"judith lea" wrote in message
oups.com...

Sacha wrote:
On 3/12/06 16:55, in article

Charlie will know best but Mde. Le Coultre (aka Marie Boisselot) is a
lovely, large flowered clematis. The flowers are 5 or 6 inches across.
It
can be grown in a container if well pruned. Your problem with Clematis
in
the soil (and again I defer to Charlie) might be that they don't like
to
have dry roots and your soil there sounds as if it could dry out
quickly.
They don't like having their feet baked, either, so even in a tub I
think
you'd have to put slate or something over the roots to keep them cool.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/

that sounds lovely, I always put a cover over the roots, even in
England. I wonder if I excavated a very large hole in the awful soil
and filled it in with "purchased" soil/compost;whether a clematis would
stand a better chance? I'm about to look at Charlie's site to see if
he has the one you mention.

If you are set on the large white flowers then add Henryii to your list its
a better grower and less wilty I also get on quite well with Gillian
Blades. But I would strongly recommend watering tubes in the holes.
A plant that would grow well in those conditions would be x Jouiniana
'Praecox' but it has small light lavender flowers
Let us know how it goes :~)

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collections of Clematis viticella (cvs) and
Lapageria rosea