Clematis: clems under black walnut?, 1 by mstish

mstish wrote:
I planted Betty Corning, Ragoochi and Princess Diana last spring about 20 to 25 feet away from the trunk of my neighbor’s black walnut tree. Its canopy does not fall over them on my side only because it was cut back severely a couple years ago. It is a big, beautiful 60 to 80 year old tee. My clematis are in a one foot high raised bed. I have had so may friends tell me the clematis won't make it. But I am banking on the fact that they are in a raised bed and this tree is very old and not growing as aggressively as a young tree would be.