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Do Clematis keep leaves all year round??

9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago

Hi everyone! I am a newbie to gardening, I thought It would be nice to build a wall with clematis to give one side of my house a bit of privacy from my neighbors. (Their driveway is right next to some large french doors that allows people to see most of our house since we have an open floor plan-and because that side gets so much light, I would hate to cover it up with window treatments). Anyway, I have read that there are evergreen varieties and deciduous after I had already bought and planted them, and I am pretty sure the ones I purchased from lowes are not evergreen, as the stake didn't mention that at all, and the plant description on their site isn't much more helpful either, as they don't provide the actual variety.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Monrovia-Clematis/1000027845
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Monrovia-2-6-Quart-Blue-Light-Clematis-K332/50009098
These are the two varieties I THINK I have purchased-any ideas if they will lose their leaves in the winter- and if they do, is there another vine I can plant with them that will help me create the wall of green and flowers I am going for? Maybe on the opposite side of my trellis?
Thank you so much for any and all help!

Comments (9)

  • 9 years ago

    Few clematis are evergreen, and so far as I remember, those that are evergreen are mostly only hardy in zones south of zone 7 or so. Do you know what zone you're in?


    (And no, the variety called Blue Light is not evergreen!)

  • 9 years ago

    There are a fair number of evergreen clematis but as noted above, they tend not to be as cold hardy as the deciduous varieties and are typically not recommended for zones lower than 7 and many require even higher zones. Virtually all are species clems rather than the very showy large flowered hybrids (ALL of which are deciduous), they also have smallish flowers in a very limited color range.....usually white, greenish white or pale yellow.

  • 9 years ago

    Thank you! I am in zone 7b-8a. So I am guessing the plants I have purchased will need to be pruned all the way back, and lose the coverage I was hoping to obtain. Are there any plants I can plant with them to get more permanent coverage, and won't choke each other out?

  • 9 years ago

    Since they do not need to be pruned back until late winter at the earliest, the vines still afford some degree of coverage, even though the leaves may have fallen. And they regrow very rapidly in spring so the amount of time whatever you used to support the vines would be bare would be very short - maybe 6-8 weeks?

    If you get enough sun, you could plant coral honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens, which remains evergreen in mild winter climates.

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thank you Amazindirt! Those are very pretty! But it looks like it would take over the clematis's I just planted!

  • 9 years ago

    Thank you GardenGal48!

  • 9 years ago

    Ohhhh, you don't even really have a fence, do you? The evergreen clematis I can think of tend to be quite large plants, so they would probably overwhelm your trellises in short order. Is there any chance of getting a fence put up?

  • 9 years ago

    I should have mentioned that earlier Amazindirt! I don't think I can-We are buidling a fence out back, and wraps around the other side of the house, but the way our property line is set up we can't bring it out towards this side seemlessly. Plus, Raleigh plus our HOA is making us jump through hoops for that project and is already costing us a small fortune, so I am sure my husband wouldn't really want to have the survey crew out again with the contractors to get a new plan in place! So I decided to do it the natural way and try to build a plant wall :).

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