Finally got Clematis rehderiana in flower! Pity the lowest flowers are
over 2 metres off the ground, and as it's twining up the middle of a
climbing rose, there is really no chance of smelling the scent.

In the end it was easy to get it in flower - I just had to move house! :-)))

--

Jeff

On 2013-09-30 09:25:17 +0100, Jeff Layman said:

Finally got Clematis rehderiana in flower! Pity the lowest flowers are
over 2 metres off the ground, and as it's twining up the middle of a
climbing rose, there is really no chance of smelling the scent.

In the end it was easy to get it in flower - I just had to move house! :-)))

Lol! Amazing what a house move can achieve, though more usually in
terms of weeding something like ground elder!! Ours has flowered but
very little. Another, further down the garden, growing up a tree, has
done rather better. Ours on the house wall is also going up a rose and
when it does flower well, it reaches our bedroom window. Not this year,
however. I just love that Clematis and it's not easy to find but well
worth the effort, imo. Another thing that is flowering really well at
the moment is Heptacodium miconioides. I can't remember now where we
bought ours from but it's right at the bottom of the garden so got the
full blast of winter winds etc. and hasn't been deterred one bit. I
think we put it in the wrong place because we can't see it at all from
the house or top of the garden and being an autmn flowerer, it should
be much more clearly visible. That's another worth looking for and so
is Dicentra scandens, which is currently flowering its little socks off
while clambering up and through a Pittosporum and anything else it can
lay hands on! It's a hardy plant that is another that's seen very
little, goodness knows why as, while it dies away in winter, it has
never failed to come back each spring. Firmly touching wood as I write
that! Did you move far, Jeff, or has your Clematis done a version of
that garden classic "move it a few yards and it romps away"?!
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

On 30/09/2013 09:25, Jeff Layman wrote:
Finally got Clematis rehderiana in flower! Pity the lowest flowers are
over 2 metres off the ground, and as it's twining up the middle of a
climbing rose, there is really no chance of smelling the scent.

In the end it was easy to get it in flower - I just had to move house!
:-)))

You could move house to get it to flower but couldn't get a ladder to
smell the scent?

On 30/09/2013 09:57, Sacha wrote:
On 2013-09-30 09:25:17 +0100, Jeff Layman said:

Finally got Clematis rehderiana in flower! Pity the lowest flowers are
over 2 metres off the ground, and as it's twining up the middle of a
climbing rose, there is really no chance of smelling the scent.

In the end it was easy to get it in flower - I just had to move house! :-)))

Lol! Amazing what a house move can achieve, though more usually in
terms of weeding something like ground elder!! Ours has flowered but
very little. Another, further down the garden, growing up a tree, has
done rather better. Ours on the house wall is also going up a rose and
when it does flower well, it reaches our bedroom window. Not this year,
however. I just love that Clematis and it's not easy to find but well
worth the effort, imo. Another thing that is flowering really well at
the moment is Heptacodium miconioides. I can't remember now where we
bought ours from but it's right at the bottom of the garden so got the
full blast of winter winds etc. and hasn't been deterred one bit. I
think we put it in the wrong place because we can't see it at all from
the house or top of the garden and being an autmn flowerer, it should
be much more clearly visible. That's another worth looking for and so
is Dicentra scandens, which is currently flowering its little socks off
while clambering up and through a Pittosporum and anything else it can
lay hands on! It's a hardy plant that is another that's seen very
little, goodness knows why as, while it dies away in winter, it has
never failed to come back each spring. Firmly touching wood as I write
that! Did you move far, Jeff, or has your Clematis done a version of
that garden classic "move it a few yards and it romps away"?!

Can't say I know of Heptacodium miconioides. The flowers look a bit like
Trachelospermum asiaticum (ours still has a few flowers). Is the smell
honeysuckle-like, or something else? Still, any late-flowering shrub is
welcome, particularly a scented one.

I tried to grow dicentra scandens many years ago from seed. I got one
plant up to a couple of metres high, but it never flowered.

We've moved about 60 miles to south-central Hampshire. Sure is dry here
- we've had only 4 mm of rain in the last two months! Can't get
anything in as the ground is so dry, so will have to wait. A couple of
days ago I had to dig out an old fencepost from the edge of the lawn. I
got 50 cm down without finding any damp soil (and I still couldn't get
the post out! Had to cut it off in the end).

