at what spacing should I plant clematis for best results

Hi John. Spritz and Muddywellies are really the clematis experts but I have a few and love to grow them so that they intertwine. So you can grow, for example an early flowerer like the ubiquitous Montana which will climb right along your 20 feet if trained and growing through it later flowerers. So the whole lot looks like it is in flower all summer. I do this and put my less vigorous ones at about 1 meter intervals. You can put in what you like and if you put in something like Nellie Moser, like I have, you get one lot of flowers just as Montana is finishing and then another lot towards autumn. I'm sure Spritz will have loads of other ideas.

John.

One tip I have is to plant TWO Clematis in the same hole! This has two benefits - if you do happen to lose one with the dreaded wilt, there's still the other one, and if you plant two that flower at different times, you have an added bonus! Don't forget to plant DEEP. This is another way to help the plant if struck down, it still has a chance of growing back from the rootball.

Otherwise, yes, John - I agree with you. I would plant C. 'Broughton Star' as my C. montana choice, as the others tend to be a bit overwhelming. It has lovely dark leaves and double pink flowers. Your choice for summer ones, there are so many! And don't forget the winter-flowering species, the evergreen C.cirrhosas like 'Freckles' which has been flowering its socks off since November and still has buds to come!

I planted a Clematis for every season on my new trellis in September 2007 and it worked really well, starting with a C.alpina, then C.'Miss Bateman', C. sieboldii, C. viticella and lastly C.cirrhosa.

Just one thing to consider when planting a mixure of clematis is the pruning regimes. Early flowering one need pruning as the flowers fade; late flowering ones in early spring. If they are all growing into each other, it may be tricky to sor tout which stem belong to which clematis and extracting the ones you have cut down

Yes, you're right, Andrew. But that still leaves lots of choice, as the two in the same hole can be in the same pruning group. All John needs to do to get over this problem is to check the back of the label - or look in a book - when choosing!

Whoops. Sorry Andrew. Forgot you were good on these too.

John.

I presume you will be putting an evergreen like c.armandii amongst them overwise you'll still have a bare wall in the winter regardless of how many you plant..

That's why I suggested C.cirrhosa! I wouldn't suggest a C.armandii, it's so vigorous once it gets going - it would overwhelm the others!

Thats good, my newly purchased one should cover my garage in no time :o)

Don't know about 'no time' Fleur. My C. armandii took 3 years to really get going. Once it did though, it was like Russian vine.

Thats okay Sarraceniac, I can wait, as in the meantime I already have my wisteria on the same wall. The plan is as the clematis grows I intend to retrain the wisteria stems up and over my recently built pagola.