i've two clematis (pruning code 2) which are both pale pink, but I planted in full sun last year, or the sunniest position in my south-west facing garden in rainy manchester.

anyway one decided to get clematis wilt, which thankfully recovered and put on lots of growth after i cut the affected parts out, though it didn't flower, but i'm hoping it'll do so this year

the other clematis' flowers were affected as the sun bleached the colour, and looked nothing like it was suppossed to. I understand from a friend that this is because i planted it in wrong position as pale clematis' like shade. He also suggested its possible the wilt occurred as the wire supports i put up for them were too close to the house and didn't allow much air movement. sounded plausible, but think i remember reading somewhere this situation is more likely to cause mildew, which i didn't suffer. anyone care to comment on his hypothesising?

anyway i have a shady neighbours wall in the same garden which my lonicera tellimania is just starting to spread across cover, and was thinking of moving the two clematis there. As theres no soil, just the foundations of the old lean-to i got rid of they'll need to be put in largish pots.

question is when's best to move them? i could only guess at same time as the end of feb prune.

any help/recommendations is greatly appreciated

"Tiger303" wrote in message
...

i've two clematis (pruning code 2) which are both pale pink, but I
planted in full sun last year, or the sunniest position in my
south-west facing garden in rainy manchester.

anyway one decided to get clematis wilt, which thankfully recovered and
put on lots of growth after i cut the affected parts out, though it
didn't flower, but i'm hoping it'll do so this year

the other clematis' flowers were affected as the sun bleached the
colour, and looked nothing like it was suppossed to. I understand from
a friend that this is because i planted it in wrong position as pale
clematis' like shade. He also suggested its possible the wilt occurred
as the wire supports i put up for them were too close to the house and
didn't allow much air movement. sounded plausible, but think i remember
reading somewhere this situation is more likely to cause mildew, which i
didn't suffer. anyone care to comment on his hypothesising?

anyway i have a shady neighbours wall in the same garden which my
lonicera tellimania is just starting to spread across cover, and was
thinking of moving the two clematis there. As theres no soil, just the
foundations of the old lean-to i got rid of they'll need to be put in
largish pots.

question is when's best to move them? i could only guess at same time
as the end of feb prune.

any help/recommendations is greatly appreciated


--
Tiger303

They will grow fine in the pots, cut them back reasonably hard now and dig
up with at least as much root as when you first planted them. You will get
some flowers this year but later than if they had remained unpruned. use
fairly large pots if you are not going to repot each year. (at least 25lt,
10 is ok for ones you repot) You will need to water them regularly for
success and I would still consider removing enough of the foundations to
plant in the ground as its less trouble long term.

The term clematis wilt is unhappily used loosely to describe any clematis
that wilt! Durham university did some research and discovered that of wilted
clematis only 18% were suffering from the stem rotting fungus that can cause
this, the rest had wilted from a variety of reasons but the most common
found was a sudden drop in the water supply, this happens naturally in a lot
of soils in May and June. Clematis are a little unusual in that they can
dump stems when under stress and do not often recover straight away when
water is restored (but will reshoot from the base later), so a good soaking
in May often prevents problems. There is no chemical cure for clematis wilt.
Should you become sufficiently bored you can tell true Clematis wilt (stem
rot) from other forms by splitting the wilted stems length ways looking for
the tell tale dark area at a leaf node :~)
The road to recovery is the same in all cases, cut back, water and feed.
they normally bounce back.

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