by Rochelle Greayer
Pictured above:
As you have probably noticed, I work with Proven Winners to test out their plants and then help you (through this website) learn more about them. Every spring this means that boxes of new plants arrive for me to plant in my garden, experiment with, generally get inspired by and ultimately write about.
This year I requested some clematis because Joanne Neale’s fantastic article about easy care clematis in the summer issue of PITH + VIGOR got me in the mood to add some of these fantastic climbers to my garden. When the boxes arrived, I was expecting one or two, but I got 16 (this is obviously not a complaint, just a statement of fact). I have eight Clematis Diamond Ball and eight Clematis ‘Sweet Summer Love’ and finding homes for all of them isn’t all that easy. So far, I’ve planted three of the ‘Sweet Summer Love’ (and I’ve worked out places for 3 more) and I’ve planted none of the Diamond Balls (some removal of other plants and bed prep is currently underway), but I have a home for at least 5 of them.
With a quarter of the plants still needing placement, I’ve been playing a new little game around here….its called ‘where to put the clematis’. The rules are easy, but the game is hard, finding at least 16 places interesting places to plant a beautiful clematis in the garden is a challenge even in a big garden like mine. Climbers need a place to climb and while I’m still working on where they all will go….I’m inspired by the dilemma and I found these 16 clematis design inspirations:
Just as soon as mine have grown enough to actually attach to their climbing frames (and I have found homes for each plant) I will share my own placements which include training over a pergola, covering a garage wall, and hiding part of the old chicken coop. But have I missed anything? How do you grow your clematis?
