Clematis fungus or just thirsty?

Girlinabox · April 2020

Hi everyone,

My clematis is looking very sorry for itself this laa

g week

or so. It was trimmed before spring and then started to vud and flower beautifully. I was watering every day during the sunny and warmer weather but then noticed the petals turning brown and now lots of them are falling off. I wondered if it could be that this bed is just too dry (we have very dry soils around here) and am wondering if adding some compost to the bed and extra watering may help, or does this look like fungus or rot? Not very experienced at gardening but am learning, and I'd really love to save this if I can!

Thank you

JennyJ · April 2020

The leaves look healthy. Could be the flowers fading quickly due to unseasonal weather and dryness. Here we had warm dry windy weather with chilly nights, then cold dry easterly winds for several days. None of that is kind to spring flowers.

berarde · April 2020

unless the pictures are a bit deceptive it doesn't look too troubled, but I have a booklet from Taylor's clematis which says "my plant is going brown from the bottom up, is this wilt" Reply is "no this is drying out clematis are very thirsty plants". Ithink some organic material compost etc (but not manure) might help with water retention and general health. I followed the advice to sink a length of plastic pipe down to root level so water gets there directly; hardware shops will sell it , diameter 3/4 inch. i'm sure a clematis specialist on this site might know precisely what is the problem

Fairygirl · April 2020

Is that a rose growing in with it?
A lot of competition for water, especially if you have drier soil to start with. Watering every day is a bad idea too. Water thoroughly - and by that I mean a bucketful - and then leave for a few days.

Certainly a mulch will help after watering. Compost or manure [well rotted, and if you have it] or chipped bark etc, but keep it away from the main stem.

Girlinabox · May 2020

Hi and thanks for your replies. I took the advice about them being very thirsty and putting some piping (I used flexible conduit) down into the roots but no change. In fact, all flowers have now dropped off but leaves still look healthy. I also dug up some of the dry sandy soil in the bed and added in lots of compost. Also moved the rose bush elsewhere... No change! Today I noticed a mushroom growing, could it be that this is part of the problem? Should I be adding something else into the soil?

Fairygirl · May 2020

It's a montana, and needs a lot of room. The flowers dropping are normal, as they've finished for now. Montanas become huge - they need a lot of room to grow.
However, you may well have damaged the rootball by digging around it putting a pipe in, and removing the rose. If you want to sink something in for watering, you need to do it when you first plant. There was no need to remove soil - just add to the area round the plant after watering thoroughly.

It's impossible to tell much from the photos though. Nothing is clear enough I'm afraid. I can't see the base of the plant, but it looks as if it's right up against that wall. I couldn't see anything clearly in that initial photo apart from the rose.

Clematis fungus or just thirsty?

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