@gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

This vine receives regular watering from drip irrigation soaker hose & extra in hot weather like we’re having right now in PNW. I‘m in Vancouver south of you I think. It’s on west facing side of fence so hot afternoon sun. It might have a problem from too much water right now as yesterday afternoon my husband & brother-in-law diagnosed it as needing water (after several glasses of wine!) & poured @ 4 gallons of water on it- 2 watering cans full. 😱 They had both seen the plant a few hours earlier when b-i-l was admiring the blooms. We all noticed the extreme wilt a few hours later & the rest is history. I will say that the day before I was thinning out wild looking not very pretty Heuchera - really a huge thing with plain leaves - I love Heuchera! But I was careful to not pull anything up - just cutting- and I did leave shade at base of vine to protect roots. I’m relieved that you don’t think this is Clematis wilt either. Has to be something I did.. I’ll leave it for now but don’t have high hopes. At most I’ll cut it down & see what happens. I do like this little guy!

hot weather like we’re having right now in PNW.

==>> whats that mean.. it was 75?? .... bet it wasnt 93 like we had in MI ... lol

do you have an engineered drip irrigation system.. or the common unregulated carp soaker hoses ... how often do you run it.. how many hours per run ... and how do you know its applying enough water ....

take a hand trowel.. and dig 3 ... three to 6 inch holes around the plant...AND FIND OUT ABOUT MOISTURE AT ROOT DEPTH .... and then water accordingly ...

never cut anything off a plant .. as part of diagnosis .. well ... that is the end of the process .. not the beginning place ...

thanks god they werent drinking beer.. or they probably wouldnt have bother with a watering can .. lol ... though i do approve of gardening after or during adult beverages.. as long as you leave the power tools stowed ... often it leads to inspiration.. but more than a few times.. the next afternoon ... you wonder what the hell went on last night .. lol .. [those arent the early morning garden days.. if you get my drift ...]

one key to wilting plants in mid day heat... is to observe in the morning.. after the cooler night time recovery period.. if the plant is back to normal ... then it is starved for water during the heat of the day ... one might say.. it cant pump enough water to make it thru the day ....

pumping water to remain turgid is the key here... all we have to do is figure out whats interfering ....

ken

Hello Ken! It will surprise you to hear we expect mid 90’s again today which is what we had yesterday and which is up from the high 80’s we had for a few days prior! The forecast for next Saturday is 100+! These temps don’t usually show up here until later July through August, our usual no rainfall months, to maybe September. At this south end of WA state, close to OR border & the great Columbia river, we run hotter than 3 hours north in Puget Sound area. We are currently running more than 1” behind in annual rainfall total. I’ve lived long in both areas so I’ve experienced the differences or I wouldn’t believe our temps myself!

About my poor Clematis - it hasn’t changed since Saturday afternoon when it so suddenly went into total & complete wilt. Zero recovery My drip system is engineered I think, if that means hooked up to a zone in irrigation system with main water supply hoses & strategically placed individual drippers, sprayers, misters, tiny soakers etc. I have 2 other larger Clematis along that same edge of yard so same sun, same water & the’re fine. I did closely examine the base of this vine but cannot find any damage I caused from cutting out the massed Heuchera. That has to be what happened though. This plant has never sent up more stems from base - it‘s always been the single stem. I will take your advice of digging around root depth to asess the water situation. If the roots are alive, but the stem is damaged, I guess I’d see some growth from ground up?

Check the stem carefully for damage because it looks to me like stem damage. Wind, insects, critters like pets, chipmunks, or voles all can break or damage the stem.

As Ken suggested, checking soil moisture is useful as well. Water pressure changes can effect how much moisture reaches a given plant with irrigation systems, especially toward the end of the stretch, and sometimes emitters clog or a critter chews a hole in the the tubing.

If it browns, cut it down and expect it to regrow either this season or next. If you haven’t mulched the bed with an organic mulch such as wood chips or chopped leaves, mulch to keep moisture even. Just keep it a few inches from the clematis stem.

I have found Piilou to be resilient, and most Clematis have good sized root systems that can send up stems a year or even two years later.

@NHBabs z4b-5a NH Thanks so much for this info. I must confess that I gave up on my little Pilu and now after reading your reply I regret that. I pulled it out last week - roots & soil looked ok - roots alive, soil wet but not too wet. it had only one spindly stem on which I could not find any break or damage. I also pulled all the Huechera that was massed around it & shading roots. My purpose was to repositon drip system soaker hoses & emitters along that stretch which I’ve now done This bed is at the bottom of a slight slope & also receives some spray from lawn irrigation so I wanted to make sure not boggy with our natural clay soil.. I have a new small clematis & will plant deeply & add compost to soil & along bed after planted. You & maybe you too Ken, @ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5, have heard of our record setting heat wave here in PNW that we’re just coming out of? I’m delighted to report that my other two much larger Clematis - though still small varieties - survived the 115 degrees we hit last Sunday! We created shade with burlap draped over 2 year old ”Caroline” on a West facing trellis & used a huge patio umbrella to shade 6 year old ”Nelly Moser” on an east facing trellis. We also watered, watered & watered again. Those 2 vines are so much larger than poor little Pilu was so must have roots to match their tops. As for the rest of my garden- so much sun scorch on west facing plants - even the evergreens which is the worst - deciduous we know will recover at least next year. We’re looking at a cool 81 degrees today - sky is hazed over with morning cloud cover - Heavenly! A good day to do lots of grooming of scorched leaves from shrubs & bedding plants. My poor Yews with dead scorched fronts - well, I’ll wait on tip pruning for a few days!