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New Clematis
Jill Smith
Posts: 8
in Plants
My clematis is about 2 months old (since I bought it) and has grown about 5 feet on 2 stems and has one flower on each. Suddenly the leaves at bottom have turned brown and I have removed them. Now, the leaves from about half way up are being eaten at an alarming rate. I cannot see larvae or insects. Can anyone tell me what this is and how to deal with it, please, Jill
0
Posts
It could be slugs,snails ,adult vine weevils -if you go out after dark with a torch you might see something in action
Perhaps if you posted a picture of the damaged leaves someone might be more accurate
Thanks for that. I don't see any sign of slime and no insects at all. But as you say they might be on the night shift!
I shall take a pic in a minute once I have discovered how to add to the thread.
Hope this is good enough
Mmm-looks suspicously like vine weevil adult damage to me-again have a look tonight- these are they
and this is typical damage
which looks similar to your damage-then again it could still be snails
Agree with Geoff, again
, quite likely to be VW damage to the leaves.
The bit about the lower leaves going brown. It can be quite common for those to do that anyway, But, if the whole of the remaining stems/leaves also begin dying then check out Clematis wilt. All clematis need to be planted as deep as possible. If wilt is suspected, then cut away all the infected bits & it should reshoot from low down, often beneath ground. Oh & disinfect any secataurs used. J.
Oh dear that looks just like it. So what can I do?
Jill-if you find them then pick them off- the really bad news is the adults do worse damage by laying eggs and the grubs hatch out and eat the roots
All a bit depressing I'm afraid but don't give up hope yet- as Jo says it may shoot up again from below ground or it might just recover
Who said gardening was easy?
There doesn't seem to be any sign of Clematis wilt but who knows? This pest problem is becoming an expensive hobby! I now need vine weevil and Systemic rust destroyers for my Clematis and Hollyhock. I only have one of each and you have to buy so much of the stuff and it is only a 6 foot diameter raised bed and a pot with the Clematis.
Rust on hollyhocks is almost inevitable, and personally I would not worry about it, so don't buy stuff for that if I were you. Vine weevil is another thing, you probably do need to treat that. It may only be affecting your clematis just now, but can get anywhere. I do not use chemiclas very much ( I make an exception with provado for lily beetle, as I grow a large amount of those), but some things do call for special action. If your plant does have clematis wilt, don't worry - you need to make sure the clematis is in the pot very deeply, then if you do get it (or rather the clematis does!), cut it down to ground level and it will come again next year. The viticella and other smaller flowered ones don't get it, so that might be something to think about for the future. Large summer flowered ones in pots can struggle, but the smaller ones, especially those bred for container growth, are a jolly good bet.
Thanks all for your helpful replies. The clematis is in a large pot about 7 inches deep should I try to re-pot it in a much deeper one? It is in flower.
The hollyhock is a different story, It started off at £10 in a garden centre - reduced to 5 - reduced to 3. It was virtually dead with something unknown to me. I took pity on it and said I'd pay £1. Back home I found there were 3 separate plants, removed all the dead leaves and dead buds and potted them up in my kitchen. Looked on the web and found out what was wrong with them. I have them on the kitchen windowsill and I have a beautiful flower on one of them they still have rust spots but are looking so much healthier. They are very straggly but they are growing! And of course I talk to them every morning. Daft old thing that I am