Pink Clematis Beauty

CLEMATISES are like choco­lates....... Once you've had a few, you can't stop - you always want just one more. Luckily, they are good at fitting into... more

by Peggy Franz

Title

Pink Clematis Beauty

Artist

Peggy Franz

Medium

Photograph - Photography/flower

Description

CLEMATISES are like choco­lates....... Once you've had a few, you can't stop - you always want just one more. Luckily, they are good at fitting into crowded gardens because you can grow them in places where there's already something else.
You can plant three different sorts up through a tree or fair-sized shrub. The flowers are bound to overlap, so I'd go for three with contrasting shapes - maybe one with rosette flowers, one wide-open single variety and one of the 'pixie-hat' type.You could grow a couple of the smaller clematises on a piece of trellis, up an obelisk in a border or through a wall Shrub.They're quite happy in a position where the roots are in shade and the fops are in sun. Before you plant a clematis, mix loads of organic matter into the soil and plant it so the rootball is 4-6m underground. Then give it a good mulch and feed every spring.Clematises are great for containers and that's the popular way to grow them. For tubs, the new compact varieties that grow 6-8ft tall and flower from June to September are brilliant.Since they will stand outside in winter, go for glazed ceramic or plastic tubs rather than terracotta, which might crack if it freezes.

Uploaded

May 15th, 2013