Am going to post 09 on this thread. Ee are officially in season with two major clems blooming. Guernsey Cream, one of the all time best Northern zone clematis. Blooms early, starts the season off well. Not a fussy clem, never any issues. Can mound vs climb the first few years, but who can hold that against it when it blooms like this?
This is another display of Guernsey Cream, in a shadier position. These blooms opened a day after the other ones, and you can see the pistachio coloration and green central bar on the sepals that is a hallmark of this clematis.
Both this display and the one posted above, the clematis is growing on common climbing hydrangea, don't even know the name....it is a living trellis for Guernsey.
The close up.
This is Macropetala Markham's Pink, an atragene clematis, and it has actually has been booming for almost a week. This plant has never been pruned, and blooms earliest of any clematis in my collection.
A significant pruning , after these blooms wane, is on the agenda for it.
The Guernsey Cream is absolutely stunning! I think that is one I should get!!!
Just Stunning CG..can't wait till my "GC" gets to be as old as yours...Jeanne
thanks jeanne and dawn, appreciate the comments. i am not sure guernsey is a clem who loves not having a hard winter? not sure.
i have a few others that are not in bloom yet, but budding up. am hoping they wait so i get a longer stretch of these beauties.
gorgeous :0)
So pretty and inspirational! Thanks for sharing. =)
Beautiful CG! I love how Guernsey Cream is climbing up your tree's trunk. Macropetala Markham's Pink is another very lovely early Spring bloomer.
markams pink is pretty. it is not close to my house, and i don't water a lot this time of year in that garden, (once we are in bloom season i am there tons) so do not see it as often as i should whn markam in bloom, but have new clems coming this week and about 20 of them are slated to go in that garden, so i will have my tush down there a lot more. just de ja remembering that these young clems require more attention, the checking and the watering due to shallow roots. oh well, soon they will be grown up and needing less.
by the way my lemon chiffon has not made an appearance or kullus. i can not complain , only a handlful not up, but i know you have had troubles with lemon c too if i remember right. sadly, marmori still on no show list and it was a huge clem, fingers crossed for an appearance this week. like a murder, as clock ticks, less chance of success...and once disappeared, even if back usually not gangbusters...marmori so beautiful i will re order for sure after next week. by the way the celtic skies, remember from last fall and MI Bulb co? anyway they are up, but not vigorous. am shooting them some heavy N tomorrow, with ironite too. we'll see.
much more to come from Hardwick Hall 09!
Yes, Lemon Chiffon bit the dust! I'm looking forward to seeing "Celtic Skies". Is that one on COTW?
Sorry what is COTW?
Remember that Pink Champagne I had that wilted last year? Well I was hoping to see it again this spring and nothing. I got a bit impatient and started digging around in the dirt and there is nothing there! Nothing! Hmmmm very interesting. Oh well I think I will be making another purchase for that spot sometime soon.
COTW = Clematis on the Web... a wonderful database full of clem info!
http://www.clematis.hull.ac.uk/
dawn, if you top dress a lot, dig deeper. how deep did you dig? i have found clem roots 6 to 9 inches deeper than
soil line. also have found empty holes too. are there any mole tunnels around?
if it was alive last year, it should not be rotted away so fast thru the winter and now you just breaking dormancy.
how deep did you dig. i found some waaaay down there and lifted them. a couple have since grown a couple have not. what month did it wilt last year? maybe it rotted after it wilted, before the winter set in?
pink champagne take a long time to establish and for me, while i like the flowers, it blooms so low and takes so long to really establish it is not high on my list of clems to recommend. i have never seen a HUGE one.
Well I know I dug around more than 6 inches deep....I know she wilted earlier in the season....I think the beginning of July. I am sure I don't have moles either.......Oh well no worries....now I can buy a new clematis!
shirley , last time i checked COTW for celtic it was not. i was such a sucker for the look. i think it will be like avante garde but with a freckles and green sepal kind of form. can't tell yet from the leaves, but that was my take from the info and pic when i bought it. both plants are about 8 inches high and seem stalled. therefore the ironite cocktail and a pinch back today.
Sorry Dawn, COTW (Clematis on the Web) is the very best on-line resource with accurate pictures of Clematis.
CG, I'm anxiously waiting to see "Celtic Skies". How big is it suppose to get when it reaches maturity? How would you describe the color of blue? Once it blooms, you should send your pictures into COTW and hopefully they will add it to their database.
