Hi, all,
I've been looking around on this forum for instructions on how to plant clems.
I thought I had seen several posts with lots of details and tips on how to do this, but now I can't locate them in the various threads.
If anyone can link/point me to them, I would really appreciate it.
(I want to make some Tags for my files.)
Thanks again. t.
Clematis planting guide?
T.
I plant my clematis 2-4 inches deeper than the pot they are in at a slight 45 degree angle towards what you want to grow them onto..If you don't have problems with critters..I put 1/2 handful of Bonemeal in the planting hole..water in well and keep the soil moist this will cut back on transplant shock..check daily by sticking your finger in the soil..if it feels like it is drying out ..water...even if they seem to have wilted..remember to continue watering like they are there for they can reappear anywhere from a couple weeks to even several years..Hard pruning the first couple of years allows your clematis to focus on growing a strong viable root system which only gives you a healthy plant....Jeanne
tabasco, there is a lot of planting info in the threads.
amending your soil to adjust for porosity, clay, friability etc and enrich it is key. jeanne has some good pointers there. someone was going to link on the stickies to threads with "keeper information", i think it was 2racingboys that wanted to do that. there is a lot there, just hard to find what you want.
also try the international clematis society or british clematis society websites, lots of info regarding planting etc.
if you have a clay like soil, like mine and want me to re post my specific planting guidelines that i use in zone 5 let me know. i can re do them or find them i am sure.
Many of the growers maintain a care and planting "how to" page on their websites. Also, the American Clematis Society has a general info page. Have you checked the site for the grower where you purchased your clems?
Thanks, yes, I looked up the SSV instructions, etc., as you mentioned.
I just wanted to know if any of you could link me to the DG posts discussing detailed planting info that you have posted here on the Clematis forum. If it's not handy, that's ok..
I just thought the points that were made were very good but can't find them now.
One of my 'sieboldi' clems just received from SSV does not look well, and I wondered what I did wrong or can do to pep it up. I thought I followed SSV instructions. Oh, well.
Thanks again. t.
debbie fisher will respond to e mail re this question with her seiboldi clem, but if there are short stems brown and showing no green, she may say to cut them off at ground level. this sometimes stimulates the root to pus up new stems vs trying to keep the brown one alive.
also have you fertilized it?
i will see if i can find the posts re planting and if not i will do a recap over the weekend. m;ay be helpful for those in similar zone with similar soil.
tabasco, ify ou are in columbus eve, come see the clems in june?? i am away june 1 thru 6 and then here forseverla weeks before i take any business trips...
happy clemming......
I can tell you I have learned a LOT on this forum. This is how I plant new clematis in my garden.
1. Dig a big hole.....I normally put bone meal at the bottom and some composted cow manure as well.
2. I water the hole well....saturated.
3. I put the clematis in....2 inches deeper than it was in the pot and I typically put it in at an angle (Thanks to Jeanne) facing whatever it will be growing on (fence, trellis etc).
4. Cut back the plant so roots will establish.
5. Water again.
6. Keep it well watered for the next few days if no rain.
Those are Dawn's easy instructions LOL......
I planted my first clem today, rubromarginata.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/57013/
It is sharing a trellis with a William Baffin climbing rose
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/65069/
I am hoping that the colors will coordinate, but will have to wait and see. i read to keep it under 2 ft so that it will concentrate on growing roots. I may have to find out next year.
gardenquilts, rubro is such a great choice. not very widely used and so versatile and pretty. this is a 08 photo, as it is too early for mine to bloom, but she is off to a huge start this year. i dearly love this clem, and it has been problem free since year one.
dawn, love your instructions.
LOL Thanks Guru......
Ohhhhhh nice clematis....I always wanted that one too.....
Thank you ClemGuru. I hope it looks nice with the rose. They both have a reputation for being vigorous growers.
Day 2 and rubro is still alive and enjoying the drizzly weather.
