Clematis: Mail order clematis question, 1 by BlissfulGarden

BlissfulGarden wrote:
Sharkey, I also wondered about Shirley's advice to soak overnight and then fill the hole with water when planting too. I must admit, I did not do that. Shirley lives in a very different environment than us, though, so she may not be able to imagine that our air (yours and mine) is typically very damp. It would take forever for a planting hole purposefully filled with water to dry out here, and I fear the roots would rot in the meantime. I do soak bareroot plants that I receive overnight (typically roses), but the clems were already well-hydrated when I received them. So, no worries. There were only a few that I worried about after arrival... most from a large shipment from Donahue's that arrived very banged up. I talked with their retail manager and she offered to replace any that were still showing stress 10 days out. Well, yesterday was the 10-day mark and only one of theirs is looking unhappy at this point. The only other clem that had trouble, out of 75 total ordered this season, was one from Joy Creek. All of theirs arrived heavily pruned, many with no leaves. All except one has leafed out beautifully, but this one just sits there... doing nothing. It's a montana, so I had anticipated it would be bursting before now, so I wrote to Joy Creek asking for advice. They immediately wrote back that they are replacing the plant. So, out of 75 mail-order clems, only 2 with problems... I'd say that's a great result for the season. I had a greater percentage of damaged iris rhizomes last season, and clems are much more fragile for shipping. I've been very impressed with the clem nurseries, and also with the ability of the clems to rebound.

My other problem is SLUGS. Here's poor Huvi... the slugs adored him.

This message was edited May 12, 2009 3:05 PM