It did belong to mnwsgal(Hennepin, MN 4) and though she doesn't own the garden any longer, I am sure she could tell you which these are. There are two varieties planted next to one obelisk, so they weave together all on their own based on my experience.

Thanks NH, that's what I was wondering, if I needed to weave or just guide them up an over each other. Probably a bit of both.

Mnwsgal, you did an outstanding job. I have 3 obelisk standing in a triangle shape, about 1.2' from each other, maybe more. One Huldine on two of them, and the other is Clematis Wildfire.

If our second late spring freeze (a hard one), doesn't kill them tonight they should be beautiful. I planted them last spring and the huldine put on a lot of blooms which took me by surprise. The wildfire looked completely dead at the end of summer.

While I was outside trying to cover the plants the wildfire has two good size flower buds on them and had grown a foot!

How did you protect your plants during a late freeze? Once again, I had 40mph north winds blowing in my face while trying to protect the plants.

It had best not freeze again. lol

Thank you for the compliment. Mostly I let them do their own thing.

Clematis are somewhat frost tolerant and I never did anything to protect them. I figured if they died back the plant would recover and bloomtime might be delayed. But I don’t recall any late frost damage. In the fall they survived many frosts that killed everything else back and it was often into late November before I could cut them back. They were also some of the first growing in the spring and some even bloomed by midMay which is our last annual frost date.

Also, MN is a very windy state and most of my clematis were in open areas.

I look forward to seeing photos of your plants when they have some bloom.

Thanks for the email note, Babs. It appears that I can’t send email out through Houz today.

Mn, when you say frost, do you mean hard freeze? That's what we have this morning, along with light ice and snow.

It was so brutal outside yesterday I had no choice but to leave the top half of a vine exposed, but I had the roots and bottom half covered.

And just how the he!! does one cover an obelisk? lol I thought about an old sheet but the wind would have it off there in a NY minute, even if it was staked.

Like mnwsgal, I haven't had clematis damaged by spring cold, but we live in similarly cold areas, so your spring weather patterns may be different. The spring foliage is quite frost resistant IME and mine would often have several freezes as they were leafing out without any noticeable consequences. I would love to have you report back what if any damage your plants had, just for my own knowledge, but as mnwsgal said, if by chance there is more severe damage, they will regrow from the roots.

For future reference, with more tender plants such tomatoes that need frost protection, I use old fashioned wooden spring clip clothes pins to clip sheets closed where they overlap as well as to the support/obelisk so that they don't blow off.

Here is a photo showing the obelisks and how they have good cross pieces for the clematis to climb.

One year a clematis self seeded at the base of the obelisk. I rather like the early spring blooming result so made sure to sprinkle seed there every fall.

When mature, Huldine will swamp those obelisks. She grows in excess of 20' at my house.....

I reported in the freezing thread about the plants, I didn't uncover them today. DH does the vegetable gardening and does all the freeze protection for them. We also have a large heated greenhouse but it doesn't help plants in the ground. lol.

Mn, your obelisks are perfect for climbing. Last summer I used fishing line so I'll probably do the same this year, which reminds me, I need to get busy!

Question: will different colors of clematis mix together and blend into one color if you plant them side by side? At the moment, I can't locate the tags/labels that came on each of my clematis but the first one I planted was purple. The following year (last year) I bought and planted a pink one and I put it about 6" away from the other one. I know that was too close, but I wanted them to intertwine. They are blooming now and there is just a shade difference in the two of them. Are they mixing? Is it just me? As indicated in the pics, the first year clematis is purple. The pic that says 2nd year only shows a little of the pink on the edges of the petals. Please be kind! I am not a green thumb and don't know a whole heck of a lot about flowers. :) Anybody know how clematis behave?

Both photos are of the same plant flowering. Often clematis flowers change tone a bit as they age, which is what you are seeing here, corkmiester. The upper photo appears to be flowers that have been open for longer while the lower ones are freshly open.

Either the one labeled as pink was mislabeled (common in plants from big box stores IME) and is actually another blue one, or the pink one isn’t yet mature enough to bloom, or it is a variety that will bloom later in the season. Do you know the name of the two clematis or just colors?

I am still trying to locate the info from each clematis. I'm very frustrated that I haven't found them yet so I'm afraid my husband my have thrown them away. He tosses anything HE doesn't find useful. LOL I'm leaning towards what YOU said about the mislabeling, as my husband said just this morning that sometime people mess up and things get mixed up. I'm sure that's a viable reason. Concerning the two vines I have--one is 3 yrs. old and the other is 2 yrs. old. So sorry that I couldn't come up with more info for you. All I remember is the first one was purple and the second one was pink. Unfortunately, specifics are not my forte when recalling from memory. :( If I find the info I need, I will post back here. Thanks so much for answering. I'm still wondering, tho; do they mix or steal color from each other, like the white dogwood trees do to the pink ones?

With the exception of a very few plants that are effected by pH of the soil or temperature or sun exposure, plants’ flower colors are determined by their genetics. Dogwoods sometimes take on pink shades as the flowers age, and there are pink flowered dogwoods, but plants can’t influence or mix or steal colors from each other. I think that is a folk tale not based in reality, however charming.