Clematis Franziska Marie

Here is the baby picture of the Clematis Franziska Marie I planted this morning.



Raymond Evison named this cultivar after his youngest daughter. I apologize for not knowing who Raymond Evison is, but as I understand he is known for growing clematis. I bought this one from Wayside Nursery.

I am also sorry to admit to killing a couple clematis before finally having one that survived. My Clematis Jackmanii has survived two winters now and promises to bloom more than it did last year. So I am emboldened enough to try again. Hopefully, I will be able to do this beauty justice as well.

Here is what Franziska Marie is supposed to look like when it reaches maturity in, what, a couple of years.



This clematis is purported to be a very prolific bloomer. I love the beautiful lavender-blue, double flowers that should liven up a bare section of chain link fence near my compost pile.

Everything I have read about it says it blooms from early summer until well into autumn. My Clematis Jackmanii is supposed to bloom during that time as well but it didn’t this year for some reason that I still don’t understand. I have read that a clematis will bloom more fully each year so maybe this is just what is happening to this one. I am remaining patient, what else can I do, right?

As my experience in gardening grows I hope to be able to coax both of these two beautiful clematis into showing their fullest potential.

The Jackmanii, with its single, deep purple flowers that, in my humble opinion, epitomizes the beauty that this well known vine has to offer, remains my favorite.

The Franziska Marie promises to be another favorite. I read that it blooms on both old and new wood resulting in twice the buds of most other clematis. This sounds like my kind of flowering vine.

Both of these vines are in different pruning groups but that is not intimidating at all. They both are trimmed back to a pair of healthy buds or shoots each Spring, late February to early March. Franziska Marie does not get cut back as severely as the Jackmanii, which gets cut back to 6”-10” above the ground, and they both produce blooms on new wood.

Franziska Marie grows to only 5 foot tall whereas Jackmanii can grow up to 20’ long.

Clematis like to have their feet cool and everything else hot so our hot weather here in Utah is perfect for the top part and not so good for the feet. I plan on using some groundcover, possibly the white Aster Snowdrift depending on how its white flowers looks with the lavender-blue flowers. In the meantime, I copied what I did with Jackmanii and have placed some stones around the bottom.

The one thing that really scares me is that these vines are susceptible to wilt. If I can set a reminder to myself to use a systemic fungicide when I water for protection I might be able to overcome this problem.

I had already prepared the hole with composted steer manure and granulated 10-10-10 so hopefully the roots will be happy over this winter and bless us with some of its beautiful double flowers.

Wish us both luck.

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Clematis woes

When we got back from vacation this week the biggest disappointment that faced me was losing my clematis jackmanii flowers.

This is what they looked like before we left.



And a closer view.



This is what they looked like the day we got bak.



Very disappointing. The flowers were supposed to last through September. I don't know if the heat is the culprit or a lack of water. My neighbors said they watered but the flower just wilted and fell off. I'm thinking they were not watered as deeply as they should have been.

I'm hoping more buds will appear. This is the first year I ever got this many flowers from a clematis.

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May Recap

This is the first year I have grown allium of any kind and I planted two different kinds that bloomed this month. The Rosy Bells bloomed a bright reddish pink
and the the Sunny Twinkles bloomed a bright yellow, both very nice looking bulbs. They bloomed later than I thought they would. Still, it is nice to have the bulb blooming season extended in this way.

Carrots are coming along nicely, I planted two kinds, 'Danvers Half Long' and 'Thumbelina'. Both were chosen for their short roots due to our clay soil. The Danvers were put into one of the raised beds and the Thumbelina was put into a container on the deck. I wanted to see if I could grow a salad garden on the deck in containers since I have never grown plants in containers before.

The Clematis 'Jackmanii' has set some beautiful deep blue flowers on the last day of the month.

Coreopsis 'Early Sunrise' has begun to show signs of color. This is surprising since I just planted these one month ago.

Dianthus 'Agatha' bloomed weakly, but again was surprised it bloomed at all since it was one of those planted just one month ago.

Dianthus 'Zing Rose' bloomed a deep red. This one was planted last month, so I guess they are going to be prolific bloomer. I can only hope.

