How To Grow Clematis

Clematis is really great for adding seasonal color to your garden, and they're really easy to grow. Here are some tips on how to grow them. You can train clematis over a trellis, or a pergola, up a fence, a wall, over a gazebo, and even up a tree.

The smaller varieties will grow really well in a container, and you can use them to add height to an herbaceous border by growing them up an obelisk. Make sure you choose clematis that will grow to the correct height for its intended position. Some are very vigorous and not suitable for growing in pots or on smaller arches.

For a tree, you'll need a more vigorous variety. Clematis should be planted deeper than it sits in its pot. By which, I mean it needs to be buried just a little bit.

This is because its roots like to be cool, and planting it deeply ensures that the roots will stay chilled, even when the top of the soil gets very hot. Dig a planting hole 45 centimeters away from the trellis, fence, wall, or host plant. Make the hole twice the diameter of the container and deep enough so that the top of the root will sit 5 centimeters beneath the level of the soil.

Loosen the soil in the base of the hole with a fork; add plenty of organic matter, well watered manure, or garden compost, and a handful of fish blood and bone. Soak the plant by plunging it into a bucket of water. Put the clematis at the center of the hole and angle it towards its support, fill around the root bowl with soil, firm the soil with your heel, and water the plant well.

If you're planting the clematis against a fence or wall, before you plant it, put up a network of wires for the clematis to cling to. Clematis is self-clinging, but they may need tying in to start with, use soft twine to tie them, as the young shots are very delicate. Tie the clematis into its support from time to time.

Keep it mulched and watered, and occasionally gives it a little bit of high potash feed. Clematis is easy to grow and look after, but they do need pruning to keep them tidy, and encourage new growth which will result in more flowers. You don't have to prune them at all, but if you leave them un-pruned, the flowers will only appear on the new growth at the top of the plant where you can't see them.

Clematis has a reputation for being kind of tricky to prune, but actually, it's quite simple. You need to prune them according to when they bloom, either in the spring, the early summer, or the late summer. Clematis that flower in the spring, need to be pruned to keep them tidy, and you need to do this as soon as they've finished flowering so that they have all the rest of the season to make some nice new growth for flowering on next year.

Early summer flowering clematis need to be pruned in the late winter and all you need to do is remove the dead and dying stems, tie them into their support, and just reduce some of the top growth. Clematis that flower later on in the summer need much more severe pruning. You need to cut them down to a healthy pair of buds, about 45 centimeters above the base.

Clematis can also suffer from wilt, this means the whole plant will collapse and die, and the tips look black any pretty horrible. Don't despair, cut the plant right down to the ground level, give it a handful of fish blood and bone, and some mulch, water it well, and it will usually start growing again. Well, those are my tips for pruning clematis. .