By Staff
Some gardeners have secret gardening formulas, tidbits and recipes.
Secrets that are so well-kept, no amount of torturing, bribing or blackmailing (figuratively speaking) could ever release them.
Some opt out by saying it was their grandmother's, a well-kept secret or taught through blood, sweat and tears.
And then again I find 99.99 percent of all of us gardeners will give you the shirt off our backs, so to speak, and tell you everything. So let's share.
As a gardener, I find we learn so much each season from our gardens.
We have the sweet glory of our triumphs and the worst being – and hopefully they are few – our mistakes.
Wouldn't it be grand if there was a book or magazine that contained everything we gardeners would ever need to know about gardening, so we were able to care for and grow a garden at its very best.
Recently while reading my latest issue of The English Garden, inside was an interesting article about clematis cultivation.
As I read on, it said, "It is mainly early, large, flowering hybrids that are affected by clematis wilt. This wilting can be caused by a lack of water rather than a virus. Deal with it by either removing affected stems or by cutting down the whole plant, if necessary."
If new shoots don't appear next year, don't give up on the plant.
Clematis has been known to send up new shoots after lying dormant for up to five years!
I wish I had known this.
Do you know how many clematis I have ripped up by the roots?
Out of the ground they came, dirt flying in every direction.
Utterly frustrated was I, thinking they were dead.
Here's my story. Early one season the nice healthy green shoots were emerging, a sense of early spring anticipation welled up inside me. Maybe this year, I thought, things will be different.
No clematis wilt. (Most of my clematis do great, and then there are a few, well, not so great).
A lush vine full of foliage from bottom to top, then it strikes a day or two later. Clematis wilt.
What was once healthy and lush is now wilted and dying.
All those leaves and buds. If only I knew it had to do with more water.
I noticed the ones I watered more often were glorious.
Less water, well, any gardener who grows clematis knows what wilt looks like. And no amount of fussing over a plant stricken by it will change it or bring it back – for this year, anyway.
Water in a garden adds movement, light and sound.
It also makes it possible to grow plants which are otherwise utterly out of the question.