What? No pics today Guru? LOL.
Clematis Guru's Hardwick Hall Summer Blooms
I think she is getting ready for our group to come see her garden and the clems....LOL
can't wait till later today
Janet
Oh, you lucky duck! Right now, I wish I lived in Ohio! =P
clems have recovered from the 2 inches or more of rain on thursday...we were we wet, took two days to dry out!
clems handled it in stride, tho some of the lingering early season blooms were urged on toward dropping by the heavy downpour. no harm there.
what looks good today?
recta "monstroso", my species recta that is in full boom and will continue thru late summer or early fall.
margaret hunt is so beautiful. i am working on my top clems list and she will be in top 5 if not higher...just an unbelievable trouble free beauty...puts jacknamii to shame and so unknown is this clem....
a close up of margaret hunts's flowers.
many vitacellas are starting to bloom. many of the two year old vitacellas look. will post a few here today, wish we could put several photos on a post. anyway here goes with this group of youngsters, we start with negritana
kermisina, starting to open. so glad to have it in the garden.
tie dye starting to open. last year was a much better year for this beauty. this year, i lost 3/4 of the stems to slugs, seemed to have stopped the onslaught and these stems survived me taking all the damaged stems out. one of these stems still has major lower stem damage, but it healed after i got rid of the slugs and shows no harm from the damage.
jackmanii and etoile rose look nice together.jackmanii can be gappy with the long pedicels, a texensis fills in nicely........
well post al the jackmanii photos today and get it out of the way, here is jacknamii suberba
jackmanii alba which has been a very fussy plant. here is one of the first blooms, there are many unopened buds.this clem booms double on old wood, single on new. i have never had old wood o nit a sit usually dies back in the spring before it blooms on it has never bloomed before , in the ground 3 years. maybe 4, ....anyway, this year it looks to be finally establishing not a clem i recommend but lets see how good it gets over the next couple of years.
prince charles starting to open .......etoile rose on the left. a small ville de lyon in there and to the right i have just put in beata and 2 princess dianas, so next year should be good for this display of clems.
will try and get back on here later, have many photos to sort from today and yesterday. a lot is blooming.....
Oh goodness....the clematis are just a blooming!!! Love all your combo's......Hey your homemade trellises are working great too!
yes they are working well. ext year i am going to use the half circle perennial holders and then get them all on the arbor v trees where they are supposed to be ...there were just so may 1 and 2 year old plants this year, and these are working well.i have on e of those on my species recta monstroso this year and it was just right til it grabbed on to the cedar tree that it grows on. you can not even see the half circle holder in all the foliage.
So lovely. I like that idea of filling in the Jackmanii with etoile rose. I have princess diana and duchess of albany...might copy that with one of them on the wrought iron fence with my Jackmanii.
Looks like recta monstroso lives up to her name. I don't know where the half circle holder is!
This message was edited Jun 14, 2009 5:04 PM
bananna18, how old is your duchess of albany? Is it as beautiful as the pictures? I just purchased two small ones and put them in month ago and they are really doing good. I also just ordered 2-Blue Belle from SSV and am thinking on putting them all together on a white fence...think that may be too much? Maybe one of each in different areas?
Nancy
duchess of albany is a new liner I got from Bluestone. I am growing it out in a pot along with 8 other varieties and 2 NOIDs. My brain is swimming with trying to find each a good home...Although I have never been shy to move plants around, I am trying to find the best spot and combos.
we have dried out from the rain last week, so time to start watering the big boys again. pots needed it yesterday. this big boy is perle de azure and polish spirit, each on a different side of the arch. the early bloomers on this arch (joesy and henrii) have come and gone, now it is summer glory with the 2 shades of purple and blue.
i cut durandii blooms over the weekend for an arrangement, but the blooms just keep coming. i am very glad to see it so floriferous as the first couple of years it was not.
ending the blue theme today, blue angel is so fab. i put in two more this year, in other locations i am so fond of it. what a clem!
WOW! Your collection of Clematis is fabulous! I don't know where you put them all, but I sure enjoy viewing them on-line!
I love the way that your clematis layering works CG. Why hadn't I ever thought of putting several clematis together, just roses? Such a simple idea but brilliant in execution. Just lovely.
Wowzers - just look at all those flower buds ready to burst open on perle de azure and polish spirit - it already has a lot of blooms!
I love it everytime you praise a clematis I have....I get so excited....yes I am talking about blue angel....I can't wait to see mine in a few years!!
