In article ,
"Charlie Pridham" writes:
|
| The OP said one of the plants was Etoile Violette, since that is just about
| the most wilt resistant variety known, I suspect that the cause is too small
| a root system for the size of the plant, plants react by ditching one or
| more stems and try again later. It always pays to place a watering tube in
| the planting hole and ensure regular watering during the first summer, this
| applies whether or not the season seems a wet one. On dry sites or ones with
| poor soil it pays to grow plants on for a year in a 7.5lt pot and plant out
| a much bigger root system the following year.

Could be. I have lost some large-flowered clematis, both temporarily
and permanently, due to things that had similar symptoms to wilt, but
have been told probably wasn't. That is why I put 'wilt' in quotes;
I certainly can't tell 'true' Clematis wilt from a fungal infection
of the roots!

I have never had trouble with species (or viticella, actually),
except that I couldn't persuade C. cirrhosa to thrive - but it
never dropped a stem. I eventually scrapped it as a dead loss.

My point was more about the overall robustness of the species
versus the large-flowered hybrids.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.