Pretty much all clematis like their feet cool and their tops hot---but they WON'T cling to brick. Would you be putting up a trellis for it?

You'd probably need to put a havey layer of mucl on the roots, but I'd think it would do well.

Yes, I would have a trellis. Thanks to my hubby, of course. I have also thought about planting a mini rose climber with it. Does anyone have any suggestions for clematis, as I have never grown any?

A south facing wall would be a great place to grow a clematis as the sun is overhead during the summer and not shining on the south facing wall. A westerly wall is what you want to avoid planting a clematis on since that would face the sun in the late afternoon and fry the clematis.

A great clematis for your area is viticella Betty Corning. She is vigorous but not too vigorous for your area and her blooms are fragrant.

As to how to grow her on the wall, you don't necessarily have to use a trellis. If you purchase a masonry drill bit, you can drill holes in the mortar, pound lead anchors into the holes, and then screw eye hooks into the anchors. You could then run wire from eyehook to eyehook for the clematis to grow on. Depending on how you placed the lead anchors into the mortar and how you ran the wire from eye hook to eye hook you could create a trellis on your wall of any shape you desire.

When I lived in NY, I had a trellis up against a brick wall of my house, and the clematis would grow beautifully, but you should have a trellis up against the wall.

I have two recommendations. Use braided wire for the climbing framework (easier for the tendrils to grasp) and you can also keep the root system cool by laying some 1" thick flagstone pavers on the ground, covering 1-2 square yards.

When you talk about braided wire, is it the type you can buy at a feed store, like chicken wire? I never thought of putting down pavers. I have 3 "extras" lying around. Great idea. That's why I love this forum. Thank you.

No need to use pavers to cover the clematis roots. Much better to mulch the area well with an organic mulch. The mulch will insulate the soil, keep the soil moisture levels consistent (that is what clematis like, moist soil not cool roots), and will decompose over time to add tilth and moisture holding capacity to the existing soil.

Having over 130 plus clematis in the ground and having experienced a drought last summer in the southeastern portion of the US, I can undoubtably state that clematis need the protection and soil moderating conditions provided by mulch that will not be provided by pavers of any sort.

Braided wire is not necessary for clematis to climb. I have used smooth wire fencing and to allow clematis to climb several structure in my garden and never had any issues having the clematis grab the smooth wire.

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Here is a picture of that structure later in the season covered with clematis.
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Here is a montana climbing a wall using the lead anchors, screws and smooth wire technique to allow the clematis to crawl over the house.
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