FYI I got rubro at Bluestone Perennials. It is still on half price sale with several other clems.
you will love rubro. and it mingles great with other clems too. so vigorous. amazing. asks for little and gives much...
I am glad that rubro is a good choice for beginners. I have a cottage style flower garden, so I wanted to choose clems that blend with my other plants, especially the roses. It is a challenge to have constant blooms during the season. I have two adjacent trellises which I plan to place combinations of climbing roses and clems. One is for Westerland with either a blue or white clem, to be determined. I am leaning toward macropetala Albina Plena or Lagoon (both group 1).
I am currently waiting for help with some large rocks. They call this part of PA "the slate belt" and I have the rocks to prove it!
There's going to be frost tonight, but after tonight the weather will be great, probably for the rest of the summer. Can I plant my new clematises tomorrow? I've been hardening them off for the past two weeks. But the past few nights have been mild so I've been leaving them out. I'll bring them into the shed tonight though. Can I plant them tomorrow, or should I wait until the 24th of May? Thanks.
Christine
Edited to say, never mind, I must have been halucinating, its not going to be a nice week ahead. According to the Weather Network, we'll have a couple more freezes. I'd best wait until at least the 24th to plant them. I have Helios, Nelly Moser, Allanah, Huldine and Piilu. I planted Multi-Blue last summer and its growing like mad. Also planted Jan Fopma last year, but after a spurt of growth earlier this month, it just fell over and died this week.
This message was edited May 16, 2009 10:38 PM
Thanks, all, for your help and tips. I really appreciate it!
Yes, guru, I get to Cols. probably once each month to see sis and get hair taken care of, so will be sure to coordinate with you.
Would love to make a visit to your garden and see how clem growing should be done! t.
i can not comment on when to plant waaaay up north. my new clems have been in ground for weeks to a month for some.
however, if they are hardened off and outdoors already in pots, planting now couldn't hurt, might be better for them (ground warner than pot )if they were grown in doors and are not fully hardened off ...that's where the local knowledge would have to prevail..
it is has been a pretty but cool spring here, i heard we are having weather in the 30's tonight or tomorrow night, and daytime 60's. good gardening weather and sleeping weather for sure.
ceedub, those spurts and collapses are not that uncommon. just cut back and it will come back.i had a bees jubilee collapse yesterday after nice early growth and 2 blooms...it has been in ground for a couple of years. on the whole i have had less collapse this year. i am doing preventative earwig and slug control however. some early collapse is slugs stripping off layers of lower vine and that causes the vine to collapse. check the bottom of the vines for strippy looking grooves or even brown long verticle wounds. here is s ht form last week i posted elsewhere on the forum, showing the bottom of a vine with slug damage from the night before.
tabasco, seriously feel free to stop by. i am out of town on business last week may and away for a few days again in early june, but here most of the may and june (better for blooms in june, min june in particular this year vs early ). i am 4 miles north of the columbus zoo.
I was told tabasco has a beautiful garden,hope she shows us some pics..
I love looking at ALL your beautiful gardens C.G..beautiful!!!
Thanks for your help C.Guru, I'll dig the shoot out of the garden waste bag and inspect it - there was only the one shoot, and it was fine the night before. I know we definitely have slugs around, the nasty little creatures
I was about to give up on Jan Fopma and plant Piilu in its place, so I'll be patient and find another location for Piilu. I do agree about planting them anyway - clematises are very hardy creatures.
FYI, I'm not that far up north, only 3 degrees of latitude separate us and probably only 1/2 of a hardiness zone.
Thanks again.
Christine
doss recommends sluggo, which is completely safe for animals, humand etc. after the loss of some otto forebel buds a couple of weeks ago due to earwigs and a big tye die vine (luckily i have a big type die and many vines, snails only stripped one) last week i used some "bug getta plus" which does snails and earwigs. it is not an organic type product, i felt guiilty. have followed up the bug getta with sluggo and with diatamacious (sp) earth in the area prone to bugs.
i felt bad using the evil stuff, but i am not gonna do the little pans of oil and beer or watch the clems get ruined.
