Rose and clematis combination
Jess is in the Garden
Posts: 1,022
in Plants
I have a The Generous Gardener climbing rose, still in a pot following a move. Very healthy and trying to escape its pot.
I'm just in the process of redesigning a blank canvas of a front garden and would love to plant this over the bay window and front door.
The plot is east facing, quite protected, against a brick wall.
The soil will be vastly improved London clay and is free draining.
My question is this - I'd love to grow a clematis like Etoile Violette with GG, but will it be difficult to prune the clematis (which I understand is a viticella, so needs cutting back hard in February) without disrupting the rose?
I've only ever grown climbing roses in pots (very small and paved back garden, where I lived before) so I generally have them a hard prune and manure, which kept them very happy).
I've never planted directly into the ground and I want to get it right.
Your thoughts please - even on my choice of plants! Any clem you'd rather recommend or another climbing rose instead of GG? I also like Blue Angel, which may not be in such contracts to GG.
I alos have a New Dawn and a Penny Lane in pots, waiting to go into the ground.
Ideally I'd like to have a very fragrant rose up front.
I'm just in the process of redesigning a blank canvas of a front garden and would love to plant this over the bay window and front door.
The plot is east facing, quite protected, against a brick wall.
The soil will be vastly improved London clay and is free draining.
My question is this - I'd love to grow a clematis like Etoile Violette with GG, but will it be difficult to prune the clematis (which I understand is a viticella, so needs cutting back hard in February) without disrupting the rose?
I've only ever grown climbing roses in pots (very small and paved back garden, where I lived before) so I generally have them a hard prune and manure, which kept them very happy).
I've never planted directly into the ground and I want to get it right.
Your thoughts please - even on my choice of plants! Any clem you'd rather recommend or another climbing rose instead of GG? I also like Blue Angel, which may not be in such contracts to GG.
I alos have a New Dawn and a Penny Lane in pots, waiting to go into the ground.
Ideally I'd like to have a very fragrant rose up front.
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Your combination of E V and Generous G sounds nice. You choose what colours you like. What one person sees might be different to someone else.
Light and shade or position can make colours look different.
Try them and if you decide you do not like it you can move or change them.
I grow clematis in pots for a season or so next to what I want to grow together before deciding about combinations. Then they are easy to move around, rather than dig up.
I use viticella because you can tidy a bit at the end of season, but also any loose bits of viticella stems break up easily so do not usually do any damage to the rose.
I have Clematis Pagoda which grows with a Moss rose, (I have just forgotten the name, shoot me...)
At the end of the year I usually cut and pull the majority of the old clematis stems off, and the other wispy bits just break up and blow away. Which is not bad for a grippy stickily thorny rose like a Moss.
The unusual colour of C. purpurea plena elegans with the pale pink "Little Rambler" I have and like, but that is personal choice.
Edit: Moss rose= William Lobb
I'm wondering though, on a practical level, should I plant the rose and clematis on the same side/edge of the bay window they will grow over? I have other viticellas and they are sometimes job to pull down in spring as they become enormous. I've had to really yank the top growth as well as cutting it! I was concerned that would pull a rose away from its fixing points.
Sometimes you can't get the one wanted or suggested, just another similar colour one that might suit too.
I am not sure about going over your bay window, it should not damage a rose if you choose a not too strong or vigourous clem. Some viticella are small with more delicate/weaker stems than others.
I would think if you cut the stems and left them a while in winter, they do break down to quite strawy bits, so it should not damage the rose much.
Is Generous gardener a strong growing one?
The instructions I follow is to give a long steady pull and not yank the clematis stems. If you get resistance then you may have to cut a few bits.
I think I found that advice on the International clematis site somewhere, and generally it works.
It is awful isn't it! the choice is endless
In my experience, Etoile Violette is very vigorous and gets bigger and stronger and has more stems every year so needs careful siting or it will swamp things. Have a look at Star of India - late large flowered group - which will flower all summer and be a bit softer in colour against your GG which is a fabulous rose. Good choice.
If you want a rich purple you could also look at Mikelite and Vostok - http://www.clematis.hull.ac.uk/new-clemdetail.cfm?dbkey=590 This site shows the other two as well, then all you need is a nursery that stocks them.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
How large are the Dominika flowers, if I may ask? I prefer the lens with slightly smaller flowers, like Alba Luxurians size.