Clematis 'Niobe'

Clematis 'Niobe'
Clematis

Taken 6th June. Has been slow to flower well but grows tall, perhaps ground cover is needed.

Wallaby1,

This is a beautiful photo. I hope my Niobe will look half as good when it blooms.

Thank you figaro, what a pleasant surprise! Mine has never had many flowers on it, I am working on it, there appears to be different pruning suggestions for this one. But the beauty of a few flowers can be rewarding!

Wallaby1,

I agree. A few great blossoms are better than none. I accidentally planted some yellow sedum near my clematis vines and later learned that it was a good thing. I recommend it or a similar ground cover as an alternative to heavy mulching.

It is funny how good accidents happen! I have them all over the place. I have a spreading geranium at the foot of a climbing rose and it has improved it tremendously. I have some self set from geranium versicolor, they are not over invasive so I was thinking of putting them there.

I have this exact clematis (some of the others listed as niobe look a liitle different, no points and the center's are slightly different. Mine however has the little points at the end of each petal and the brown and yellow stripping on the center, just identical to that shown in your picture. What I want to know is, do you know the type clematis it is in regards to being an A, B, or C (or 1, 2 or3). I'm not sure what it is so don't know how to prune it properly. Or else, if you could just tell me how you've been pruning yours that works. Mine is quite large now and has many flowers this season but it's growing in the middle of a climbing hydrangea and needs pruning - I want to be sure to do it correctly so I don't damage the plant. Thanks!

Hi shaduka,

The information seems to vary on this one, but I have the catalogue of the National Collection holder of Clematis here and it states hard prune Group 3. That means cutting back to a foot or so from the ground, which is what I did a couple of years ago but haven't done anything to it since! It is flowering now but as usual I haven't got many flowers, I think it needs a sunnier spot which I have few of.

They will still flower if left unpruned but higher up, for me that is no problem as I have it on a tall trellis and prefer it that way anyway, there's a lot of other plants near the bottom.
Cutting back any Clematis should promote more shoots from the base, but those which flower off the previous season's growth will miss a year of flowering.

I found when I try to prune those which do flower off the previous season's growth I end up damaging too many stems, they cling to each other and it's difficult to separate the dead parts. The dead bits usually get covered so it's sometimes best to leave them.

My Niobe is not a prolific bloomer. Last fall I moved it to a sunnier spot. So far I see 2 buds. Believe it or not -- that's an improvement!

Lol, I'm glad I'm not the only one who has few blooms! Give it a few years and you might get as many as 6!

I now have a lot of ground cover around mine, not a lot of improvement yet but I live in hope. Perhaps it's like the dark red roses, they can take years to improve.

Great! Something to look forward to. LOL. Maybe I'll get some Nepeta started around the base of the plant -- to cool the roots a bit!

Edited to say that while the Nepeta can be invasive -- it's not nearly as invasive as I found the yellow sedum to be.

This message was edited Jun 6, 2008 4:20 PM