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Clematis Wesselton
Sussex Sue
Posts: 2
in Talkback
My clematis Wesselton was doing really well in a large container awaiting a permanent place in the garden. I went on holiday and the person who was looking after things didn't water it. It's has gone brown and sickly looking, but it is still alive. It's about eight feet high. Should I prune it fairly hard, or leave it? Any advice really appreciated. Many thanks
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Hopefully it's only the leaves that have suffered. I think I'd leave it and see what happens in the spring. If it forms lots of nice healthy buds all over the plant then all is well - if the buds are only on the lower part of the plant then I'd cut back to good buds. But that's only me going by my instinct ... I'm not an expert.
Hopefully Richard Hodson will see this post and give more authoritative advice - he has a clematis nursery.
Do I understand that you think that gardener's are allowed to take summer holidays?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I should think it would recover well if you give it a good soak now to re-hydrate it and then a good feed in spring. I wouldn't prune just yet as any dead top growth will take the frosts and protect the rest of the plant. However, when growth restarts, I'd tidy each stem back to a pair of healthy buds.
When you do plant it out, make sure it gets a good deep hole and is planted at least 3 to 4 inches deeper than it was in its pots as this encourages extra stems to grow. Incorporate some well-rotted garden compost into the hole and the soil you use to back fill and make sure it gets a good feed of clematis food every spring.
Train the stems as horizontally as possible to encourage flower power.
I'm far from an expert on Clematis and while sometimes they do just up and die for no apparent reason they are very hard to murder! I have one poor little soul who has had a terrible life and been moved about and neglected. The other day I looked and there's a tiny shoot coming up.I felt so guilty
From now on it's all beer and skittles for him. I'm sure if you feed him well in Spring and plant him nice and deep he'll reward you well.
Thanks everyone, I'll try not to go on holiday again