe that it's flowering fine for her, so she's not trying to solve any problems, per se.
Should she do any pruning on the tangle of vines or just leave that alone and feed it? What does one do when they don't know what pruning category their clematis is in? I had heard at one point (Fine Gardening Magazine, I think) that no clematis would ever suffer from being cut back hard, regardless of the pruning group, but it that's true, then why are there three techniques to begin with?
niobe: What a beautiful combo! I'm finally growing "Rouge Cardinal". I was growing them in containers for 6 months and then I planted them in my garden in early Fall. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will appear this Spring.
Dave: Your "Florida Sieboldii" is gorgeous! I have that one growing in my garden too and it's one of my favorites! Yes, you definitely would have to grow that one in your greeenhouse because it doesn't like cold temps.
I'm so impressed that you're growing Clematis from seed! I've never tried growing them from seed. What kinds are you growing?
Katie: When did the Clematis bloom? Early Spring, Early Summer or Early Fall? You can prune groups 2 and 3 after they bloom. Group 1 doesn't need to be pruned. Here's a link that will describe the pruning process in more detail. http://www.britishclematis.org.uk/pruning.htm
Thanks, Shirley. I think it's a later summer bloomer. I have some more info on it - it has fairly big blossoms, is light purple and has stripes radiating out from the center.
They are happy with the blooming it's done, but realize that it could use some cleaning up for the health of the plant.
You're very welcome, katie. It sounds like a group 3, which is a hard prune, but if you can post a picture when it is in bloom, we might be able to id it. Not making any promises, but it's worth a try.
I'll definitely try to do that. You guys are very helpful!!
Hello, I haven't posted before, but I wanted to say I have been really enjoying everyone's clematis! Very inspiring!
