Trellis advice for clemitis and jasmine

camillasinbox

Hi plant lovers,

I'm looking for some trellis advice. I'm trying to cover a wall so that it has fragrance and colour in a partially shaded area.

I'm about to order 3 clematis (2x Montanas, 1x cirrhosa) and 2x jasmine (officianle and many-flowered) in a 4m area to climb a 2m wall. They'll arrive about 3ft high.

1. Is this the right amount of plants?

I'm looking at placing trellis with less than half an inch thickness, 6 inches from the wall along the 4 meter stretch and 2 meters high.

2. Is this the correct spacing? I've seen advice that says clematis wants to be 18 inches apart - but is that true for montanas? 

3. Do I need trellis covering the whole 4m area? If there are gaps, will the plants be happy covering those in a few years, or will there always be gaps?

I'm looking at about £100 for the plants and £100-£250 for the trellis so I don't want to get this to wrong!

Also, does anyone know if they will flop over the wall and down the other side on their own and if the plan will flower throughout if it does this?

Many thanks
Kimothy

Pete.8

One montata will easily cover the entire area.
I've found jasmines very temperamental and only get a few measly flowers (but maybe it's just me), maybe consider Star Jasmine (evergreen and strongly perfumed in the summer) and some smaller clematis that will complement the SJ.
Star Jasmine is not fully hardy in all parts of the UK though.

Gartener

Same experience with Jasmine. Also its not a self clinging plant, so you will need to keep on tying it to the wall. Mine is just one huge messy looking plant full of foliage but very few flowers. God knows how the Garden centers manage to ve plants full of flowers on display but i never managed to get them to flower in my garden.

I will give it a miss.

camillasinbox

Oh interesting - I'm mainly interested in the jasmine for the smell rather than the flower. The cirrhosa freckles is for winter flowers, the president and ernest markham are for the colours and the different seasons and the x2 jasmines are because they flower at different times.... I'm happy to train the jasmine, although are there better flowers for the scent?

For the number of plants... I'd like at least 2 colours so would putting 3 clematis in be a bit mad? I could focus on pots for winter flowers maybe rather than trying to get everything on the wall.

What happens if you have too many plants?

Gartener

camillasinbox said:

Oh interesting - I'm mainly interested in the jasmine for the smell rather than the flower. The cirrhosa freckles is for winter flowers, the president and ernest markham are for the colours and the different seasons and the x2 jasmines are because they flower at different times.... I'm happy to train the jasmine, although are there better flowers for the scent?

For the number of plants... I'd like at least 2 colours so would putting 3 clematis in be a bit mad? I could focus on pots for winter flowers maybe rather than trying to get everything on the wall.

What happens if you have too many plants?

No flowers = no smell. 

Few flowers = almost no smell (because jasmine flowers are pretty small)

sorry couldn’t help it.

cornelly

We have a Jasmine nudiflorum, beautiful yellow flowers when the leaves drop winter time, now greened up has to be woven through trellis it does very well with us.

BobTheGardener

I'd skip the montanas completely as even one will soon cover that area and only the 'Freckles' will compete (and strongly, once it gets going) and you'll end up with a pruning nightmare if you grow pruning group 2 clematis through those two.  You could use a montana and the freckles but grow group 3 clematis through them (which are cut back almost to the ground in late winter, and the old stems can be pulled through the trellis at that time.)  I do like 'Freckles' though as it provides an evergreen backdrop and is easy to control once the area is covered simply by snipping stray bits off.  I would grow that, the two you mention and maybe another large, early flowering type and another late flowering type (or treat all but the freckles as group 3 and cut back hard in late Winter.  Most if not all pruning group 2 clematis can also be grown as pruning group 3, with a delayed flowering period.