"Martin Pentreath" wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm a total garden novice and I need a bit of advice. Last spring I
planted a clamatis armandii and the bottom of my garden to cover a wall
(about 2m high and 6m wide which I've fixed wires to using vine eyes)
and a metal-grill fence on top of the wall about another 1.5m. It's
done pretty well so far, and has reached the top of the grill fence,
but I need change its shape a bit.

At the moment it grows up then splits into two branches (I'm sure
there's a more technical name) about half a metre off the ground. Each
of these then grows up about to about the 2.5 - 3m mark before
splitting again. In other words it's doing OK at the top of the fence
in terms of providing screening and coverage, but at the bottom it's a
bit straggly. What do I do to get it more bushy at the bottom?

You can't change it, you will need to plant something else at the base to
disguise the bare legs.
You can prune armandii after it finishes flowering, once it outgrows its
allotted space.

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

"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
...

"Martin Pentreath" wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm a total garden novice and I need a bit of advice. Last spring I
planted a clamatis armandii and the bottom of my garden to cover a wall
(about 2m high and 6m wide which I've fixed wires to using vine eyes)
and a metal-grill fence on top of the wall about another 1.5m. It's
done pretty well so far, and has reached the top of the grill fence,
but I need change its shape a bit.

At the moment it grows up then splits into two branches (I'm sure
there's a more technical name) about half a metre off the ground. Each
of these then grows up about to about the 2.5 - 3m mark before
splitting again. In other words it's doing OK at the top of the fence
in terms of providing screening and coverage, but at the bottom it's a
bit straggly. What do I do to get it more bushy at the bottom?

You can't change it, you will need to plant something else at the base to
disguise the bare legs.
You can prune armandii after it finishes flowering, once it outgrows its
allotted space.

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

**********
Smack on, Charlie.!. I have about fifty and their habit is as you describe.
They like to divide as said, and get top the top of a fence and lay there
year after year. I like this, and encourage it on my fence.
You have to be careful with Vitalba though. It goes daft and covers
everything.
I have two, placed to blot out the thug neigbours from hell who have
recently moved in next door and caused a lot of trouble.
My brother, now deceased, was a world authority and had a large clematis
garden at Woodplumpton on the north edge of Preston.
Doug.
**********

"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
...

"Martin Pentreath" wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm a total garden novice and I need a bit of advice. Last spring I
planted a clamatis armandii and the bottom of my garden to cover a wall
(about 2m high and 6m wide which I've fixed wires to using vine eyes)
and a metal-grill fence on top of the wall about another 1.5m. It's
done pretty well so far, and has reached the top of the grill fence,
but I need change its shape a bit.

At the moment it grows up then splits into two branches (I'm sure
there's a more technical name) about half a metre off the ground. Each
of these then grows up about to about the 2.5 - 3m mark before
splitting again. In other words it's doing OK at the top of the fence
in terms of providing screening and coverage, but at the bottom it's a
bit straggly. What do I do to get it more bushy at the bottom?

You can't change it, you will need to plant something else at the base to
disguise the bare legs.
You can prune armandii after it finishes flowering, once it outgrows its
allotted space.

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

**********
Smack on, Charlie.!. I have about fifty and their habit is as you describe.
They like to divide as said, and get top the top of a fence and lay there
year after year. I like this, and encourage it on my fence.
You have to be careful with Vitalba though. It goes daft and covers
everything.
I have two, placed to blot out the thug neigbours from hell who have
recently moved in next door and caused a lot of trouble.
My brother, now deceased, was a world authority and had a large clematis
garden at Woodplumpton on the north edge of Preston.
Doug.
**********