So lush! I love how you have the early clems and later ones ready to continue the show. I was wondering about that since I have a Henryi and Dr. Ruppel near each other that probably are fini for now. I see how your collars would work well with so many in close proximity.
bananna: Her idea of adding the collars is now my next project. I hate it when newly planted plants have the dirt wash away when I'm watering. If we get a break in the rain I'm going to get started with my collars.
Janet
CG, you are truly a Clematis Guru. Gorgeous blooms!
you are all too kind.
the collars have really helped me take better care of the clems. and when i have a helper here, as i am lucky to do at times, for weeding, mulching and hole digging, the collar is an easy stop light. i am the only one to weed or mulch inside a collar. i find when watering i can break up the flow of water and soak the ground around plus fill the collar a couple of times so i know i have deep watered that plant vs maybe it got enough.
the mgr of a nearby garden store come over here yesterday, for the first time, and she loved the collars......i told her now you know why i have begged you to give and sell me your old thin 3 gallon nursery pots.
if you are just collaring, use the 3 gallon thin nursery pot size. the thin ones are easy to cut (no need to ask hubbie to get saw out) the one gallon are too small. you may have to instal some in the spring after your hard prune and some of mine on clems that were older when i started the collaring and were larger 1's or 2's i cut the collar into a strip and restapled it into the circle. i think jj has used landscape edging for this if i remember from a post.
at one time i tried making 3 collars form one pot, but it did not work, need that upper top edge to have longevity and stability.
and of course when the plant goes missing or takes a break, you know right where to look for it. or dig for the root.
i recently saw pics on line of someplaces in europe that do the collars too..so necessity is the mother of invention and it is a helpful invention that has been used before.
the perle de azure is just ethereal this year, really magical in color and i think it is the polish spirit next to it that brings out it's best. it is the first year the polish has been up high and blooming as it is just in ground 2 years, and the perle de azure 5 years. this shows you the vigor of polish spirit vs other clems. i have found it really useful clem to fill in displays and give counterpoint with color as fast as possible with a vitacella clem. and the blooms are larger and prettier every year with polish spirit.
again thanks for comments and mutual appreciation of all things clem.
shurayakahime is having a good year too. this one started off weak for about 2 years, so i never expected much, but is a nice stable white with a long bloom period and still rather compact at 4 years. am surpried pleasantly by it and it will be in my top 15 i am sure. i am going to rank all the clems i have later in the sumer by length to establish, floriferousness, problems, vigor, length of bloom time etc....top clem may be margaret hunt which have been posting ad naseum. but this is the nice white that i am starting to really appreciate while i wait for huldine, huxtable etc.
snuck from desk out to take a walk and check the blooms. working at home has it's advantages...sometimes.
anyway it is a glorious day and i will share the walk with you.
multi blue is going crazy on new growth and blooming single, but with that great big boss in the middle it sure looks double. i have trouble keeping any old vine on it, winter always seems to take a toll. i may wrap cheesecloth around this trellis in the early winter and see if i can keep the vines this year. can't so that kind of treatment on may but may try it on just this display to see if it works.
anyway, this kind of action on new growth, who needs the old growth!
young vitacella minuet is totally exceeding expectations this year. love this clem.
hagley finally getting the kind of ramble thru the spruce i envisioned 4 years ago when i put it at the drip line of the tree.
sympatia giving a good first year, and is the negritana behind her showing in this shot?
prince charles, ville de lyon, etoile rose, jackmanii... rubro m is not open yet to fill it in even more.
jackmanii an etoile rose. the wingspan on the etoile rose is huge... at least 5 ft side is the display of flowers so now it is comboing with many others.
barbara harrington. nice clem. not huge. compact. hot pink blooms.
jackmanii alba in first good year. this one has been tricky. if i can get some old wood saved thru the winter it will boom fully double next year.
hope margaret hunt daily postings are not boring. this clem is a show stopper. next year i am going to try and get the initial growth trained out differently to spread the wealth so to speak.
the poppies are finally starting to bloom. this is the poppy patch that i adore (my only one)
i save the seedheads in an arrangement inside all winter , very attractive, and then broadcast them in march of each year. started with one poppy and saved the seeds years ago.
You have me convinced that I need Margaret Hunt. It looks like it keeps it color well in the sun. How does the color compare to Comtesse de Bouchaud? Love the Jackmanii/Etoile Rose combo.