Well generally speaking, the type IIs will be more susceptible to wilt than the type IIIs. I am still going to recommend a type III however even though it will have to be cut back each year. I suggest for your tall trellis (would love to see a picture of it by the way) either Huldine, campaniflora, or Alba Luxurians. Huldine and campaniflora both get some shade in my garden and seem to do alright. Alba Luxurians is just about full sun all day but I can imagine it would do well also.

hi, thanks for the input. i do like huldine, it seems to fit the bill and looks beautiful. it also seems to be pretty easy to grow. the only thing that i'm not sure about is the possibility of it looking slightly pink due to the coloration on the backs of the petals. i really do want one that is a pure white. does it appear slightly pink at all in your garden?

the other variety that seems like it might work for me is henryi, i love the coloration of the stamens, but have no experience with it. do you have one?

as for the others you mentioned - alba luxurians, i already have one in the front and i love it, it's a great, carefree plant for me. i looked up the campaniflora, it is really sweet looking, i may have to find another spot to put one! however i think it is too similar to the alba for my tall trellis, and i like the idea of large flowers which will be more visible once it climbs to the top.

i wish i could post a photo of the trellis, but i don't know how. i have to admit i tried to follow the instructions on another post and my eyes started to glaze over from all the steps. i have a mac with iphoto - is there some super easy way to do it? i would love to learn how.

thanks, and sorry for the long post!

Hi emmgus,
Just open an account with Photobucket (or something similar), it's free. Then upload your photos from your Mac (click "images from my Mac", then "choose file", click on the photos you want to upload, one by one; when you're finished, click upload, and that's it. When you want to post to the forum, click on the HTML code of the photo, and paste it into your message here. I'm fairly computer illiterate, and that's how I do it with my Mac. Maybe someone else has an easier way. Good luck,
Judith

Judith, I use Photobucket and do it just as you described.

Emmgus, Huldine will look pink from the back. In my garden, the pink doesn't show through to the front. Perhaps others have had different experiences with it though.

Haven't ever grown Henryi in my garden.

Campaniflora has much smaller campanulate looking flowers compared to Alba Luxurians. Don't have a picture of a side by side comparison though for you to see. Also alba luxurians in my garden starts off the spring with green edges to the sepals which disappear as the weather warms up.
Alba Luxurians
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Campaniflora
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I've had Henryi for a number of years growing on an east wall. Its shade has varied with the tree trimming from full shade to part shade, that is, some shade from trees for part of the morning & then complete shade from the house from about 1 p.m. on. Honestly, this is not the best bloomer around. Only 1 year did it have a truly great display. This year, it probably would have been OK, as the trees were severely trimmed over the winter, but the April freeze got all of the early buds but 1. After that, it bloomed with about a dozen flowers, but the plant is very large, & the bloom coverage was way less than 50%. I did not intend to have Henryi, it was a mismarked plant. I have even considered shovel pruning it, & at this point, I may move it to a sunnier location farther out in the garden. It is a Big plant, with lots of vines. I even had to get a 2d trellis as it overwhelmed its 1st.
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Not exactly the most awe-inspiring sight. This was peak bloom this year.

I have Henrii also. It has never grown that lush and full and has always been a shy bloomer. I just choppped it to six inches and I probably should have shovel pruned it. I'm really not impressed with it.

I would not plant a type III with a climbing hydrangea. I would not want to damage the evergreen leaves of the hydrangea by pulling down the Clematis every year.

Emmgus,

have you looked at any of the Type I's? This past year, I put in a White Swan on a north wall. I have it growing on a red honeysuckle vine. Other than the first couple of years to get the Type I started, they do not require a lot of pruning.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Clematis White Swan

I don't think that eemgus needs to worry about the foliage on a climbing hydrangea being present in the winter. Even in my zone 7a, climbing hydrangeas are deciduous and drop all their foliage during the winter. Their exfoliating bark is quite attractive as a result of their deciduous nature.

I'd recommend Gillian Blades. Mine grows beautifully in a fairly shady situation and has a delicate violet hue on the edges. It may not grow as tall as you'd like, though. If that's the case, try Alabast or even Marie Boisselot, which (surprisingly) does well for me in a shady spot. Good luck!

thanks everyone for all the great input, i really appreciate it.

it sounds like the henrii might not be a good candidate for me after all, it would be disappointing if it didn't flower well. i looked up alabast and marie boisselot, both so beautiful, wishing they were taller growers though. the white swan is nice too, but i sort of have this vision of larger flowers since the trellis is so tall. thanks nckvilledudes for the photos, the campaniflora is very sweet looking. however, now i'm starting to look around my yard for other places to put all these beautiful vines! if the huldine does not look pink at all it may work for me, being less likely to get the dreaded wilt.

as for pruning, i am definitely thinking about it, it would be ideal if i don't need to do much after the first 2 years, since the trellis is so high. the climbing hydrangea does lose all of it's leaves in the winter, but once it is established and taller, hopefully i wouldn't break branches and or pull it off the trellis in the process of pulling the clematis down every year. hmm. although i guess the clematis stems are pretty wimpy and brittle by the time we get to late winter here, and the climbing hydrangea has to be talked into having any interest in the trellis as opposed the the stucco wall! so maybe it will be just fine, no way to know until i try i guess.

well, sorry again for the long post! i will try to the photobucket and maybe be able to post a photo of the trellis.

thanks! emmgus

Emmgus, you are correct. If you plant a type III clematis, cutting the vines off at various heights would make removal of the vines easy. And after setting there all winter, the vines will become very brittle and may fall away in the wind, depending on how much wind you might get in your zone.

