Clematis: Pruning...and chat continued, 1 by pirl

pirl wrote:
Thanks, Kathy! What a happy springtime face on that pansy! I agree - winter can be over. I'm ready for spring by now, too.

We have 30 gardens here and I maintain all but the vegetable garden - that belongs to Jack, but I do help out in spring with mulching.

The JI fever started slowly but once the computer came into my life I immediately went to Ensata Gardens and selected 20 JI's that I loved and I was trying to get the number down when Jack said the words we women love to hear: Why not buy them all? Then came a wonderful DG person, Candy (NoH2O), who sent me many JI's. It went from there to more trading, much more buying, co-op's here at DG, and then came Eartheart Gardens in Maine. The owner is Sharon Whitney and I loved meeting and talking with her as well as touring her gardens. No soldier straight lines of plants there! I'll attach a photo of her garden.

So now I have five JI gardens and more JI's grouped in other gardens.

I was thinking of you yesterday when I planted 7 volunteer Silver Lace vines in one area. I may end up having wide 6' tall wood trellises made to fit the area.

Deer are a big problem here, too. They don't like the astilbe, JI's, any irises at all, only the new tips on clematises. They won't touch coleus, salvia, herbs (like the massive French tarragon), yarrow or most of our shrubs but they just devour my favorite hosta plantaginea, hydrangeas and lilies. Some years they leave the lilies alone - that's a real puzzle. As a gift to ourselves and our gardens we're hiring a company to spray deer deterrent every other week beginning in April.