More modest clematis can help prevent heartache

One day your clematis is looking great and you’re envisioning its gorgeous blooms, and then the next day you turn around and half of it is completely wilted or already brown.

You are probably the victim of clematis wilt, and you’re not alone. If you’ve grown clematis for any length of time, you’ve probably experienced this frustrating scenario.

Anytime I share a photo of one of the many clematis I grow looking beautiful in the garden, I get a question about vines that have suddenly turned yellow or are brown and crispy.

Clematis wilt is a fungal disease that can quickly end a vine’s show before it even begins. In fact, in a particularly cruel twist of fate, stems often collapse just as buds are about to open.

I, too, have had my heart broken by clematis wilt, but it’s been many years since that happened. And it’s because of one major change I made: I stopped growing the large-flowering pruning group 2 varieties, which are much more susceptible to wilt than other varieties.

Unfortunately it is the large, showy flowers that make people want to grow clematis in the first place, but the benefit of the smaller-flowered varieties is often more blooms over a longer period.

Clematis pruning groups can be a little confusing, particularly when you learn that the groups aren’t so much pruning but more of a guide.

Group 1 clematis, few of which grow in our zone, are semi-evergreen and are pruned immediately after flowering in spring. Group 2 flower on the previous year’s growth with some occasional rebloom in late summer. Clematis in group 3 bloom on new growth, so can be cut to a few inches above the ground in spring.

Easy pruning is another reason I like growing the latter group. And although they are often referred to as small-flowering, the ‘Etoile Violette’ clematis that is in full bloom on my deck stair railing is sporting a solid mass of 4-inch diameter deep purple flowers right now, a display to rival most large-flowering types.

If you spot the telltale signs of clematis wilt, immediately cut the affected stems to below ground level. Treating the remaining stems with a fungicide may help, but if they are already infected, there’s little hope. Clematis will often send up new shoots, so its unlikely that wilt will kill the plant, and there’s even a chance it may flower later.

A good way to encourage new shoots on group 2 type clematis is to plant them deep, with the crown 2 to 3 inches below the level of the soil. This can help protect dormant buds that may push up if the plant is taken out by disease or damage.

If you’re fed up with the heartbreak of watching your clematis fail summer after summer, don’t throw in the towel on the “queen of vines” just yet. Maybe just throw in the towel on that type of clematis and replace that large-flowering variety with a group 3 type that is much more likely to come through year after year.