I have a couple clematis that didn't get into the ground this fall and now it is too late for them to establish roots before freezing. I know freezing is coming soon here. We have been really lucky - suppose to be high 60 tomorrow could even hit 70. I am debating if I should keep them indoors or put in the garage where they will get watered about once a month or if it is indoors it would be treated as a houseplant. Can anyone help me? Has anyone ever wintered a clematis indoors? Did it bloom? Do clematis need 'sleep' for the winter?
I would appreciate any help!! Thank you in advance!
~Kim
Have question - not sure what to do.
Kim,
Clematis do better if they are potted up in 1 gallon pots so that the root system can develop. I potted mine up throughout the summer as I was buying them. If the roots are not coming out of the 1 gallon pots at this time of the year, then these pots need to be buried in the ground until Spring. If your 1 gallon pots have the roots coming out of the bottom of the pots, it is ok to plant them out in the garden.
When planting clems into the ground, make sure you plant the crown at at least a 45 degree angle and plant the crown several inches under the ground, below the soil line in the pot. This will make for bushier plants, and it also reduces the possibility of losing these babies to wilt. Make sure, regardless of what you do, that the clems are kept well watered.
Not sure what is going on in your zone, but I know that typically our ground is not frozen in my zone until sometime in December. I have read that the clem should be planted into the ground at least 6 weeks before this happens - I don't know how accurate this last statement is, however it makes sense to me.
Hope this helps.
Carolyn
Bury the pot in the ground (level with the ground), water well and mulch. Try to find a spot out of the wind. I will be honest and say that I have not done this with clematis, but I have done it over and over again with late season close out bargains for conifers, japanese maples, a climbing hydrangea and others too numerous too mention. I've never lost a thing. I plant in the permanent home at budbreak or as soon as the ground is workable in the spring. Late season bargains can be awesome!
I had to do the same thing with five or six of my clematis. I have buried the pot and will cover all with leaves and move them in the spring. I have done it before with a couple and they were fine.
Susan
=^..^=
Ok, I'm going to go against all the rules here. ;) I've been known to keep my clematis, that I didn't get planted in ground at the proper time, in the house and treat them like house plants. I've never lost a one that way and it's kind of nice to have clematis blooming at Christmas. Just make sure you see that they get water and but don't sit in a pool of it. Also, you need to watch for aphids. I've done this a few times and last year was the first year I've ever had problems with aphids, and only on two of my six, so... It might also have been the type of Clematis, too. They can start looking pretty ratty by spring, mostly to my in-attention, but when it's reasonably warm, say May for me, I throw them back outside and they come back and grow like gangbusters for me. Anyway, that's my .02. :)
Ticker..of course you can keep them indoors for the winter as you have done in the past BUT, the beauty of potting up those babies and dropping the pots into the soil is that during the fall/winter they are growing magnificent roots during that time and when planted out into the garden in Spring..just take off beautifully...where as you have babied them indoors all winter which means they have focused on growing leaves and not allowed to go dormant and focus on growing a stronger rootsystem WHICH is the key for clematis..the bigger and better the rootsystem..the more beautifully they will perform in your gardens for you..especially the pruning group 2s...Jeanne
Point taken, but buy the time I got to them last year (and the other year I kept them in the house) it was way to late to put them in the ground at all, in a pot or not in a pot. So, it was the way I did it.
Yes..time, place and situation will always dictate what we must do..and I always say there is more than one way to do things!!..You did what was right for you at the time!!..Jeanne