"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
Just had a "Vyvyan Pennell" curl up as it was about to flower. :-(

A couple of weeks ago a small x triternata rubra went down. Not sure if
that was wilt or not, but the hot weather won't help matters with
early-morning high humidity.

Anyone else had their clematis suffering from wilt?

(A question for Charlie. Is there anything the professionals can use to
prevent or treat it? Or is there nothing available even to commercial
growers?)

--

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Wilt as a disease has no known chemical cure however is a relatively rare
disease that only affects those clematis with far eastern blood (typically
those with large flowers) most clematis that wilt have suffered some other
event not to their liking. Nurseries don't need a prevention treatment as I
have never known a plant suffer from it, probably because we water every day
and keep the wind and rain off the plants!

Wilt the fungal disease is an air borne fungus that cause minor leaf
spotting on European clematis like viticella, it does not survive in soil
(hence the plant deep advice) so its OK to replant but I have to say it
rarely if ever actually kills plants. However the far eastern clematis have
no natural immunity to it and it travels from the leaves to infect the stems
blocking the sap flow causing the wilting we see.

Your Vyvyan Pennell probably did have wilt as it is the number 1 wilter and
very prone
Triternata Rubro Marginata is just an annoying plant that is difficult to
find the right spot for but once found grows like a weed, here the problem
seems to be that it gives up very quickly if attacked by snails/slugs.

Nick, sadly Florida is only really going to do well under glass it just
doesn't like weather and needs very sharp drainage round the crown of the
plant

Things that help

If you suffer a lot stop buying group 2 clematis and switch to group 3!
If you already have plants, heavy watering in May helps, as does very strict
slug/snail control from January on and making sure that the plant is
properly tied in and cant move in the wind.

Growing large flowered clematis in pots for a couple of seasons to get a big
well established root system can work well.

Plants often grow out of it and this is more likely due to their increased
root systems coping with water stress better rather than becoming resistant
to the fungus

Hope all that helps

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