please share your experience growing this gorgeous vine. I'm sort of interested in white (but not sweet autumn-already have, thanks Melva) or purple. I started growing Nelly Moser but that goes in my shade area.
Your comments will be greatly appreciated. Also recommendations of places to buy locally.
clematis in houston
Vossner,
I started a couple clematis ( Nelly moser and a known purple) a couple weeks back. I bought mine at Wally world. They had several colors there.
Patti
Hi Patti. you also gave me the tip of Nelly Moser availa. at HD, which I immediately got. Planted it part shade to grow amid azalea bushes. Then yesterday I went to Vintage Rosery in Needville and bought me a Camaise Superiour (sp?) and decided it needs to be framed with a clematis. I'll check wally world.
Thanks for the tip. Your garden buddy nery
Keep it's roots cool, shaded, out of sun.
Be very patient!
Sidney
I have to be patient, oh no! These plants are forcing me to be patient when I don't wanna...
I know, it's a 3 year thing, then they are fantastic. First year they sleep, second they creep and third they leap. (Or someone thought they were a weed and pulled them.) He is still living. lol
Funny.
Another story that I know well. Last year I planted a million (well, 15) echinacea and only 2-3 plantlets survived. Being my usual impatient self, I went ahead and planted these outside anyway and they struggled thru the summer but were still living until last Monday when the fella that helps me w/ the yard yanked them out before I had a chance to alert him.
Doh! That had to hurt!
Does anyone do hydrangeas successfully? I am in Houston/spring actually
caraboof, I bought 3 annabelle (white mophead). Planted on north side mostly shade last spring and I lost all three. Nursery, Bluestone Perennials had a 1 yr warranty and are sending me replacements in a week or so.
Later in Fall 2004 I got one at Houston Plants & Garden World from Monrovia just labeled white mophead. Died back but this spring is coming back pretty strong. Maybe it's just a matter of getting the right variety for this area.
There are many houses/businesses around me that grow them, so my failure might have been "gardener" error. I would try them, if I were you.
caraboof,
I have been growing a couple of "rescued" variegated hydrangia for the last couple of years. Poor things kept ending up in too much sun at first, but I believe they are finally sited properly now, and they seem to be coming in strong.
Have you ever been to the Arbor Gate in Tomball? I'm going to the free class this Sat (4/2) at 1:00. Brenda Beust Smith (The Lazy Gardener) and Mark Bowen will be there. I'd love to meet you if you're going.
Hi, everyone, I'm fairly new to Texas (only 2 years), very new to gardening (haven't even started yet), and extremely new to this forum board (just signed up two days ago)! We just bought our first house here in Sugar Land a couple of months ago and I am very excited about getting our yards front and back looking beautiful. The house was a rental home before we bought it, so as you might imagine, the previous owner did absolutely nothing with it - it's just about a blank canvas!
My question is the same as the first poster in this thread - how do Clematis do in our hot and humid Houston area climate? We have 3 arches in the front of our house which is partially shaded by a tree much of the day, but gets some direct hot afternoon sun. I'd love to train some flowering vines up the front of the house along those arches and I think Clematis would be gorgeous. Is it doable, do you think?
Any advice or experience would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Valerie
Valerie, welcome. we are practically neighbors. I live in richmond, do all my gallivanting in Sugar Land.
Lowes & Walmart have some nice clematis in 4" pots, several varieties for about $5. You can look up the clem. variety on the net to learn whether it is a full sun or a part sun. In either case, when you plant, the base MUST be heavily mulched as they resent our heat. THey don't die, but they go dormant and do nothing for you. The little 4" plants need to be watched closely for a year, they're just too young to do much of anything.
When you have a change, be sure and ck out the Vines and Climbers forum. You will learn a lot as there are many clem. enthusiasts who happily share their knowledge.
welcome
Vossner--I lost a good number of echinaceas this winter too....kinda has me perplexed; maybe it got to dry?
Debbie
the hottest summer in 100 years, desert-like, which is unsual for us, an below average precipitation. We are typically very high humidity. I lost some plants, too, mostly young plants that just couldn't survive the harshness.