A couple of days ago i thought that buds on blue light were looking very pink. Yesterday, i found out that a blue light i had bought locally last fall was really a pink champagne. oh well , that is the roll of the dice. i will get blue light and put it next to this one. pink ch. i snot one of my fav clems, i have it in two other areas, but gotta roll with life's surprises. funny, one of my other pink champagne, opened on exactly the same day, it is entirely in another garden. i have a third, which is not budded even budded up yet.
This morning I took a photo of the garden i call the "north fence east clem garden". not a very pretty name. but the garden has structure with a walkway of clems on the left, and a shrubbery on the right that virtually hides the clem garden from the rest of the property, so it is like entering a room. this garden contains about 38 clems, not including duplicates of which in there are for about half the cultivars in this garden. the shrubbery contains 3 kinds of hydrangea, red twig dogwood, spirea philiadelphius, and hostas galore at the top of the garden. a large hemlock tree at the bottom of the garden is planted with vigorous clems. midway down the aisle of clems is betty corning, she is a real center piece.
right now, everybody is growing well, but we are 3 weeks away from a lot of blooms here. this garden has only one double (otto frobel), but i did just put patricia ann fretwell in , along with irene, frankie, rebecca, ruutel, species macropetala, and and a few others.
so anxious for blooms i am posting too early. but i love this garden and am eagerly awaiting what comes soon.
this is the right hand side of the "n fence e clem garden". the giant insect sculpture actually hosts 4 clems, (wadas primrose, ruttel, frankie and luther burbank, which will soon cover most of the structure.
on this side we have a good selection of herbaceous clems including wyvale, cote de azure, mrs robert brydon. The garden also has more uncommon clems such as hard to find odoriba, mandshurica and species chiisanensais "lemon bells" and species recta.
CG, your gardens are beautiful even without blooms!
thank you. it is so early here. i also kind of like seeing the structure of a garden in winter or when it is not in full size. so imagination needed in viewing these. the shrub border is now all about keeping it just the right height, so i sacrifice a lot of hydrangea blooms as i nip on it all the time. once it is about a foot higher i keep it there, so if you know what you are looking for you can see the clem bloom over the hedge!
thanks again, i appreciate the feedback very much!
I would imagine the shrubs do a good job of keeping the clem roots shaded.
you know i think they do.and there are 50 small boxwoods scalloped around the front of the clems on fence, arches and oblesiks to the right as you look down the left hand side of the photo of the "n fence e "clem garden. i will have to remove some of them this fall or sooner, i over planted, planning to move some eventually. i do this a lot so i get a better look quicker, and then have some replacement plants or can start another hedge somewhere.
too bad i did not name the gardens better, but organizing them helped me keep track and see them as individuals, vs as a 2 acre to do list! the clem gardens are organized as (and i wil be posting photos of all over the next few weeks)
w berm s
w berm n
n fence w
n fence center
n fence e
around house
clem walk
5 years ago the whole area you see in those photos was wild, untamed, naturalized stuff. my husband cleared it, with a weed wacker and a troybuilt bush hogger type thing, then we laid down 8 inches of woodchips for a couple of years, refreshing every year and hitting weeds that dared poke thru the wood chips with round up. then at year 3, i took up the wood chips, put down landscape mat and more chips and started putting the shrubs in and clems. expanded every year and last fall took out a large, ancient crabapple where you see the willow chairs to create more sun. also limbed up some of the big trees you see around there.
i do not know if you can see the evergreen cedars on the fence to the right as you look down, but i bare rooted them 8 years ago in quart pots. i bare rooted about 50 , 6 inch pieces . most of which are still on the property and between 3 and 8 feet tall. that is a good feeling, but takes time. the shorter ones have been moved a couple of times in search of permanent homes!
Gorgeous, seriously gorgeous!
I love your yard Guru......such wonderful space and ideas you have. Thanks for sharing! I love that sitting area too!
CG, your gardens must be very restful. It's always a good feeling to be able to look around and see the results of all your hard work. Thanks for sharing pictures and also for sharing the story of how your gardens evolved.
CG, your garden is beautiful. Your hedges look so perfect. I promise not to show the "shrinking turd bush" at the corner of the garden. It was here before I was, and would difficult to remove. It is getting smaller each year, it is overdue for its next reducing session.
