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Bye bye Clematis Cassis
After a rare day that I could go out in the garden without a snorkle, thermals and a weatsuit I have spotted that my Clematis Cassis that I bought last year seems to have just gone brown and died. It is two years old and grows close to a Montana. Can it have rotted in all this rain or has it just reverted back underground because of the rotten summer? I think it shold die down at the end of the summer but not mid July. I would be quite miffed if it has died as it has not flowered since I bought it from the bargain bucket last year.
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It might have clematis wilt in which case all you can do is cut the stem back to slightly below ground level and keep your fingers crossed that it sends up new growth. One sign of 'wilt' is that the stems will appear black if split open. Cassis is a group 3, and is semi-evergreen, so it definitely shouldn't have died back yet - it should be just about be coming into flower..
I think it's less likely to affect tough types like Montana. I have a clematis Jackmanii that did this last year - it flowered in May and promptly died back. I cut it right down close to the ground, and new growth appeared quite soon. By September it was back up to the top of the fence and flowering again, so we got twice the flowering from it. This year it's been fine, flowering for the last month or more.
It only affects large-flowered types, and then only rarely, so pretty sure the Montana (which is one of the toughest clematis there is!) is immune. Nobody really knows what causes it, but it's a fungal infection and some think wet weather does play a part.
Have the stems been thoroughly nibbled by slugs? If so, treat it the same as clematic wilt and protect the newly emerging stems. Or are the stems just fragile and might they have suffered damage from strong winds or an accidental blow?
The stems are intact, they just look dead. When I cut one open it is not black inside but more gray/white. Not sure if that is good or bad. Should I cut it down to the ground and pray for resurrection?
Cut it back and give it a feed of liquid tomato food to encourage new growth. Cross your fingers.
Thanks so much for that. I've had a beautiful new 'Parisienne' go very sad on me, so I'll do that and hope for the best.
Does this also true for clematis Chirrosa var Balerica? I bought one from the garden centre bargain bucket and it looked half dead with some leaves on it. It is more resembling a dodo than a climber now.
Have cut the other one back and will treat it to some fertilizer.
My Cassis is well in flower, sorry, but another type has sucumbed to wilt, I suspect, this year, so have just cut it well back.
IME Chirrosa is pretty tough & hard to kill- even mine was really cut back/down in a fit of temper, as it persisited in flowering over the other side of an 8ft fence. This year it has regrown & am back to tying the blighter back in to the trellis it shares with the Cassis. J.