I'm just hoping we won't be swinging between extremes of rain for
weeks on end and waterlogged soil, to drought and dry soil for weeks on
end. Whatever happened to the British weather where you could get all
four seasons in a day?


--

Jeff

On 30/09/2013 10:11, David Hill wrote:
On 30/09/2013 09:25, Jeff Layman wrote:
Finally got Clematis rehderiana in flower! Pity the lowest flowers are
over 2 metres off the ground, and as it's twining up the middle of a
climbing rose, there is really no chance of smelling the scent.

In the end it was easy to get it in flower - I just had to move house!
:-)))

You could move house to get it to flower but couldn't get a ladder to
smell the scent?

It's not the height that concerns me. To get to the flowers I'd rather
try to stick my head through barbed wire than this particular climbing rose!

--

Jeff

On 2013-09-30 13:49:39 +0100, Jeff Layman said:

On 30/09/2013 09:57, Sacha wrote:
On 2013-09-30 09:25:17 +0100, Jeff Layman said:

Finally got Clematis rehderiana in flower! Pity the lowest flowers are
over 2 metres off the ground, and as it's twining up the middle of a
climbing rose, there is really no chance of smelling the scent.

In the end it was easy to get it in flower - I just had to move house! :-)))

Lol! Amazing what a house move can achieve, though more usually in
terms of weeding something like ground elder!! Ours has flowered but
very little. Another, further down the garden, growing up a tree, has
done rather better. Ours on the house wall is also going up a rose and
when it does flower well, it reaches our bedroom window. Not this year,
however. I just love that Clematis and it's not easy to find but well
worth the effort, imo. Another thing that is flowering really well at
the moment is Heptacodium miconioides. I can't remember now where we
bought ours from but it's right at the bottom of the garden so got the
full blast of winter winds etc. and hasn't been deterred one bit. I
think we put it in the wrong place because we can't see it at all from
the house or top of the garden and being an autmn flowerer, it should
be much more clearly visible. That's another worth looking for and so
is Dicentra scandens, which is currently flowering its little socks off
while clambering up and through a Pittosporum and anything else it can
lay hands on! It's a hardy plant that is another that's seen very
little, goodness knows why as, while it dies away in winter, it has
never failed to come back each spring. Firmly touching wood as I write
that! Did you move far, Jeff, or has your Clematis done a version of
that garden classic "move it a few yards and it romps away"?!

Can't say I know of Heptacodium miconioides. The flowers look a bit
like Trachelospermum asiaticum (ours still has a few flowers). Is the
smell honeysuckle-like, or something else? Still, any late-flowering
shrub is welcome, particularly a scented one.

I'd just say 'sweet', really. I haven't likened it especially to
honeysuckle but I'll have to go down the garden and have a whiff!

I tried to grow dicentra scandens many years ago from seed. I got one
plant up to a couple of metres high, but it never flowered.

It seems to set seed easily and then grow well from seed, or that's
been our experience. But I think it needs a good dollop of sun to do
its best and not be too shady. We've got two in the garden at present
and the one facing due south is rampaging but was newly planted this
year, the one facing east but still getting quite a lot of sun, isn't
doing as well. But that one was out all winter so it got some frost and
all the cold spring weather, and had a cabbage palm chopped down beside
it so it got off to a slower start!

We've moved about 60 miles to south-central Hampshire. Sure is dry
here - we've had only 4 mm of rain in the last two months! Can't get
anything in as the ground is so dry, so will have to wait. A couple of
days ago I had to dig out an old fencepost from the edge of the lawn.
I got 50 cm down without finding any damp soil (and I still couldn't
get the post out! Had to cut it off in the end).

I'm just hoping we won't be swinging between extremes of rain for
weeks on end and waterlogged soil, to drought and dry soil for weeks on
end. Whatever happened to the British weather where you could get all
four seasons in a day?

It absolutely poured here yesterday, now it's been a drizzly morning
and a dry afternoon. But it's grey and dreary. The sun made a brief
attempt but was defeated!


--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk