Clemetis in a pot - will it work?

[weebleswobble]

I want to grow something up a fence - shady in the morning, some sun in the afternoon. It has to be planted in pot on my patio. Will clematis grow happily in a pot and if so, how far would it spread? TIA gardening gurus

Went to a friends for lunch yesterday, she has 2 in pots and look lovely.

Mine never did.
But my friend has four of five potted clematis around her garden, merrily covering trellises in masses of beautiful flowers.
My honeysuckle thrives in its' pot though.

Ok, so if I planted clematis (and it lived) how many would I need to plant to cover a 6' x 6' fence panel and the same question for honeysuckle and do they need huge pots?

Yes, i have one in a pot and it climbs a trellis attached to the fence, it is thriving. It is in a sunny position, but i gather clematis dont like their roots to get warm so some people put stones on the top of the soil to keep them cool, i have to say I havent bothered though.

The pot should be fairly large, as you wont want to repot it.

i would think you need only 1 for a single fence.

Clematis montana is the one with smaller flowers - usually white or pale pink - which you often see scrambling along fences and hanging down. I have one in a pot and it does OK.

I have tried the other kind, with big bright flowers, in a pot or a raised bed and they always die

yes WW mine is a montana too, have not tried the big flowered one in a pot.

Theres a house near us has a fabulous big one in a pot in a porch. It goes pretty much straight up though ... for a 6 ft panel how about 2 or 3 which flower at different times?

I'm going to the garden centre tomorrow, so I'll look out for Montana.

If it seems the ones with larger flowers are not so successful in pots, are there any others apart from Montana I should look out for in case they don't have that one?

I'm rather dim as far as clematis are concerned ...I didn't know they could flower at different times! I like the idea of 2 separate plants - would the pots then be smaller because they wouldn't need to spread so far?

There is an evergreen kind, but I managed to kill that too

montanas are very common so I would hope you would find one - although they are mid-flower atm, I don't know if this is a bad time to be planting.

Oooh look, Guardian Garden Centre has a white one and a deep pink, I like that one

Very useful inf about different types and pruning times

Pictures of evergreen ones here - the one I killed was the 3rd pic along (the drawing), I think it's called armandii. The leaves are totally unlike normal ones.

If they're selling them now wouldn't be okay to plant them? Would I be better off with the honeysuckle then?

Wendy what have you grown that climbs and you haven't killed lol? Help me out here with something foolproof

Well, mostly I've only succeeded with the montana, and a macropetal one which was blue.

You could think about the official "mile-a-minute" which is Russian vine (will get pic in a sec but it is very invasive).

Oh, and I grew quite a nice one of those blue potato flower plants but it has to be trained, it doesn't scramble.

blue potato thing (solanum)

mile-a-minute - it is great at covering but you really have to keep on top of it.

I have tried honeysuckle but I killed that too

You're a murderer great help Wendy - I'm just going to have a look at those links

I don't think this website thinks it's a good idea!