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How to prevent clematis from wilting
Don't know where your worry is coming from, but wilt in clematis is very rare. More often than not when a plant dies down suddenly, it is because of slug or snail damage at the base of the affected shoot.
All Clematis except perhaps the very dwarf ones and herbaceous types do better with deep planting.
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Once you have had one clematis die of wilt (and I've not very grown many), it makes you worry about it for future plantings. I too would like to know the answers to aym's questions. Do the clematis experts on here just plant and hope they don't get it or do you take precautionary measures and if so what do you do?
There is nothing you can do to prevent it, other than plant deeply.
We have over 100 Clematis in the garden and I have never seen wilt here, even in the most susceptible types.
I only had a few cases of supposed wilt with my clems and in 3 out of 4 it was OH being happy with a hoe! I plant new clematis deep and I put an upturned terracotta plant pot (with its bottom bashed out) over the base after planting, feeding and watering and he hasn't hoed any for a few years now. Others have had stems munched or else broken by strong winds.
I've also learned that in my garden, where conditions can be extreme in winter, it's best to plant new clems in big pots and keep them as patio plants for a couple of seasons before planting them out. This lets them establish a decent root system without any competition. I lost several clems before doing this tho some did re-emerge 2 or 3 seasons later - after I'd binned their labels.
I've heard that the large flowered hybrids are most susceptible but get over it if pruned immediately to below the problem and then kept well fed and watered as this gives them resistance, just as well nourished humans resist illness better than the malnourished or under nourished..
Clematis wilt is rather like swine flu and global warming.........lots of people talk about it but hardly anyone has ever seen it.
aym........your ' pruned bits with healthy buds ' would have been ideal material for some hardwood cuttings.
Not much point if you have lost the labels and don't know what they are, though.
aym, Sorry for delay in replying, this is a pot of hardwood cuttings taken 9th January 2016 from a lovely Viticella Group clematis Carol Leeds.
I heard on GQT a while back, not to put pieces of terracotta, gravel etc over Clematis roots, as slugs and snails hide, which will cause subsequent damage.
The person who advised this was a well known Clematis grower, unfortunatly I cant remember her name!!
Sound advice, Goldfinch, the pieces of slate, terracotta etc make lovely snail hotels.