Maybe some of the forum members can give reviews of some of your short list clems.
I guess it partly depends how full on you want to with full scale / bright purples.
Part of my challenge is colour-blindness.
So I can tell that I like Emilia Plater, for instance, but I have no idea what colour it is without consulting a website or book and then I have to use colour wheels to work out what else to pair it with. Makes it all a lot slower than just looking at pictures! 😂
Many of the evergreen clematis aren't fully hardy everywhere, so it depends where you live. As said - research the eventual spread of the ones you like, and be realistic about what room you have for them. The only clems which don't climb are the herbaceous ones [mainly those called diversifolia, and one or two others] but it's easy to check those out when you use one of the specialist growers' sites to do your research. If you want plants overlapping, it's better to pick those that are pruned at the same time. Not all Group 1s have a similar spread - a montana is totally different from alpinas or macropetalas for example, and those two have different requirements from the large flowered types like Group 2s and 3s as they prefer drier conditions and poorer soil. If you're having a pyracantha, one of those smaller, earlier varieties would work well with it, and you could have a Group 2 and 3 together for ease of pruning, and for watering/feeding. It would be easier to pick your colour preferences and proceed from there though.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Yes, I think that once you have an idea of spread, pruning group, time of flowering, and colour that will fit the space, you will have only a few left that fit that bill. Maybe ask a friend to help with the colour choices if the colour blindness if proving tricky. Or go by the flower shape and size that appeals most.
I'm guessing it's you who will get to enjoy the garden most and spend most time there, so maybe colour doesn't matter that much.
Thanks for all your help. I think we will take the advice of going for an evergreen (Avalanche) to provide interest until the summer and then some lighter colours - to contrast the dark fence - for the summer (Emilia Plater and one other TBC).
If I were to go for one evergreen and two group 3 clematis, what would be the best order in which to plant them please?
By default, I would have thought that:
G3.....Evergreen.....G3
...would work, giving a central evergreen run of foliage with then the seasonal climbers running up alongside and through that foliage each summer. Is that sensible?
We have the Gripple system covering most of our garden fences which is great but not as good for clematis as we thought. I bought the mesh from Taylor’s clematis and have placed that in addition to the Gripple and so far it works very well. It’s good quality mesh and blends into the colour of the fence, our fence is dark grey and we chose the dark green mesh. I chose shorter variety G3 clematis newly planted this year so they will be better next year. I will post some images later on.
Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.
I used zip/cable ties to fasten the mesh to existing vine eyes. Clematis I’ve planted so far are :Comtesse du Bouchaud, Warsaw Nike, Lucky charm, Forever friends, Diana’s delight ( very short) Nubia. I didn’t go for the Montana types as they will be too heavy for our fence. Also got short climbing roses too. I hope this helps.
Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.
I went with the Gripple system and have run wires at 300mm vertical intervals along the entire back fence. I've planted, from left to right, clematis Avalanche, clematis Emilia Plater and lonicera delavayii. As they only went in last autumn, the clematis are just stating up with Avalanche budding up.
I'm 'training' the clematis horizontally along the wire for around 50cm either side of its stem, so it goes up from the ground and then out to either side like a T. Is that correct? When I've got to the 'ends' of the T, what should I do then, train it up and then back along the horizontal? Will shoots grow vertically along its horizontally-trained length?
The clematis will naturally want to go 'up', so you can keep tying some stems in along horizontals, depending on the overall size of the plant, and then allow stems to find their own way, either up, or into another clematis, or any other planting. It's certainly possible to bring stems back across as well. I've done that with montanas to get good coverage on fences, and I do that here with a macropetala which is next to the back door. It goes one way into another clematis, but I also bring it back along part of the fence which doesn't have planting space below it - I have storage and a shelf for pots etc, and it runs along the top of that. Those clematis are a Group 1 and 2, so don't need annual pruning, so it means I get a coverage of stems that stays in place, as opposed to a Group 3 which would need tying in each year after pruning. Hope that makes sense!
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Posts
So I can tell that I like Emilia Plater, for instance, but I have no idea what colour it is without consulting a website or book and then I have to use colour wheels to work out what else to pair it with. Makes it all a lot slower than just looking at pictures! 😂
The only clems which don't climb are the herbaceous ones [mainly those called diversifolia, and one or two others] but it's easy to check those out when you use one of the specialist growers' sites to do your research.
If you want plants overlapping, it's better to pick those that are pruned at the same time.
Not all Group 1s have a similar spread - a montana is totally different from alpinas or macropetalas for example, and those two have different requirements from the large flowered types like Group 2s and 3s as they prefer drier conditions and poorer soil. If you're having a pyracantha, one of those smaller, earlier varieties would work well with it, and you could have a Group 2 and 3 together for ease of pruning, and for watering/feeding.
It would be easier to pick your colour preferences and proceed from there though.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
If I were to go for one evergreen and two group 3 clematis, what would be the best order in which to plant them please?
By default, I would have thought that:
G3.....Evergreen.....G3
...would work, giving a central evergreen run of foliage with then the seasonal climbers running up alongside and through that foliage each summer. Is that sensible?
I went with the Gripple system and have run wires at 300mm vertical intervals along the entire back fence. I've planted, from left to right, clematis Avalanche, clematis Emilia Plater and lonicera delavayii. As they only went in last autumn, the clematis are just stating up with Avalanche budding up.
I'm 'training' the clematis horizontally along the wire for around 50cm either side of its stem, so it goes up from the ground and then out to either side like a T. Is that correct? When I've got to the 'ends' of the T, what should I do then, train it up and then back along the horizontal? Will shoots grow vertically along its horizontally-trained length?
It's certainly possible to bring stems back across as well. I've done that with montanas to get good coverage on fences, and I do that here with a macropetala which is next to the back door. It goes one way into another clematis, but I also bring it back along part of the fence which doesn't have planting space below it - I have storage and a shelf for pots etc, and it runs along the top of that.
Those clematis are a Group 1 and 2, so don't need annual pruning, so it means I get a coverage of stems that stays in place, as opposed to a Group 3 which would need tying in each year after pruning.
Hope that makes sense!
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...