By Monjardinlra
Limousin,
France 
Hi folks I have a much-beloved clematis which GoYers kindly identified for me earlier this season as "Ville de Lyon" (French, 1899, it seems, v. suitable given where it's living!... It always flowers its socks off for me but usually stops early August. This year it's gone on having some flowers amidst the going-over foliage but they are much smaller. Do I worry - is it trying to tell me something? (I would normally prune it right back in March, and this has seemed to suit it). I've never fed it and it lives in a parched bed on a south-facing wall (but with two horrid concrete blocks at its feet, which presumably Madame-the-previous-owner put in to shade its roots). Thanks for your help.
12 Sep, 2012
Answers
If you plant some golden marjoram by your slabs it should spread out over them in summer and hide them for you. Don't put it slap up against the clematis roots though.
12 Sep, 2012
funnily enough someone has just given me some marjoram, steragram - but the bed the clematis is in is only a foot or so wide (south facing, and under projecting eaves so no rain) so I'm always surprised anything lives there (there is a quite sickly rose whose base is circa a foot wide so it must be some age)
13 Sep, 2012
I don't think the marjoram would mind being dry - lots of herbs seem to enjoy well drained and sunny - worth a try anyway. Thyme might be OK too but wouldn't spread out over the slabs like marjoram would.
13 Sep, 2012
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Flowers on this variety at this time of year, i.e., September rather than August, usually are smaller than earlier ones, so no, I don't think you need worry about it.
12 Sep, 2012