It is a fantastic Clematis, a bloom machine but it took more than three years to get this big from a gallon.

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Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. That's exactly what I was wanting to see. Mine is in it's second year and has already grown bigger than it was last year. I have it situated under a green and white variegated shrub dogwood and was wondering how rambunctious it could be.

Marshall

It doesn't cling on it's own. I had to put it in the azalea. Weekly, it falls out. It grows straight up until it flops over. None of my stems were over four feet long. This year there are at least thirty stems up from the ground.

I agree with BorS. This is one of my most prolific bloomers. Mine is contained within a spiral topiary form that has strands of green christmas tree lights on it that I weave the branches in and out of to contain it.

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MIne is a bit hidden behind a spirea, but it's planted next to a chain link fence, and grows through that pretty much on its own.

Bumping this back to the top....

I have two PFs and I just don't know what to do with them. I am kind of annoyed with myself for not realizing these were ramblers, requiring regular guidance.

Just wondering if anyone has more pics/ideas for good shrubs to layer these on...thx!

I'm just using mine as a ground cover & is planted @ 2' away from intregrifolia Alba & hope they intertwine beautifully together. So far it is working out & like it a lot. The foreground planting is a dwarf conifer & the background is a hydrangea, neither of which I will train them into. If they happen to grow into them fine. It is getting ready to bloom soon & when it does I will post a pic.

Check out the thread 'Lots of blooms, Alba too', she has lots of intregrifolias mixed in for great ideas that look fabulous.

Lalalandwi suggested you look at a current thread that shows the clems currently blooming in my garden. I thought I'd go ahead and post my PF picture. My plant is just two years old. I can't wait for it to be as mature and prolific as the other two posted here.

Here it is growing in the middle of a leucothoe and an itea:

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Mine flops where it wants to. I had to force it up into the azalea last year and this year it refuses. It is on the ground and is about six feet long and goes in multiple directions very stiffly. if that makes sense.

butterclem, that is BEAUTIFUL! It looks like you have it planted behind right? Are you maneuvering the stems at all to grow like that?

Leanne, you can't stop there, you HAVE to post a pic! A pic is worth a 1000 words, at least for someone like me that gets a better idea with visuals!

It isn't blooming much yet. I did go take a pic and will upload later.

My PF is indeed planted behind the leucothoe and itea. Very early in the season I urge the stems onto strong branches of the shrubs. After that, I don't touch them. When I first started doing this, my behavior was a little too controlling with one of my clems and it taught me a lesson by dying on me.

The trick is really to figure out which way they're going to want to grow to get sun. I have to move Juuli next spring because I planted her next to a butterfly bush on the assumption she would go for the afternoon sun, but, no, she prefers the morning sun and splays out all over the ground where no one can see her. So off to the other side of the shrub she will go.

Thanks Leanne, I can't wait to see it!

Is it just me, or do the intregrifolia die back to the ground in every zone? Curious if it is making a difference if they are growing from old wood instead of the root. All mine shot straight up from the crown & stood erect for a couple of weeks & then finally flopped down. At that point it seemed easy enough to just spread the vines out & they stayed. All they are doing now is elongating in the place I arranged them. Is that how everyone else is doing it?

Mine do not all die back all the way but I do cut them back all the way.

Yes, I let them grow up then flop. I try to put the flopping vines where I want them but they don't always cooperate.

Petite Faucon isn't getting as much sun as it would like and isn't blooming as much as that photo from last year. I need to thin the crabapple tree more....