clematis

i have recently planted 4 clematis (one week ago) placing them carefully on a trellis. three are thriving but one, lady betty balfour has withered & i'm afraid looks like she's died. as i am a novice gardener, advice please

 

make sure you have planted her deep, leave her in and keep your fingers crossed!!!!

If she does re appear, try spraying with fungiside to try and prevent happening again.

clematis are like that - don't worry, its happened to us all.

 

All you need to have done is damaged the stem and it would then collapse. Do not give up on it though. I have had them sulk for 2 years before deciding to grow.

 

only 2 years- the one I am having a problem with that has now re emerged must be 6/7 years, just wish it would flower then I could remember what it was.

as I said, it happens to us all1

 

thanks for the advice, as i've recently had our garden landscaped, i'm afraid the deepest i can plant clematis is about5 - 6 inches, but this is top quality top soil (the estate i live on was built 12 years ago on an old industrial site, so the underlying indiginous soil was mostly shale). i'm going to get a clematis montana today to attach to the trellis to see how that goes any advice? cheers bob (this gardening bug really does bite!)

 

I hope the trellis is big and strong, cos C. montana can get BIG. One of ours is now at the top of a 25 foot tall tree as well as covering the Summer house (12 by 8) roof.
Also that depth of soil is a little shallow for Clematis (in fact a lottle shallow). They really do need a deep root run to perform well. If you can get down into the shale then you really should dig a hole say two spades wide and two deep. If posible break up the base of the hole too. Fill it with decent soil and plant the Clematis with the old plant pot level at least 2 inches, preferably 4 inches deeper. Water well for the first 12 months. Have fun.
PS. It can be done, we lived on a garden where the sand overlayed decaying sandstone and whilst it was a b.....r to make the hole, the Clematis thrived.