Would love to see pictures of your 15 foot tall trellis!

I have to put in a good word for Henrii. I planted and lost 2 or 3 of these before getting the one I have now, and I have to say that this one has been a bomber. It's really lush and has put out a ton of blooms this year. Of course, it's in full sun and in a newly planted and heavily amended bed, so might not be the best choice for a north wall. There was also mention of Alabast, though, and I also have that one. For me, it's planted in much more shade than my Henrii, but still manages to climb 10' or more. It has lovely, large white flowers like Henrii, and for me, it blooms twice a year with no pruning, once fairly low, and once again near the top. I also have Huldine, and it is beautiful and very, very tall, but the flowers are much smaller for me than either of the other two. Gillian Blades is a gorgeous clematis, particularly up close, but she doesn't grow very tall for me, and so far, blooms only once a year. I find her blooms to have a touch more pink or mauve than Huldine's, although I do see Huldine from the ground, and she's pink on the reverse.

thanks opheliathornvt for your good word on henrii, and input on the others. i'm leaning toward maybe doing two together, that way i might have blooms all summer if i'm lucky.

nckvilledudes, i'm curious about your alba luxurians, do you cut it back at any point during the summer to get more blooms? mine seems to be slowing down a little now, and is has way outgrown it's lampost onto the neighboring spruce. if i cut a couple of the stems will i get more flowers or is it too late now?

Emmgus, really just depends on your zone and how long the growing season is. For those clematis I have cut back, I have tended to cut back all the stems by half or so and then fertilized the plants well and kept them watered and they have all rebloomed for me except Purpurea Plena Elegans. I have not cut my Alba Luxurians back because I am trying many crosses with a variety of clematis in my garden so I am after as many seeds as possible. I say give it a try and see what happens. That is what gardening is all about in my opinion! ;)

I have been researching Huldine for myself and everthing that I have come up with states that it must be planted in full sun with no shade. I was planning to plant it on the south side of my house which gets plenty of sun butI have a couple of evergreens in front which would have been too much shade for this plant. I am new at planting clems so this one was checked out carefully before it was rejected.

Robin, my Huldine gets afternoon shade and has done fine. No clematis in my opinion in the south needs full sun all day long to flourish. It all depends on your growing conditions.

So there you go Miguel. You can't go by the books on everything. My first contribution and I missed the boat. Now what you said makes sense. We are in the South and that accounts for the growth in the shade. Smart fellow.

Robin, what you will discover is that what is written in books is based on the advice of the gardener who wrote it and their experience in their garden. Two things that you will hear from me again and again are 1)prune, prune, prune, and 2)use all information given either in books or here as general information since what one person experiences with a particular clematis may not be what another person experiences with the same one--growing zones and temp./humidity/length of day/etc. all play into affecting what works or doesn't work for any gardener with any plant--clematis included!

Chalk Hill has a list of north wall recommended cultivars. Among them are white ones like Alabast, the alpinas and macropetalas (incl. White Swan), Moonlight, etc. I think the idea of combining 2 whites is a great idea. Just keep them the same pruning group.

Also, plan on cutting any of them back the first year or two to help them develop a good root system. Before you make your final selection, post here or at the Gardenbuddies Clematis Forum because we'll be able to tell you things like: Henryi is a weak grower, Huldine has blue tints in the spring, etc.

I also have clematis growing up a climbing hydrangea; it's no problem by March. The clematis stems are wirey and brittle, and the hydrangea naked.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chalk Hill's partial shade list

hey thanks michael in chicago for your input and that link to chalk hill. i've looked at that list before, but for some reason i was not able to click on the names and see the photos like i could with your link.

i'm narrowing down the list, and am definitely going to plant 2 together. i want to be sure i have good flowering later as opposed to earlier in the season, since i already have shrubs, trees and bulbs that bloom in april/may.

do you grow huldine yourself? i'm really curious to know if it appears pale pink due to the color on the reverse. though it's not on the list, huldine seems like a good candidate, however i do want a pure white in that spot. i'm also looking at marie boisselot.

also, it's good to know that you don't have any issues pulling down the clematis from the hydrangea in the spring.

thanks again! emmgus

I think Marie B is the greatest. I've had her for at least 5 years and am very impressed by her thick stems, large flower size & climbing ability. I have mine about 3 feet away from a humongeous lilac clump, and in the past she has climbed up to the top of that. This year I trimmed her growth a little in early May, and the lilac branches that hang over the gate between the post Marie climbs died out some, so she hasn't the same heigth this year. But was full of blooms & some stems were trained more sideways on the fence away from the lilacs. And for the last 2 years there has been at least one semi double bloom on her. Unfortunately the stems they were on are sort of tangled with other vines about 5 feet above the ground, and I can't get them down to try to layer. There are 3 long stems from the lower part that I did disentangle and will be trying to layer these.

I think that I bought her in a gallon container and that she did bloom either the first or second year. This was before I knew much about clems ( pre-forums era). I don't think she got fed at all for several years.

Her leaves also seem thicker than most.

Mine is on the southside of the roadside, north of the house by about 25 feet, and gets mostly afternoon sun.

Marie in ME