I found the shoot, and it had no damage to it similar to what the picture above shows - it looked like it had just broken off at the soil, like it been stepped on. There's a lot of small animals around - squirrels, rabbits, racoons - I'm betting one of those little suckers are behind it.
Anyway, I planted my new clematises, real deep, and piled a few inches of cedar mulch on top of the ground too. I'm off to get some more cayene pepper to sprinkle around them all to keep said little critters away until the plants get a good start. It did wonders for my dwarf lilac and my other clematis a few weeks ago when they started growing. I guess maybe I should have kept it up for Jan Fopma.
Christine
Does cayene pepper work for slugs and earwigs?
Don't know about slugs and earwigs, but it sure keeps "varmints" away because they can smell it. The only damage I've seen to my plants is from them chewing. They chewed away all the new growth on my baby dwarf lilac and clemmie Multi-Blue in April so I spread it around both plants after each rainfall, and the growth has now burst out on both of them.
Demstratt, you're too cute! Thanks for your comment, but I don't have any interesting new pics. It seems like everything is 'same old~same old' around here.
My 20 new and one year old clematis seem to be catching on (except the one sieboldi) but now I fear for the earwigs, etc., since I noticed the one in bloom seems to have had much of each bloom vanish!
And I'll get some sluggo along with the rest of you, and maybe put out leftover 'Michelob' around the yard, too. I hate to get into the spraying, etc., too, since it's so bad for the butterflies and I love to have them in the garden. Will try the cayenne, too, but will want to buy that in bulk somewhere!
Beautiful growing weather here today. We have had a lovely spring for the garden (and for golf!). Weeds are thriving too.
tabasco, if you don't mind using a real pesticide, the "bug getta plus" does earwigs and slugs. i used it once, felt guilty, but when you see that hole in the side of a fat flower bud, that soap and water may not do the trick. i switched to sluggo then , based on doss's recommendations and how green it is. but i think the bug getta was helpful. yesterday i put diatamaceous earth into the area that have had earwigs before too. trying to prevent.
the other day i found a small 2 inch high jar of oil i had placed in the clem garden most affected about 3 years ago. it was covered in mulch and buried about 3 inches deep..the oil was still in the jar and a couple of worms, but no earwigs. it was disgusting to say the least. i can't do the beer traps and oil traps.
Years ago I did the beer traps -- too much work, and I hate the smell of flat beer! :-)
I've tried the beer traps and they work well, but I agree are truly disgusting to empty out. Our region has a pesticide ban and I'm trying to work around it naturally. Coffee grounds are supposed to be helpful against slugs too - I'd forgotten about that since I don't normally drink coffee. A few years agoin my old house I bought the largest, cheapest can of coffee I could find and sprinkled it over my garden beds each spring. I think I'll do that again. I was just out planting some new perennials and saw a few slugs-yuck. And crushed egg shells - I think they're supposed to be good against slugs too, but I think you have to bake them in the oven for a short time to kill off any disease. I think the theory is that the soft little creatures will slice themselves up on the shells. What better way to die for a slug-drowning in beer, caffeine overdose, or being guilloutined?
Christine
ceedub, i have also had good luck with crushed oyster shells, cheap at the feed store (it is sold as poultry grit)
beats baking egg shells and attractive top dressing for the plants. thre are other postings somewhere on the forum about this.....
Thanks CGuru. I'll look into that. We're in an rurally urban area (the best of both worlds), so I'm sure I can find a feed store easily enough.
I found a single, shallow digging hole in the mulch at the base of one of my new clematises. I can imagine the poor little critter sneezing all night...lol. One clemmie is planted at the base of a maple, and I watched ealier this afternoon as a squirrel ran from the bird feeder towards the tree, and did a four foot leap from the ground, up and over the clematis onto the tree. Those little guys sure are clever.