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Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

After flowering, on older vines & lower on the plant, the leaves brown & the rest of the plant has fewer blooms.

It seems that most experienced Clematis growers accept this decline & just prune it out.

Does anyone know if there is a causal pathogen that has been identified?

10/5/2006 11:55:40 AM

Montoursville, PA

If you chase this through Google you will indeed find that a non-treatable problem is rampart within Clematis. I have experienced this and can not grow Clematis at all, in the same spot once the problem presents itself.

The strange thing is that on the other side of the garden arch a Clematis grows faultless with no care but the fall cut back as advised by those who sell Clematis.

I have invested in three plants over five years. That's enough to indicate that just three feet from a success there is spot where they can not grow.

10/5/2006 6:15:45 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

I've grown the same 3 Clematis plants here ever since I moved in about 12 years ago. Like my customer's client who asked me today, I lose about half of each plant every 2-3 years so my case isn't quite as severe. With simpkle pruning & a light fertilizing, they always come back.

I've always attributed the dieback to heat or drought stress but I'm not sure thats all there is to it. Especially if you can't grow Clematis in the same spot any more. A soil borne pathogen might be partly responsible with environmental factors playing some coordinating role.

The vast majority of growers seem to agree that this condition isn't treatable. I just don't buy into this theory. Perhaps we just haven't found the right treatment yet.

10/5/2006 10:37:14 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Is your troubled spot in a southern exposure? Clematis like their feet in cool shade & their heads in the sun. Or maybe a buried rock or ledge?

10/5/2006 10:39:27 PM

Alaska

I have a Hagley that does the vary same thing. On one side of Hagely is a Jackmanii and on the other is a General Sikorski. They do just fine without any lower leaf browining. I think it's just the cultivar? Some where in the breeding program something was lost. Later Scott.

10/6/2006 3:12:04 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

I've had Jackmanii & Nelly Moser both do it. The third plant I don't remember the cultivar.

10/6/2006 7:45:02 AM

Alaska

Hummmm? I just don't know. Could be a pathogen? Take some leaf tissues and send it off to a lab. That's the only sure way to tell. Take care and good luck Scott.

10/6/2006 2:26:49 PM