Young Clematis Armandii. Novice Gardener. Help Needed.
Hello,
After 12 months of hard work I have wrestled a very overgrown and unloved garden into something I can enjoy.
To celebrate I treated myself to 4 Clematis Armandii 'Snowdrift.
I dug 4 holes (twice the depth of the pots) against the south facing fence (which I have equipped with wire) and filled it with a mix of bagged soil and bagged compost.
I planted the Clematis and carefully attached the tendrils (using ties in figures of 8) of to a fan of bamboo canes. I watered each one with 10 litres of water with some Miracle-Gro mixed in and this is where I am now.
I read that Clematis require lots of water in the first 12 months but I have also read that they can be over watered.
I am confused an would like any help you can give me in terms of pointers on how much to water them and how often.
Sounds obvious but I really want these to thrive and grow. It has been a long journey to get to this point.
I am attaching pictures of the garden 12 months ago and some pictures of how I have set up the Clematis.
Any help/comments would be very appreciated 
Mark
Posts
They are rather closely planted together for a climber that can end up 5 metres tall by 3 metres wide
The tall part refers to how far along it will reach no matter the height of its support, and the 3 metres is how chunky it will get
It's up to you how closely you plant but the health and happiness of the plants can become an issue considering that Armandii is one that is not pruned by default
Hi Mark, I have a Clematis "Armandii" growing up against our garden shed and it is lovely especially in Jan/Feb with the scented flowers when very little else is in bloom! Now it is a quite vigorous climber that requires cutting back, mine blooms again in mid summer. Initially I planted it deep and covered the base of the plant with stones to avoid clematis wilt and it worked.
Well done Mark that looks a nice start.
Just a suggestion: how about digging out the grass around your newly planted clematis to make a border all the way along, perhaps a couple of feet out from your fence? After doing that, you won't have to deal with cutting the grass between your clematis and risk damaging them.
You could then add some lower ground covering plants (thinking very low maintenance hardy geraniums here) so that the clematis roots are in the shade and their heads are in the sun which is what they like.
Thank you all for your comments! I hope you see this.
Genuinely very grateful for the time you took to respond to my post
From the points above I will do the following -
(1) Cover the bases with stones.
(2) Water each plant weekly (with about 4 or 5 litres) during dry weather.
(3) Drink some wine in a deck chair and relax!
So glad you asked this question Mark, as I have the same predicament!
I'm worried about over-watering too.
Yes, this was a great qu which I needed to know the answer to also. I like the way the clematis have been set up.
Any chance of an update, please on the 4 armandii ?
yeah... i would love to know this too!!! I just bot some clematis and would love to see an update 1 yr later of yours.