Old vine, new purpose and clemitis hopes.

Carol Dee

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We had a beautiful old trumpet vine die. The large vine trunk was so interesting we left it after cutting all the dead branches off. We decided to plant a silver lace clematis near it so it could climb and cover it. We have never had much luck with clematis until this year and now have 3 growing nicely on the arch at the lot and wanted to try this at home.
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digitS'

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Excellent use is right!

Clematis seem to do okay here. The Jackmanii on the north side of the house is bountiful in its blooms, each year.

The vine on the north side of the garage must have terrible soil. It's only about 1/10 th the size of the one by the house. Still, it's pretty. The vine itself was a mess last year and we held our breath and just cut it all the way to the ground. It's back :)! And, maybe we can help it stay a little more upright this time.

Steve
 

thistlebloom

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Excellent use is right!

Clematis seem to do okay here. The Jackmanii on the north side of the house is bountiful in its blooms, each year.

The vine on the north side of the garage must have terrible soil. It's only about 1/10 th the size of the one by the house. Still, it's pretty. The vine itself was a mess last year and we held our breath and just cut it all the way to the ground. It's back :)! And, maybe we can help it stay a little more upright this time.

Steve
There are so many different varieties of clematis! Some stay small and are great for containers, some get huge and are best with a large trellis or tree to climb.
Some clematis are shade bloomers, and some are sun bloomers. All of them appreciate being cut back in the spring, some only once every few years because they bloom on last years wood, so that early pruning would disrupt their bloom cycle.
I'm not a fan of the people who never cut their clems back, and let them develop all that old dead growth, I think it's ugly personally. A well established clematis with a good root development can be very forgiving of pruning misadventures.
 

ninnymary

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I love the old trunk of that trumpet vine. It has a kind of artistic look to it. I would have left it by itself to show it off. But that's just me.

Mary
 

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