Patti Anne,

I never grew Clematis until about 5 years ago. One thing I've learned is that they are actually tough, but you have to leave them alone.

As an example, my mother gave me a clematis which was from a piece of her's which had rooted on the ground. I planted it, and for four years never saw a flower. It would grow a bit more every year.
Last year it flowered for the first time - 6 flowers.

This year, it has grown tremendously and is sending out one flush of flowers followed by another. This area gets morning sun 'til 11 am, then shade the rest of the day.
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I also have another which blooms in June called Claire de Lune which is spectacular. The picture doesn't really do it justice. The flowers can be up to 10 inches in diameter.

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Also, Clematis are known to return after a year of dying back. Some of them just need a while to settle. I am now struggling with a Comptesse de Bouchard Clematis - going on three years. Seem to be winning the battle.

They like good drainage.

They like alkaline soil.

They like cool roots. Planting them in a piece of drain tile is an excellent way of protecting them from heat and physical damage (such as lawnmowers or pets).

Cheers,
MG

Here is a link that might be useful: Our website

Tiffy... that Claire de Lune is just beautiful!!

Patti Anne: It's not the amount of sun or the fact that you had a wet spring. Did your clematis leaves, buds and petals wilt first, really quickly, then die back entirely?

Some Group 2 (light spring pruning) types of clematis (which yours is) suffer this but can recover if cut back up to the area up where the wilting is taking place - if left, the wilt will eventually move down the vines to ground level (but no further).

You may be surprised that next spring the 'dead Pink Champagne' (originally name "Kakio" - a cross between Crimson King & Star of India) clematis comes back just fine. The wilt will not move below ground if that in fact is what happened to your vine this season.

No one seems to know or understand why the Group 2 clematis' suffer this 'wilting' problem while the Group 1 (no prune) types and Group 3 (hard prune in spring) types don't, but again it can be controlled at the time by clipping back down low enough (once removed, don't compost the wilted section) If there are still remnants of dead vines hanging on your 'Pink Champagne', remove the affected vines and put into the trash to help keep the 'wilt' from returning in the vine next season - not a guarantee but certainly lessens the possibility.

Your Group 3 "Golden Harvest" is a yellow tangutica type which won't suffer from this type of 'wilt', so you'll enjoy it without the 'wilt worries'.

There's a mailbox in the middle of this clematis:
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There's a porch pillar somewhere in the midst of this clematis:
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These two clematis evenutally grow right across the top rail of the fence:
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beautiful plants everyone. I have a few clematis too which I've planted with roses and other climbers.

The wilt happened to one of my plants too and don't worry, it will return. I agree with sydseeds recommendations on what to do...

and like what MG says, clematis like cool roots but I should add, good hot sun. So that may seems odd but a good amount of sunlight and cool mulched roots is fine.

Ianna

I'm so envious of all the beautiful pictures of your Clematis plants! They are certainly gems.
I'm keeping my fingers & toes crossed that my Pink Champagne will come back next year & that the new Golden Harvest will take & flourish. I was so proud when my Clematis bloomed with the 6 flowers this Spring, but totoally devastated when it died right off. I was so hoping that it would continue to bloom all season.
Is there a type of Clematis that is easy to grow and will continually bloom all summer or will it just take time for mine to establish it self?

Hi Patti,

Not much you can do now to get blooms this year. It's just a fluke that your plant suffered the wilt. It will be back next season.

The easiest clematis to grow in my opinion is the Jackmanii types., but it doesn't bloom all summer long. If it's your desire to have a clematis that blooms all summer long, I think you'd be hard put to find one specific plant. What you can do is to combine 2 or 3 kinds of clematis and choose them according to their bloom time. If you surf the net, you'd probably chance upon a database put up by a clematis group which shows the 3 groups of clematis and their bloom descriptions. I forgot the name of the society but I'll see if I can locate that site once again. It's been awhile since I referred to it.

Here's a link to the Hull database....there's tons of information on this site!

I have a ton of clematis and if I can grow them way up here, zone 5 is a breeze!

Here is a link that might be useful: Clematis On the Web

In regards to the 'good hot sun' mentioned above, sometimes it is not necessary.

My Ville De Lyon - finally IDed! - has sun in the morning until about 11:30 am. Then it is shade the rest of the day.

The Claire De Lune has dappled sun in the morning until about 10am, then shade, and then direct sun from 5 pm onwards.

I also have Hagley Hybrid in no more than 3 hours of sun per day which does well.

Cool roots are definitely a requirement of this plant though!