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hcarnevale

Advice needed

9 years ago

Hi All,

I was wondering if you could help me choose a clematis to grow with my Golden Celebration rose. I have 2 of them growing on old french doors and would like to add a clematis to each of them. I live in zone 5 WI so I have a short growing season and nothing really gets huge here. The doors are on the south side of my house so they receive a lot of light. My concern is that the sun on the South side might wash out the colors of a clematis, but I don't know. At first I was thinking of adding a blue clematis like HF Young, Betty Corning, Prince Charles, Multi Blue or something like that. I also though maybe a red like Gravetye Beauty. I don't think I want to do a purple because I'm thinking about adding Polish Spirit on another trellis that I will ask you about as well. The french doors are about 2 feet wide by 80" tall so I can't put anything super vigorous on them. Here is a picture from last year.

Any suggestions?

The other trellis I want to ask about it much taller. It is probably 12 feet tall (maybe 14). Right now I have an Alchymist and a Crown Princess Margareta cuddling on it. I was thinking of adding Polish Spirit to hang out with them. This trellis is on the North side of the house, however it really isn't shaded there. There are no trees on that side of the house shading it. Here is a pic from last year. The Alchymist has grown a lot since this pic as it now reaches the top of the trellis. None of my roses have bloomed yet. They are just starting to bud now. My peonies haven't even bloomed yet...


Other suggestions?

Comments (5)

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Lovely roses. They look very healthy and happy.

    My first suggestion is that unless the roses are sturdy enough to support whatever clematis you choose, you will want to add netting or wire mesh or strings tied to your trellis and French door supports. Clematis climb by twining their leaf stems (petioles) around things, so they have a tough time grabbing anything larger than a pencil in diameter.

    You will want to match your clematis to both the trellis size and the rose size. Of those you mentioned, both Betty Corning (type 3 - hard prune before spring leaf-out) and Gravetye Beauty (type 3) grow to be quite large plants in my garden. HF Young (type 2 light prune after bloom) and Prince Charles (type 3 ) are perhaps better sized to pair with your roses. I grow PC with Zephirine Drouhin rose. I don't grow Polish Spirit (type 3) or Multiblue (type 2).

    You can hard prune any of the clematis you mentioned, but it will make type 2s bloom a bit later and may eliminate double flowers on those type 2's that have them. I find that mother nature often hard prunes my type 2 clematis to the snow line regardless. I prefer growing clematis that can be hard pruned since that way I don't have to look at dead vines for 5-6 months of the year.

    As far as colors, I think the lavenders and deep purples will go with any of your roses. Clematis reds almost always have a bit of a bluish tone to them rather than true red or orange-red, though IME the colors of most clematis vary quite a bit depending on the light at a given time. Choose what you think will look nice and you can find available. If you want to look up specifics of size and pruning, you can do so on the Clematis on the Web's search page. Put in one word of the name (it doesn't like spaces, so just Young for HF Young) and leave the rest blank. Just remember that color in clematis photos is often off, sometimes by quite a bit.

  • 9 years ago

    Your roses look fantastic! I lean towards Betty or Charles out of what you listed . Also agree with babs to add some material for them to climb.

    For your lovely alchemist polish spirit would be great . You may like venosa violica (sp?) as well . I love what you have going on here !

  • 9 years ago

    I think Betty Corning would be too large. Mine covers one end of my deck which is 10 ft wide.

    July 2017 Betty Corning

    Polish Spirit and Gravety Beauty are also very vigorous clematis that might overpower your roses. Most type threes are vigorous growers.

    For me Prince Charles has been a good bloomer without as much vine growth as the other three. Though my PC is in a part shaded area.

    For reds Bourban and Rebecca have been good bloomers with more restrained growth. I do not grow roses so can not vouch how they will grow together.

  • 9 years ago

    My PC is in full sun and still isn't huge, so I think would be a better choice than Betty C. I agree with MNWSgal about Rebecca having a more restrained growth size, and don't grow Bourbon, so can't comment on that one.

  • 9 years ago

    Based on my experience Venosa Violacea, Polish Spirit and Betty Corning are much too big for those gorgeous roses. Prince Charles is smaller but I'd go with Multi Blue or Daniel Deronda or another Type II....


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