Yep--I was forgetting about how hot it was before the dry winter....a true gardener here "selective memory"...LOL
I bought 2 'Dr. Ruppel' clematis at Walmart. They were in 4 inch containers and blooming. Does anyone know if they will burn up in some afternoon sun? My neighbor just chopped all of the large lower branches from his Arizona Ash tree so the clematis will receive full sun for a while as the sun starts droppng in the late afternoon? Since I have never grown them before, I am now worried about where I planted them. Because they are "too young" to do anything for a few years, should I plant another vine with them so my 2 trellises are not barren?
htop,
i have a dr ruppel also from walmart, bought a year and half ago. it's doing fantastic. i have it on the west side where it gets blazing afternoon sun. it was in a pot it's first year, and i just moved it to the ground a few weeks ago and now it's going crazy with blooms. the thing to consider with getting such hot sun: keep the roots cool. when i had mine in a pot (it was a white pot which helped), i also surrounded the pot with other pots/plants. now that it's in the ground, i have asiatic jasmine around it's base.
evie, Dr Ruppel is a class III clematis and can take full sun. I think the key thing is to keep base heavily mulched, to keep roots cool (er). you should be fine.
eviestevie and vossner, thanks so much for the information. I was afraid that I may have to move it. It has a variegated hibiscus in front of it which is heavily mulched, is watered frequently in the summer and will provide lots of shade at the vine's base. I will mulch around it too.
My 'Dr. Ruppel' clematis vines are blooming. The color of the bloom is not as dark as the one on the label nor the last photo at this link.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/31521/index.html
They look light the lighter colored blooms in the other photos. I guess I should have waited for them to bloom before I bought them. I violated my own rule of plant purchases ... wait for the bloom so you know what you are buying. The blooms are lovely; however, the vines will be growing up a trellis next to whitish brick and I wanted a darker color bloom so it would standout. Also, the darker color would match some of the leaf varigation color on my 'Snow Queen' hibiscus. Does antone know why the blooms that have just open (no sunlight fade) are so light as compared to some of the photos I have found of this variety?
don't know what to tell you. I have a Dr Ruppel in my holding area, in a pot, full sun, and the color as as dark as the last pic. in the plant files. Wonder if you don't have Dr. Ruppel.
your idea of a dark color along whitish brick would be great. I noticed clematis at lowes and at WM for $5. of course, those in a 4" pot you'd have to baby for 1 year.
I am afraid that it was not labelled correctly. I bought them at Walmart. I haven't planted one of them and am going to try to exchange it for one that has the darker bloom if they have any. Thanks for the information.
I love the Clematis too... its slow, but what a show it put on! I just cant keep on a trellis, this one was growing in the Honeysuckle in this pic ... its all over the place... now its crawling around on the ground and attached to the Lady Banks. I wish I could train it to stay on a trellis, but it really likes the Sun. I got six more in the ground about two years ago, I am waiting to see what they do.
Sylvia
Is that what the deal is...3 years!? I was just about to swear off Clematis forever here, when I noticed...my 3 year old clematis is showing strong growth. I had given up on it, and didn't even notice it was growing until this week. Oddly, it probably because I heavily mulched the clerodenrum that is next to it. Come to think of it, I don't recall ever seeing a clematis in full glorious bloom here!.
Rj
City_Sylvia, thanks for the photo. Your vine is really putting on a show.
rjuddharrison, I think I should have planted mine in a different spot. Not knowing anything about them, I planted one on a trellis in front of a column at the entry way of my house. It will sure look bare for 3 years if the clematis don't grow quickly.
MaVieRose, thanks for the links. They have provided me with a lot of great information; such as, I didn't know that the stems should be planted 2 or 3 inches below the soil surface. Oops, I have already planted one of them.
u're very welcome Hazel. always a pleasure to give a helping hand.... ma vie
..good info Mavie! I need to feed mine something special. I got six in the ground three I planted over a year ago and three I planted about six months ago. One is a Nairobi ... cant wait to see it. I got another that was in a pot, it got so huge I decided to put it in the ground ... well it looks as if its going to take another three years.
sylvia
