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Frustrations with climbers
Randommoose1
Posts: 99
in Plants
Hello,
I am not having much success with climbers. I have a lot of fence to cover and could do with some advice of what to do. So far I have:
Clematis Montana Spooneri - planted 3 years ago, has only made it about 4m (2m up then 2m across to the tip of the single longest stem) though looked green and healthy and flowered well. Now all the stems have been killed this winter (no buds, stems crunch and fall apart if squeezed) but is starting to shoot from the base so will have to grow all that distance again. I though this was supposed to be really vigorous?
Lonicera Graham Thomas - planted 3 years ago, has only made it about 2m up, side branches max 50cm long. Again, looks healthy, some flowers, just not growing much. I thought this was vigorous as well?
Clematis Wisley Cream - planted 3 years ago, this is doing really well and is healthy vigorous and spreading well.
Passionflower - this was mature when I moved here 4 years ago. Vigorous, covers 5-6m of fence before stopping. This has been completely killed this winter.
I am in Gloucestershire and this winter we had two patches of -7 degrees, the second one of which seems to have killed or badly damaged lots of my plants. I have about 12m of south facing fence to cover (roots on the north side for shade) which I was told the Montana and Lonicera would cover but the Montana only managed about 2m and the Lonicera hasn't travelled along it at all yet and that's after 3 years! I also have 8m of sheltered WNW fence (with a bit of SSW wall) which the passionflower nearly covered but now that needs replacing. Then up to 12m of ESE facing fence that the Wisley Cream is doing well on but I need more than that. So what do I buy instead?
I have a Tracelospermum Jasminoides that I ordered last autumn and received this spring but now the Passionflower and Montana have been hit by cold weather I don't know if the Trachelospermum would survive living here? I could plant it right next to the house to try to keep it warm in winter?
What do I do to keep climbers alive in the cold winter? What can I grow if Montana/Lonicera aren't vigorous enough and Passionflower is killed by cold?
I am not having much success with climbers. I have a lot of fence to cover and could do with some advice of what to do. So far I have:
Clematis Montana Spooneri - planted 3 years ago, has only made it about 4m (2m up then 2m across to the tip of the single longest stem) though looked green and healthy and flowered well. Now all the stems have been killed this winter (no buds, stems crunch and fall apart if squeezed) but is starting to shoot from the base so will have to grow all that distance again. I though this was supposed to be really vigorous?
Lonicera Graham Thomas - planted 3 years ago, has only made it about 2m up, side branches max 50cm long. Again, looks healthy, some flowers, just not growing much. I thought this was vigorous as well?
Clematis Wisley Cream - planted 3 years ago, this is doing really well and is healthy vigorous and spreading well.
Passionflower - this was mature when I moved here 4 years ago. Vigorous, covers 5-6m of fence before stopping. This has been completely killed this winter.
I am in Gloucestershire and this winter we had two patches of -7 degrees, the second one of which seems to have killed or badly damaged lots of my plants. I have about 12m of south facing fence to cover (roots on the north side for shade) which I was told the Montana and Lonicera would cover but the Montana only managed about 2m and the Lonicera hasn't travelled along it at all yet and that's after 3 years! I also have 8m of sheltered WNW fence (with a bit of SSW wall) which the passionflower nearly covered but now that needs replacing. Then up to 12m of ESE facing fence that the Wisley Cream is doing well on but I need more than that. So what do I buy instead?
I have a Tracelospermum Jasminoides that I ordered last autumn and received this spring but now the Passionflower and Montana have been hit by cold weather I don't know if the Trachelospermum would survive living here? I could plant it right next to the house to try to keep it warm in winter?
What do I do to keep climbers alive in the cold winter? What can I grow if Montana/Lonicera aren't vigorous enough and Passionflower is killed by cold?
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Posts
You are right about Trachelospermum Jasminoides, it prefers a sheltered position and so do passionflowers.
Have a look at some of the group 3 clematis, like viticellas. They are vigorous, but die down in winter and pruning is easy because you cut the whole plant down to a couple of inches and it grows big in one season. For a shadier fence Etoile Violette is a good one.
You don't mention roses. There are some gorgeous ramblers that will cover a fence, look at repeat ramblers like Ghislaine de Féligonde. David Austin and Peter Beales are good suppliers.
I would give clematis montana another go and keep it well watered and fed. Look at the Taylors clematis or Thorncroft sites for other varieties.
Be patient, they need a bit of time to get going, but will be lovely.
Good shape in winter, flowers in spring, autumn berries and leaves turn red. Loved by hoverflies. Cheap to buy easy to maintain, needs sun and avoid a very wet soil.
Great back drop for summer flowers.
One last thought I would never plant a passion flower close to the house.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
They're well able to withstand a spell of minus 7 temps, that wouldn't cause them any problem at all, especially once established, and they haven't been in long. Even a decent sized plant will take two or three years to get to full size.
The jasmine is different as it isn't fully hardy everywhere, but it's wet cold that causes far more problems to many plants than a bit of frost if it's dry. That may be iffy depending on your climate, but I don't grow them as they don't survive here, for the reasons given.
Can't comment/advise on the passion flower as I don't grow them.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
@Busy-Lizzie I will look into the Viticellas. I completely forgot that a bit earlier this spring I planted a Clematis Terniflora Early Snow and that is Group 3 so will see how that does. I have been doing the group 1 so I can train them to cover the fences and (if evergreen) get winter green as well. But I think I need more of a mix now rather than trying to rely on a just a few plants to get very big. Especially as the climate gets more variable.
I hadn't considered roses actually. I had a childhood of being the one responsible for pruning roses and it put me off them due to the short blooming time, endless black spots on leaves and all the spikes and I haven't chosen to grow them in my adult life. Maybe I should rethink that but as my first choice I am going for flowering plants that the insects can feed from the flowers.
My montana is still alive as it is shooting from the base so hopefully it doesn't take too many years to recover and ideally grow larger. Maybe expecting it to get to 8+ metres was a bit unrealistic.
You say you would never plant a passionflower near a house - why is that? The mature one here was about 2.5m away and I needed to check regularly it didn't go up into the gutters but are there any other reason why you wouldn't? It would be the Trachelospermum possibly going near the house to try to keep it a more stable temperature during winter.
The Montana, Wisley Cream and Lonicera have had a thick weed-free woodchip mulch (about 10cm at the start of each season, I will top this up again shortly) and were planted correctly. I checked the soil regularly to make sure it was moist and watered in heatwaves but don't water otherwise (as the soil has remained moist under the woodchip). It doesn't water log either. The passionflower was actually surrounded by patio in both our and our neighbour's garden. The neighbours dug up their side for an extension a couple of years ago and the passionflower suffered then (midsummer as well). So maybe it just didn't have the strength to go through the climate fluctuations last year.
I will keep my fingers crossed for this year!
They were 1m high multistem plants when I planted them which seems a pretty standard size for suppliers and shops around here.
I am not in an area that is particularly wet I don't think, but the winter was swapping between wet and cold. Hopefully the Trachelospermum will survive wherever I end up putting it but I think I have learnt not to rely on one plant to be the only one in a large area as it is so annoying if it dies! The label says it grows to 20m but whenever I see people's photos of theirs they are much smaller (say 2-4m) so I don't know what is realistic to expect
Passion Flowers can have deep tap roots that also spread.
I grow my horizontalis, ... well, horizontal. Grown verical it does tend (IME) to fold over in a strong wind. So does need supporting well.
It does spring up readily from seed. But that can be used or dealt with easily. An advantage? Invasive? Never!
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."