Climatis and should it be trimmed?
Question:I have a purple climatis that is attempting to grow on a wagon wheel by our driveway. Although glad I am just getting it to grow, with my not so green thumb, it does get brown burnt looking areas on it's vine, along with the healthy blooming ones. Should these brown vines be cut off, or just leave them alone? I also wondered if the wagon wheel might be scorching the vines, making them brown?
Answers:
The old advice for all Clematis is, head in the sun - roots in the shade. Cool roots are very important for the well-being of this climber. Many Clematis will produce brown leaves/bare stems at low level, this is not (without looking at your plant) damaging, and is often a condition of the plants soil/growing conditions. SHADE the roots, feed liquid fertiliser every 2 weeks, water plentifully in warm weather, at least 2 gallons each plant. If stems are brown/dead from top to bottom, cut them off at ground level.
I know this isn't exactly what you're looking for, but I have a clematis also that was in a pot for several weeks. I then transplanted it into the ground to grow on a trellis and the leaves are greenish, but the stems are dark brown. Its a "multi-blue" clematis and it hasn't really been growing too much
Climatis is a very vigerous plant. It's going to grow like a week no matter how you trim it, so go ahead. Cut off the brown vines, that's the dead part. If you let them stay there spiders will live there, and that's not good for anyone. Is the wagon wheel metal or wood? Because if it's metal, it might effect that plant. If it's wood it shouldn't matter, because that's a natural cling. Hope it works out well for you. It's a really beautiful plant. Trilli.
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