I looked up macropetala on http://www.clematis.hull.ac.uk/new-clemdetail.cfm?dbkey=248
It said that some varieties are scented, is markham pink? I really like the small, scented clems.
regarding scent and clems. not much. i know fragrance develops in hotter weather, like right now my lilacs are not as fragrant as usual, as it is not as warm as it usually is.
i don't think any clems are going to have powerful, heavy fragrance. some folks can smell the "hawthorne scented" terniflora, and other clems are sometimes noted as having a fragrance. but for me, not much. i do not have the greatest sense of smell anyway. planting some nicotania (sp?) within the garden ( an annual seed here in my area that self seeds like a weed) is the best way to get fragrance into the border, lowest cost, will blend into a hedge or just behind it.
very inexpensive, nice plant maybe 2 to 3 ft high, loaded with blooms. i am going to put some out this year. i have not done it in a few years and the fragrance was a nice addition.
Thank you CG. I noticed that the honeysuckle and lilac are less scented this year, also. It may be the cold , wet weather. It was such a cold March and April, then we had those summer days, we are finally having April weather in May. I tried starting some nicotania seed without success. I have some seeds left, I will try direct sewing them. My garden is still clem free, but I have been learning lots and making my wish list.
Out to battle the rocks. They seem to always be where I want to plant roses. Joys of life in the "slate belt"
well, another clem i bought at Lowes last year has bloomed and shown a mis-lable. labeled as miniseelik,
which was a clem i didn't have. like the blue light that opened as pink champagne earlier in the week, miniseelik opened as pink champagne today. very disappointed, as it is not one of my favorite clems.
i will not buy any more clems from lowes, unless they are such a great buy that i am motivated to keep them potted till they bloom. if they are a dupe i can pop them in next to the same cultivar, no problem.
garden quilts..yes sow the nicotania outside and it will not sprout till it is warmer, but it is easy to grow. i am doing some this weekend mixed into some shrubs. if we do not plan the fragrance aspect of a garden, we will be missing a vital element in the summer and it is only pennies fora packet of seeds for all the fragrance you could desire.
Sounds like your gardens will be overflowing with Pink Champagne this season. :-)
WOW! What beautiful gardens you have even if they never bloomed! The Clematis flowers are the "icing on the cake"!
thank you shirley. spent the late afternoon planting and then noticing some earwig damage and putting out some bait/ poison and cutting droopy buds and stems that had earwig bites. luckily only one clem affected, nice fat double otto froebel buds..tasty i am sure.
Well yesterday was a fine spring day at Hardwick Hall in the clem gardens. windy, but the gardens each have some protection form high trees, fencing or slop of hillside, so even tho we were being whipped with high winds, all seemed peaceful in the clem areas.
noticed henryi starting to bloom on the "clem walk" garden. an early taste of what is to come down there. the clem walk is a group of about 50 clems planted behind a retaining wall that started as a path my hubbie cut into the wild hillside about 18 years ago. eventually retaining walls were built, and as the area was cleared, it was intially a day lilly garden, which soon gave way to the invasion of the clems and removal of almost everything else. in a couple of weeks, the walk will be a mass of blooms, right now henryi is the only bloomer.
here is the way the clem walks looks now. i do most of the gardening on these clems from behind altho some of the clems are easily reached from the walk way.
here is another bit of the long clem walk , showing henryi's first blooms.....
yesterday claire de lune opened a few of her lovely blooms. after 4 years in the ground, and not a lot of spring vigor, this clem is proving to be a good bloomer. when they all open it will be spectacular.
yesterday also marked the first ever blooms for me of otto froebel. otto was a mis-ship from chalk hill in spring of 08. labeled as otto, but not ordered by myself. when Murray said, "keep it"..i was like, ooh i do not need another of these fussy early pastels that take years to establish. oh well, into the ground it went. in future years it will be a show stopper. this year, i lost many of the buds to earwigs last week before i treated the area and removed all droppy buds. (about half of them were removed)
i mistakenly remembered otto as a double, so yesterday after i saw the booms, did a quick look up o COTW. it is indeed otto, who is indeed not a double, but a delightful pastel, wavy margin flower.
my pic does not do the flower justice. i will photograph it again today to se if i can do better. it is gorgeous blend of
yellow, greenish white, white and pink. kind of like a claire de lune with more coloration and a stronger central bar on the reverse of the sepals. these blooms had just unfurled.
yesterday some john warren's started to open, not ready for photo op..and the pink champages that are open are very cheerful. good thing, since i have a lot of them.....
today, mothers day, is another garden day with top dressing of the newly planted clems on the agenda, and a few left to plant as well. checking for bugs, lever looping, a massage (for me) and a few friends in for dinner complete the plan for the day.
hope all have a great mothers day and some good clemming too!
