Well that didn't seem to work. The link on the bottom will work.

Here is a link that might be useful: clematis slideshow

Very nice collection you have there! Thank you for sharing.

Very nice is right! Love your clems in trees and your side yard.

This is so beautiful! Your flowers are amazing, I can only dream of the moment when mine get so lush and rich! Thank you for posting, it made my day!

Wow, those are beautiful.

very nice flower fan i especially like the Montana in the plum tree.i just planted two Montana Rubens along my woods line hoping it will grow up into the trees.must of been hard work to create such a beautiful clem garden nice work.

I envoyed your slideshow very much. You have some real beauties. How old is your Perle d'Azur ?

Beautiful and what a variety! Being in a warmer climate sometimes makes all the difference to their size and abundance. Being in my zone, I feel blessed when my 10 largest (about 1/4 of your size) bloom and I think I am in heaven!

Charlotte

Hi everyone, thanks for all the nice comments. Bloomorelse my Perle de Azure is 6 years old. I planted a lot of clematis in 02 and they are really starting to get big and bloom a lot. I love the soft color of Perle de Azure. It goes so well with everything. Here's another photo of it. Karen

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Fabulous! And I love your side yard (I don't have one other than 36" and then neighbor's driveway).

I'm not really big on pinks in general, but after seeing your Ville De Lyon, I just might have to get me one. The color is so stunning.

I went through the slideshow and photobucket with my husband to show him what ours will look like SOMEDAY,
*sigh*.

Thanks for sharing with us.

I love how you designed your yard! That is gorgeous! Thank you!

I hope you don't mind, but I ended up looking through all your photos after I realized I could. I was trying to get a longer view of few pics that the slideshow wasn't giving me.

I love every last one of your color combos! Absolutely stunning!

I can't believe how big your clemmies are! I'm starting to get little nervous on a few cultivars I've recently planted. I am hoping being z5 vs your z8 will keep them a little smaller. I've been gauging how big they will get according to COTW stats, but yours look a lot bigger then their estimated sizes. Outside of a few must haves, you've curbed my buying spree until I see how these grow for me. My pocketbook thanks you!

Why do you suppose the elderberry didn't work? They get pretty big & one would think that a shrub that size would be able to handle a clematis. I know elderberries can be cut to the ground every year & attain 10' in a season. Is it because it was cut down & the young growth not strong enough? From your pics, that doesn't look like what happened though. I'm trying to figure out what shrubs can handle a clematis. This has me stumped (no pun intended).

In your experience, as a generality, do you think the late flowering & viticellas make good companions? Would the viticellas overpower the lates? From your pics, the size of the lates look like they could definitely compete.

I have XRM on my wish list & not so sure anymore after seeing the size of that bugger! Holy toledo, how big is it? It looks bigger than a sweet autumn. I love the pairings with Emily Plater & Kermesina. It looks like the color matches exactly with Kermesina, yes? Does it bloom a long time? Would you ever plant 1 again?

Have you experienced a lot of weediness with the tangutica? If so, how far away from the plant are you seeing babies?

Sorry for all the ?'s! Your photos have been more than beautiful...they also have been very educational. Thank you.

I sure wish more of my Clems would get that big. So much of my soil is full of tree roots from the neighbors trees that they don't seem to reach full potential even after three years.

Hi Lalaland, I am glad you enjoyed the photos. I don't mind answering your questions. The eldeberry was very large but it has very soft wood and it is very brittle. The extra weight caused the branches to break. Most shrubs have much stronger wood than the eldeberry. That Etoille violet is growing in a snowball tree about the same size as the eldeberry. I have never had any breakage problems. The snowball tree has much stronger wood.

The XRM does get very large if grown in full sun with lots of water. It is smaller than my SAC, but not by much. I have 3 of them. I just love the fragrance. I have one by the back door, one by the front door, and one along the sidewalk. That way I can enjoy the sweet fragrance when I am coming and going. The ones that are growing in part shade with tree roots are smaller, so location will affect it's size. I think the color combination with Kermensina is very good. The red color in Kermensina goes so well with XRM. Emilia Platter's color doesn't go that well with it. I just needed a place to put her and that was the only spot available at the time. I think a red, white, or purple would look better than a light blue. The XRM is a long bloomer, usually 8-10 weeks. I have heard from other gardeners that it doesn't do well in cold climates so it may not grow well for you at all. In our mild climate the clematis usually start leafing out in February and grow until late November.

Yes I think the late large flowering clematis look great with the viticella types. I haven't had any problems with the viticella types overpowering the late large flowered varieties. They both have the same pruning type with is a plus.

I have about 4 tanguticas and I have never had any weediness in my garden. I have only had 1 seedling show up. I don't know why. I have never had a seedling from my SAC or my serratifolia either. Both of those are supposed to seed like crazy. We do have very cool nights and maybe the seed doesn't ripen well. I also have my flower beds crammed full so there is little room for a seedling to grow, although I am always getting volunteers from my type 2 clematis. They are always popping up in my parking strips which are very inhospitable, go figure. The seed on tangutica's are very small so it may rot or blow away. The type 2 clematis seeds are very large so they may stay put and germinate.

Buyorsell, I have the same problem with some of my clematis growing next to large trees. My neighbor planted a redwood, Doug fir, blue spruce and a cedar next to our fence. They are now 25' old and huge. Their branches overhang the fence and block the sun and rain from my clematis. The clematis I grow on that fence never get very large. The grow ok, but never great. I wish they would cut them down, I really hate them. I don't think people should plant 200' tall trees in little city lots next to the neighbor's fence. I am letting some of the clematis vines grow up into the fir trees. I just want to see how high they will get. I have a viticella Blue Belle that is about 40' up into one of the Doug firs. If I stand back in the driveway I can see the blossoms way up there. I remember reading a clematis book and they had let a Etoille violet grow unpruned into a Doug fir and it was enormous and had thousands of blossoms. I don't know if Blue Belle would ever get that big with the Doug fir stealing all the water. Maybe that Doug fir with the Etoille violet was growing on the coast where it gets a lot more rain. We certainly don't get much rain here in the summer. I am off to go water again. Karen

Thank you!

That makes sense about the elderberry.

OOOOlala, I'm getting a XRM!!!!!! Thank you! According to COTW, it is hardy to z5. I think it is a MUST to try it, even if they are wrong. It is way too gorgeous to not! And speaking of COTW, you really ought to consider putting 1 of your pics of XRM on there! Your pics are 10x's better than what they have on there now!

That is excellent news about the tanguticas. They are the only clem available in yellow that I am aware of. The reading that I have done on them said they were weedy, maybe per location? I have mulch everywhere & wonder if that would help as well. I am going to give 1 of those a try too! I have a lot of type 2's & wonder if I'll get babies out of those? I didn't know that either.

Thanks Karen! You're awesome!

What a joy to go through your slideshow again, flowerfan. It is -5 F and my clematis are snuggled under many inches of snow.