"David Hill" wrote in message
...
On 01/02/2014 09:35, Charlie Pridham wrote:

"sacha" wrote in message
...
Charlie, or anyone who knows it, can we grow this here? It's terribly
pretty, imo. If so, do you have it?
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon

It needs/likes a continental climate best but will grow in our milder
soggy climate with attention to slug control, grow it with a bare soil
area around (i.e. no ground cover) During winter this Clematis will die
back to ground level, so in early spring (now!) start with liquid slug
killer every 2-3 weeks on dry days (ha ha!!) until the shoots are well
above ground, after that it is just like any other Clematis. You may get
lucky and find a place that it comes back on its own but I have found
that the slugs eat the dormant buds below soil level during winter and
without help it dies out sooner or later.

Charlie, have you thought about a light sprinkling of Metaldehyde around
the plants?
This wont break down quickly and is deadly to slugs and snails.
David @ a yet again rain blasted side of Swansea Bay

One of the folk I have got to meet and make a friend of through plants is
Mike Brown, until recently he held the Herbaceous clematis collection, sat
in my kitchen he was trying to persuade me that I should grow what he
considers wonderful plants, I explained that all previous attempts to grow
them had failed, he then told me his regime of slug control, and I thought
there were perhaps less stressful ways of gardening! So you are correct, it
would work well, but will I get around to doing it? I will stick to the
viticella group which seem fairly bomb proof.

Incidentally most of this viorna group are easy to raise from seed but very
difficult from cuttings, although divisions are possible, so they are not
that easy to get hold of.


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