A balanced fertilizer in the spring is great - no pests bother them - some varieties are prone to clematis wilt which is caused by a fungus - Nellie gets pruned in the late winter here but do you even have a winter? Sorry I don't grow the other variety but if you google it, you should find out which type of pruning is suitable for it. Most are late winter candidates but guess what, even if you don't prune they will be fine but might get a bit leggy rather than keeping good foliage all the way down to the ground. Pruning just keeps new growth appearing at the base.

I love my clematis.

Brooke

I don't know nuttin about Clematis, but they are purdy.

Brooke,
I know our winters our mild by comparison. But it gets plenty cold enough for me, here. We get freezing temps every year. I often wonder why my ancestors didn't homestead farther south where the weather is nice year round. They were farmers, so it would've made sense. But they got to northwest FL and stopped...leaving me to freeze every winter. Thanks for the clematis info. I will wait until mine go dormant before pruning. If they survive, next year I want to invest in some nicer plants...dark purple like the ones you showed in an earlier post. Did you move them yet and did they make it?

Royce,
I don't know nuttin either. But I've seen photos of huge vines that are beautiful! One thing nice about them is they don't have to be tied. They'll climb up a string just fine by themselves.

Y'all have a good one-
Kathy

I love my clematis, too. I've got 'Henryi,' 'General Sikorski,' 'Duchess of Albany,' 'Miss Bateman,' 'Venosa Violacea,' 'Warsaw Nike,' 'Marie Louise Jensen,' and 'Elsa Spath.' Somehow I just keep finding more I like and finding space for them in the yard. The first year or two they don't get too tall, but the next year they start leaping out of the ground. My 'General Sikorski' is the most vigorous so far - it's climbed up a fence and trellis to 9 feet and is still reaching for the sky. It's blooming, great lavender-blue stars 6" across, and is just gorgeous.

Laurel

Love your clematis Kathy. I have several varieties myself, and love them. I have one very old white cultivar that I don't have a clue as to which it is, but the blooms are huge. Let me see if I can find a photo of it to post for you.
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I have had this clematis for 15 or 20 years, and it's still as beautiful now as it ever was.
Jan

Laurel,
Yes, the nice thing about vines is you can always find room for one more. Please post pics of your clematis if you get a chance. I'd love to see them. I'm planning to add a few more if these make a come-back next year.

Jan,
Your white clematis is wonderful! I wish you knew the name of it. I love white...it looks good everywhere with everything.

Kathy

Kathy, I don't have a clue which cultivar it is, but the blooms are easily 8 or 9 inches across. It's always covered in blooms in late April and early May, but it has never rebloomed for me.
Jan

LOVE clematis and all your pics! Thanks for sharing them.
Nancy

Guessing on the clematis but could be Henryi - it is old, great grower and an early spring bloomer.

If you don't have a convenient place to plant a clematis, try puttting a fence post into the ground, into the middle of an existing flower bed or anywhere you have room for the post. It is a great way to add height to a flat surface.

For an easy to grow on surface for the pole, get two tomato cages, put the first one over the pole, big side down. Then put the second cage, skinny side into skinny side, over the pole. The fat side on the ground keeps the clematis contained so it doesn't wander too far (like into daylily clumps).

My other favorite thing about clematis, they give me color prior to daylily season.

Brooke

Brooke, that is a wonderful idea about the tomato cages over a post. I never thought of that. I may need to add a few more clematis to my garden now that I see how easy it would be to create a trellis for them.
Jan

Glad you liked the idea Jan and hope you can use it. I have tried different climbing things for the clematis and end up unhappy with each of them as time goes by. Regular fencing is great but hubby has to cut, bend and nail it up - chicken wire loses its strength after a few years and sags.

This past winter, as I was "pondering" in the sunroom I remembered all those pesky tomato cages I will never use again and haven't thrown out. First thing this spring when I cut everything back, I put them up and have been very happy with them. The cage totally disappears from view even when the clematis is cut back. Hubby finally agreed it was a good idea after he had originally poo poohed it. I love having the clematis contained at the bottom and not rambling along the ground.

Sometimes even non-engineering women can come up with a good idea.

Brooke

Jan,
I don't think your clematis is 'Henryi' - mine has mixed dark and light stamens, not yellow. But it might be 'Guernsey Cream,' another white with yellow stamens. Or it could be another I have never seen. (I just planted 'Miss Bateman,' another white with dark stamens, but it won't bloom for me for another year or two.)

I just took pictures of some of my clematis, including the humongous 'General Sikorski.' I'll have to set up a photobucket or picturetrail account and scan them in (they're 35mm, not digital). Do you have a preferred photo hosting site? This will be a new venture for me.

Laurel

Brooke - What a great idea! Now I can add clematis to lots of beds. I saw clematis on a clearance table today, but they looked really bad. I passed since I don't know much about them or if they could be saved. I did rescue 2 begonias and 4 gerber daisies. I bought the begonias for the hanging baskets they were in...only 75 cents each. They had the same hanging baskets for sale for $4.99 (but clean and no plants). Go figure?

Laurel - I am using freewebtown to host my photos. I don't know if it has all the features you want, but it is worth a look. They offer 1 GB of free storage space. By comparison, my IP offers 10 MB of free space.

Kathy

Here is a link that might be useful: Freewebtown

Laurel, I use Photobucket as do lots of others here on the forum. It's easy and free if you choose not to upgrade to the premium service. I'll post a link for you below.
Jan

Here is a link that might be useful: Photobucket

Laurel - I use PictureTrail - sorry not smart enough to do a link and it is easy and free too if you don't upgrade. It holds lots of pics and has the cool thumbnail thingee which I love.

Kathy if your clematis like FL (and I have no clue) the string for them to climb on will not be enough to keep them upright. It takes a clematis a couple of seasons to really make a display and then watch out, they are gorgeous. Next spring you might consider nailing single strand wires running up the fence or a piece of farm fence nailed to it.

Brooke

Thanks everyone - I'm off to compare photo hosting services.

Laurel

Brooke, I think your wire strand suggestion is a good one. Will try it next year for sure. I keep checking my plants and wondering if I should do it now. I don't know if they're finished growing this year or not? They're at the top of the string now.
Kathy

I wouldn't replace the string until you cut the clematis back for next year's growth, after dormancy. If they reach the top of the string and continue to grow, they will just tip back over and cling to the lower growth. As long as they are growing, they are feeding themselves.

Brooke

I'm still playing with my new toy (Photobucket), and I found a couple clematis pics. The first is my 'Henryi' in 2001, with TB iris 'Superstition' in front of it. The second is 'General Sikorski' from this year. The water behind it is our recent flood; that's normally a wooded, 25 foot deep, 100+ foot wide ravine with a creek at the bottom. It drops off sharply about 18" behind the fence; the hemlocks are right on the edge. At its crest the flood barely covered the entire brown, mulched area visible at the center right of the picture.

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Laurel

Sure glad you can now post pics - keep it up!

Brooke

Hi Laurel,
Ooooh I love your Henryi! Maybe I should get 2 white ones next year instead of purple. Decisions, decisions. So far, my babies are hanging in there. They have new blooms, not many, but I was surprised/glad to see them! It is so hot and dry, I was afraid they'd brown out.
Kathy

If your babies tough it out for this year, they'll be just fine next year. That clematis adage "first year sleep, second year creep, third year leap" is very true, at least in my yard. 'Henryi' was like that. 'General Sikorski' skipped the "creep" year and was 6 feet tall and husky, covered with blooms its second year.

Laurel