The New " In Love" Diary!

5 Jun '06 12:49 am

Dear gardener friends , I know that every now and then we all fall in love with certain of our plants, or simply plants . Sometimes, even with our friend's garden plants, or the prairie's wild flowers! Or by a plant we saw in a gardening magazine. Let's share our "in love" plants here! Let's exchange useful information about the plants we fall in love with every now and then.

Right now I'm in love with the first of the Clematis flowering in our garden! The first "large Flowered Clematis" of early Summer. After 3 weeks of rain, my plants behave so strange. The Rose buds are trying to open all these rainy weeks, together with some Delphiniums. Apart from the sky- blue Ceanothus, the Aquilegias, and certain Salvias, only these Clematis are in bloom ,the lovely white Daisies, my Rugosa Roses, and the last Rhododendron.

Taking the pictures I will post for you, I noticed how the brilliance and the colours of each flower, changes with the light...

5 Jun '06 1:39 am

Liza, I would be overjoyed if only one of those plants bloomed in my garden. You must be in rapture. I saw my first Clematis in my MIL's garden. I have a pic someplace, I will try and locate it.

Your friends are stunning! Please tell me what you feed them. You see, I have 2 Clematis I just put in the ground 2 weeks ago. I'm a little concerned as there hasn't been much growth on the little one. It is a blue Will Goodwin (so it says on the package)

I think there is a deeper problem. My Clematis are planted at the end of our southside garden. When I dug the holes, with mom watching me, I only went down about 6 inches and then struck gumbo. I don't know if your familiar with gumbo but it is the natural soil around here. Not a clay and not a soil really. When it's dry it is hard as cement. When it is wet it is like axle grease. Step in it and it will tear your boot from your foot. It is terrible stuff. I pointed out the gumbo to mom and she said not to worry about it. So I planted the Clematis and it's soil was proud of the surface by a couple of inches. I made a second layer for the edge of the garden and raised it up 4.5 inches and we filled the area with fresh potting soil. I'm worried that there isn't enough drainage for the clematis. I can't remember what thread I saw it on, but I think I read that clematis like to have good drainage and they should have a layer of gravel down deep to help keep there feet dry. (so to speak)

Now I'm not sure what to do. Please take a look and see what you think. I would be ever so grateful.

Christopher

5 Jun '06 3:09 am

Dear Christopher , Thank you for your sweet words! Yes, I know this terrible sort of soil, because I have it in certain areas of my garden, even where I opened holes for Roses!

The truth is, that , yes! Clematis definetely need extra quality draining system, because they can perish within hours because of water logging! You should open for them an equally deep and large hole you open for a Rose of 6 feet( 2 meters) tall! That means in our metric system,a hole 60cm deep and large. Plus, you have to place the new plant a little deeper than the surface of the hole you created.

Now. The Clematis thrive in light , fresh, rich soils! That's why I throw away all the horrible clay soil I dig out from the hole I prepare.I replace it thoroughly by new, good quality soil, able to remain freshly humid but not waterlogged. Before I add the soil, I prepare a very good draining system of 20 cm thick draining material. I also add antifungus powder in the soil mixture, to protect the new plant by the horrible Clematis Wilt (rot), which mainly arrives after raining or watering during a hot weather..

My Clematis adore the special fertilizers ...for Roses! Which means they love extra magnesium in their food! But this during the good season. By the end of Autumn I give them some good home-made compost, like I do with all my plants.

Good luck with your babies!

5 Jun '06 10:31 pm

Yes! It is a sunny day today! And there is such an active blooming progress everywhere in the garden! And I'm falling in love again!! With these:

6 Jun '06 6:36 am

Thank you Liza ,for the fresh breath of Spring air you brought us....I do have two questions ,please .
I have clematis montana growing happily .They need a lot of space .Do the clematis you have ,grow as long ? Or are they all right on a small trellis ? I adore the white one and the blue one ,but haven`t much room .
Also what is the delicate rose you have 'O your scent' ?.It seems to be pink ,opening up to palest pink -so delicate.
Dixie.

6 Jun '06 10:22 am

While visiting Taranaki last year, I spent ages adoring some gorgeous clematis for sale .I lost the brochure ,but have just found them - - - the NZ breeders on Google ---they are Yaku Nursery at Waitara -they are next door to the Jury gardens. They have mail orders and full instructions ,plus links to the world clematis websites.They say that hybrid clematis grow to 3 metres in NZ and can grow in tubs ,so Liza`s photos have made me want some too .I fell in love with 'Chalcedony' and Liza`s' Lasurstern '
Dixie.

6 Jun '06 9:40 pm

Dearest friend, thank you again for your kind words!

You are very right on attracting your attention to this very Rose: it is an old German beauty, behaving like a Floribunda, which is an ideal combination! It has a fantastic scent, it is absolutely healthy, having a beautiful compact form,reaching 70-100cm of height! You can find it in all the good catalogues, because it is really famous.

And you are ablolutely right about the Clematis!! All the large-flowered Clematis (flowering during Spring and Summer), reach about the 3m of height. The early Spring flowering , though, and the small-flowered, late Summer-Autumn flowering , can reach the 6m! I have the beautiful Jackmanii and Miss Julia Correvon for late flowering, and they become really tall! Jackmannii has already covered a tree in one of the fences; at its feet I have also planted one of my Lasursterns, in this way having Clematis flowering during all the good season, in this spot of the garden.And, generally, I plant them two-by-two, choosing correctly the varieties.

I found the Clematis Chalcedony in Google/Images! She is absolutely stunning! I wish you luck and happiness with your new Clematis to be adopted for your garden!

You can see here two photos of the Rose Gruss an Aachen, taken last Summer.

19 Jun '06 4:33 am

This time of season is very yellowish and golden in our garden. I love it! It is joyful and shiny! It also gives space in the garden, and so happy with any other colour! Here are the yellows!