A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Clematis

My clematis bloomed beautifully this year, but now it looks dead. The neighbor across the street has one, and her's looks fine. Any ideas? It's never been real hardy for me, but it had tons of blooms this year so I thought maybe it was because it was because it was still kind of young. (We just planted it about 4 years ago.)

Hi FaeryWings...glad you joined the forum. You will probably love it here.

There are so many types\cultivars (over 3,000) of Clematis, it would be difficult to give you a hand without knowing which one you are growing.

Is there any green foliage left or does the entire vine look dead? If they are in full sun, they will lose a lot of foliage during very hot spells.

Have you seen any signs of slugs, snails, rabbits, other varmits and critters that could be chewing on the vine?

Is it getting ample water\food?

I would encourage you to visit the American Clematis Society website and read the information about Clematis Wilt .

Let us know more about your Clematis (with attached picture if possible) and I'm sure somebody will solve your problem.

Try bending the stem a little down close to the base...if it bends without breaking it's probably not dead, just heat stressed. If it breaks, it may be dead, but it could still return next year from the roots. As mentioned, clematis wilt is a common disease, but it may not kill the plant entirely if you remove the infected stems.

ditto what the others said.

you really need to know which particular one you have. there are different requirements for each type - sunlight level, pruning needs, watering, etc.

a general rule of thumb is that they like their roots to be kept cool at all times so you'll want to make sure the roots are well covered with a thick layer of mulch or large stone or plant something in front so that the roots are kept in the shade.

once they are established, they develep a LARGE root mass - so, over time, you'll want to make the covered area larger.

we've all had some extreme heat these last weeks and many areas have gotten lots of rain too...the combination of the high heat, dried out soil and then excessive rain will cause them to wilt a bit.

i'm seeing it with both of mine. just make sure that it's watered properly (if there is no rain) especially on the extremely hot days and it should be okay.

when it comes to blooming - without knowing which variety you have, we can't say whether you should do a light pruning or not. some will do a second bloom after a light trim and others won't. (some only bloom on last years growth and others will bloom on last years growth as well as this years)

I think it's a jackmanii as in this photo. The color's right and the name sounds familiar.

It has been very hot and then all the rain we've had, so that sounds like a possibility. I'll check out the other things you mentioned as well.

Thanks everyone. You're all so helpful!

hi ive ben told it takes 1-2 years to get a seed of clementia to sprout is this true?