I still don't know the problem, I pulled off the black growing tips and some of the buds by the leaves are getting bigger so I'm hoping it will start growing again. I put it down to cold winds as it is by a windy side passage to our house but your post suggests otherwise. It does now have a few brown leaves so perhaps I'll go out and have a more thorough check!
Armandii are not the hardiest of clematis and wind damage sounds a good possibility. They like good drainage and don't cope well with waterlogging, but if your is with a healthy rose, it can't be that. I have a small one that's been in the ground in a very sheltered position for a couple of years and it is still pretty small. They have been grown on in the nursery in near-perfect conditions and it is a shock when they have to cope with a real garden.
I'm thinkingof getting rid of mine.It's had some fantastic years but over the last 2 or 3 it's had a lot of winter damage and all the dead growth is still way up in a thuja never to be reached. It's lost too much growth in winter to flower properly for the last 2 years so I think it's goodbye
It seems to me that the trouble with evergreen clematis is that they weren't really intended by nature to cope with our climate so we're always fighting their tenderness. Same with trachelospermum jasmines. I have two and they are both unhappy, although they have a relatively sheltered position.
Posts
Mmm! not a bad idea Berghill.
I posted about blackened growing tips on my armandii apple blossom a month or so ago:
http://www.gardenersworld.com/forum/problem-solving/clematis-armandii---what-is-the-problem/81787.html
I still don't know the problem, I pulled off the black growing tips and some of the buds by the leaves are getting bigger so I'm hoping it will start growing again. I put it down to cold winds as it is by a windy side passage to our house but your post suggests otherwise. It does now have a few brown leaves so perhaps I'll go out and have a more thorough check!
Armandii are not the hardiest of clematis and wind damage sounds a good possibility. They like good drainage and don't cope well with waterlogging, but if your is with a healthy rose, it can't be that. I have a small one that's been in the ground in a very sheltered position for a couple of years and it is still pretty small. They have been grown on in the nursery in near-perfect conditions and it is a shock when they have to cope with a real garden.
I'm thinkingof getting rid of mine.It's had some fantastic years but over the last 2 or 3 it's had a lot of winter damage and all the dead growth is still way up in a thuja never to be reached. It's lost too much growth in winter to flower properly for the last 2 years so I think it's goodbye
In the sticks near Peterborough
It seems to me that the trouble with evergreen clematis is that they weren't really intended by nature to cope with our climate so we're always fighting their tenderness. Same with trachelospermum jasmines. I have two and they are both unhappy, although they have a relatively sheltered position.
yes, they're wonderful plants but I'd rather have a happy plant
In the sticks near Peterborough
Mmm! sounds like the same problem Lunar jim.
I'm convinced that mine is not wind burn because when i planted this fella, I took this into account and made sure it was sheltered.
My concern is, that I do have some fireblight on my patch, but it's been said that clematis's do not suffer this appaling disease.
when I get chance, I will take a smple back to the garden centre and see what they think.
Just to mention again, I have more young clematis's close by and they are FINE!
its certainly a puzzle.