Clematis

Hi Ellen, I have quite a few Clematis [93 or so] around the garden and one of the main points is my trellis entrance to the garden. I face the same problem as you as I have around 15 to 18 Clematis on the West side of the entrance and possibly the same amount on the East side which are planted very closely together.


That makes it impossible to distinguish which Clematis is what variety and class. So I disregard all the accepted rules and just cut back to three healthy buds on all of them. I have done that over the years and found that there is no harm done and that they all flower nicely. The important thing is to cut back only to about 3 healthy buds and hopefully, like me, you should have no problems.

 

Well, I did start off innocently enough with the intention of obeying the set down rules for planting Clematis. But once I'd cracked how to get Clematis to grow happily after really struggling in the early years my enthusiasm got the better of me.
So I started off planting them wide apart to give them plenty of room....then saw one or two new varieties that I liked and bought them, and then some more, and then some more. So I planted them a bit closer, and then closer still!! It worked and so I've been adding two or three varieties to one side or the other of the Trellis Entrance possibly every year, and then planting some in the Jasmine Hedge that runs along the Pond and just recently against the Lilac and Acer Brilliantissimum.
That, of course, leaves you with a mass of entwined stems from which you have no chance of differentiating which variety is which. So I count three buds up from the bottom of each stem that I can identify from the ground. In some places it is impossible to do so so I take a count of three buds up on one stem in the tangle and cut..........very scientific. I do notice that some Clematis will take two or three years to get away in growth and flowering [to a standard that I want] but that's gardening for you. I also complicate the matter by having perennial and annual Sweetpeas growing into the Clematis but it seems to work. I do treat the Clematis like roses though with regard to feeding. They get a weekly feed of general soluble feed when I see leaves starting in the Spring and then I substitute that with Tomato Feed when I see buds forming.

 

Actually the hedge wasn't a real designed plan. I had had to put a fence and gate around the pond for the safety of the Kids when they were young in the 90's. But the sight of the bare fence just jarred with me so when I got the chance of getting some cuttings of Jasmine Officinale I gratefully took them. I grew them on and then planted them alongside the fence. It's now about 25' long, 7' tall, nice and thick and due to this Hot Summer it has flowered profusely and the scent is gorgeous....enough to get me to walk down to the pond in the evening with a glass of wine and contemplate the world.
I honestly think that regular feeding is one of the keys to success with Clematis and Roses. A lot of people just plant them and then expect them to grow away and flower to how they would dream them to. I plant my Clematis "shoulder to shoulder", and while I have found they are quite happy to grow and flower, feeding gives them a boost and the increase in flowering and health is really noticeable.

 

I like and use Growmore occasionally but granulated feed takes more time to break down and release nutrients to the plants so I tend to use a soluble feed as I think the plants can make use of it more quickly.