One of the Echinacea 'Magnus' sent out a bloom. This one is commonly called the Purple Coneflower. The plant itself is still short, as it was planted last month, and has one flower on the very top.

One of my very favorite and most anticipated bulbs is the Iris. I planted 12 and several have bloomed this month. They are yellow and blue and look very nice.

Lamium 'White Nancy', groundcover, bloomed.

Set out a bunch of Marigolds, hoping to attract beneficial insects to combat caterpillars, etc that would mean destruction of my other plants, such as tomatoes and beans. None have bloomed yet.

Primrose 'Firecracker' opened a bright yellow flower on the last day of the month.

Deadheaded roses for the first time this year.

Salvia 'East friesland' bloomed.

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Clematis is leafing out

I love Clematis, it is one of my all-time favorites. I have not been able to grow it and have killed more than one plant. This year looked to be no exception.

The first time we lived in Utah we were in a apartment building and there was a little plot of land that was available to us to grow what we wanted. No one else in the building was interested so I had the place to myself. I planted tomatoes, peas, clematis, Jacob's Ladder, columbine as well as a few others. The clematis is the only plant that did not survive the first winter.

After moving to California I thought I should try again. You would think that with weather as nice as it gets in San Diego that I should be able to grow anything. But that is not the case. By the second year I had managed to kill yet another clematis.

We moved into the current house three years ago and I was determined to not fail again. I was in the process of building up several perennial beds with compost to combat our clay soil, and thought I would plant a Clematis 'Hania' (pictured above) right in the full sun, just as they like it. I watered it carefully, I mulched it carefully. I fed it carefully. It struggled. Perhaps the clay was too much.

The next Spring, 2006, came and I kept a close watch to see if it would come back. It looked like it would by the fact that I saw a couple of green leaves sprouting from the bottom. Within a couple of weeks it too had succumbed to my ineptitude. It seemed I was doomed to never grow the one plant that I wanted so much to grow.

Then I saw a Clematis Jackmanii' in a Bluestone Perennials catalog. The phrase that stood out most was 'it is the easiest clematis to grow'. That is pretty powerful bait to someone who wants so desperately to have a Clematis. Then I thought that statement was made without me in mind. It looked too inviting to pass up with its big blue flowers. I fell for it again and ordered one.

This time I was going to try something a bit different. I know they like their 'feet in the shade and their head in the sun' so I decided to take care to create a space just for this plant. I put it on the other side of my raspberry plants where not only its feet are in the shade but about half of its height would be in shade. I also placed a couple of rocks around its base to provide extra coolness. Then I placed one of those pre-made trellis (the kind with the criss-cross wooden slats that you see everywhere) against the shed and stapled some garden netting on it for the vine to attach to.

The first year there was one lonely, but beautiful, five inch, deep dark blue flower. It looked all the more beautiful because it was the only bloom. But, I could not consider this a success because I have been here before. The real test (the scary part) was yet to come.

I read from someone's blog that they used Tomato Plant food every couple of weeks throughout the growing season and so I gave that a try. I had also read about other more complicated feeding formulas but thought that I probably wouldn't stick to such a stringent schedule and opted for the Tomato food plan.

I mulched about 4" deep around the base of the plant and waited through the winter.

Spring came and when I looked at the plant my heart sank. It appeared that my legacy was continuing. The stems were all brown, brittle and generally dead-looking. Should I give up hope now? This plant is a 'schedule 3' pruner which means it needs to pruned to about 18"-24" in the Spring. I wasn't sure if it was worth it but I cut it back to 24", pulled back the mulch and sprinkled a handful of bone meal around the base and replaced the mulch. Now here it is April and much to my amazement there is new growth from the base. I'm trying to temper my hopes, because, again, I have been here before. But it sure lightened my heart when I saw that new growth.

They say that it is supposed to produce more and more flowers each year so I have visions of many more flowers than last year. There I go again getting my hopes up. Maybe this year will finally be the year that a Clematis, under my care, will make it. You see, I am tragically optimistic. But it just has to be this year.

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