Clematis - what on Earth do you do with them?

[PasstheTwiglets]

I have 2 of the Clematis types where they grow in one year and you cut them back to the ground in the winter. Every spring I say I'm going to sort them out before they start to grow and get all tangled and every year I fail :) I have managed to sort of separate them this year but how do I train them so that they look nice? It seems to have about 6 stems - I don't tie them all to one cane, do I? Otherwise the flowers will be too crowded together, I'd have thought. Will they look silly with several bamboo canes supporting each individual stem? Or do I need to buy a trellis?

i never bothered cutting mine back and they grew very quickly .Saying that my 5 Montanas 1 of which was huge all died this Winter ....gutted

I'd go with the trellis - then they will cling and you won't have to keep tying them in.

Thanks, both of you! Blossom, apparently you have to cut this type back to the ground as they are just dead wood after they flower. I suppose a trellis makes most sense - I just thought they were probably expensive and needed some sort of DIY to install, rather than just being plonked in the ground like I do with the canes :)

Twiglets - definitely go for trellis - some are quite heavy duty but you can get lighter weight ones. I bought a couple of cheap (as in under £5) "fan" trellises from our local Notcutts. They were easy to carry/transport because the fan folds into one long (but fairly compact) rectangular package. And easy to put up - literally whacked a few nails into either fence post or wall (we have wall down one side of the garden and fence down another) and that fixed it beautifully

Hello Twiggy

Better than trellis is wire netting (the sort they sell for fencing) attached to battens on the fence, about 2ft from the ground. You can cover a lot of fence very cheaply - useful if this is one of the clematis that can grow to 15 feet - it needs zero maintenance and is invisible once in place. Use bamboo canes until the clematis shoots are tall enough to be tied to the netting.

This method has been used successfully for many years at Les Jardins de Maud.

Hello Maud! That sounds like a good idea, I will look into getting some of that. Much appreciated!

Also, you don't have to cut back to the ground. About knee high is ideal.

I grow mine up plastic mesh which is held over the fence/drain pipes.

Do the holes in the mesh/netting have to be quite widely-spaced?

Holes about 4cm but doesn't really matter. Could be bigger.