Clematis and lavender border

pokhim

So I planted my clematis and rose and will be putting up some vine eyes on the weekend to get them growing up and across the fence! 

I planted them on my lavender and rosemary border tho..and now I'm thinking it won't do too well because they like different water and my clematis likes it's roots in the shade... what do u think? 

Guernsey Donkey2

I would either put a slate or two over the clematis roots to give shade or plant some small bedding type plants close to the clematis to give shade for the roots. I think the clematis looks good there pokhim but I have been advised to spread my clematis shoots out vertically rather than training it to grow upright to provide a denser plant.

pokhim

Thanks! yes I will spread it out on the weekend!! It's too dark to garden when I get home from work and as my garden is v.new I've not had the chance to put lights around. 

I will put vine eyes and run wires on the fence this weekend and train up the clematis!! 

You think if I water the clematis then the lavender and rosemary just in front will be ok??

sanjy67

hi pokhim, is the rose a climbing variety? i'm guessing it is....

what pruning group or type is the clematis?

the reason i ask is that the rose and the clematis are very close together, you will be training your clematis horizontally (guernsey meant horizontally not vertically) and depending on type it will spread out quite a few feet each side of the plant, then if that is a climbing rose that will also need to be trained horizontally and they are going to meet very quickly and overlap each other within a month of the growing season.

this can look nice but the problem arises when you come to prune them, roses are thorny (usually and could prove problamatic searching through the clematis for thorny branches to prune off and equally if you have a type of clematis that needs pruning after flowering you will have to again have to go through the thorny branches to prune back the clematis (some are pruned back to almost the ground and this can be a lot of growth you will be cutting off and untangling from the rose. 

the reason you train both horizontally is so that you get flowers from the bottom up for both plants, if you leave them to grow vertically you will only get flowers at the very top eventually and a lot of bare stems/dry wood(clematis) training the sideways allows both plants in this case to send up flowering shoots all the way along from the horizontal branches. Have a google of the name of your clematis & your rose and see how much & vigarously they will grow and also how you need to prune your clematis, you may need to move one of them which will also help with your dilemma of overwatering your rosemary & lavender as they tend to like it dry, clematis likes a good drink hope this helps

pokhim

Thanks so much tetley and sanjy!!

the clematis is pruning group 1! its avalanche! I will train it horizontally as soon as I put the wires up across my fence!  Maybe I'll move one of them slightly as I have another rose and clematis next to it. 

I will def put some slates down and use the bottle trick for the water!! Thanks so much!

Guernsey Donkey2

Yes, I did mean horizontally trained sanjy.  The bottle watering idea is a good one to follow - in fact we do that with our courgettes which need frequent watering and it works well. If you follow all this advice given here, your fence will be a riot of colour in years to come pokhim.

Fairygirl

Pokhim- rosemary and lavender actually do enoy a fair bit of water, but what they need is very sharp drainage. As long as they have that and plenty of sun, they'll do ok. Clematis need plenty of water for their roots, so if you have clems and lavender close together, you may need to give the clems  more water, especially through the summer. Rosemary gets a bit woody and unattractive after a few years, but it's easy to propogate from cuttings, or grow from seed.

I never put slates or stones round clematis - just somewhere for slugs to hide, before coming out in spring to eat the new clematis shoots. Mine have other planting to hide any bare lower stems of the clematis. 

pokhim

Planted and trained the clematis!!