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CLEMATIS 'REBECCA'

The plant is not thriving (I think it was planted approx. 5 years ago) and several leaves are brown (almost black) and crisp. It has flowered but the blooms are very sad and 'floppy'; it has suffered snail damage - we have been inundated by both slugs and snails -  maybe they could be the cause??  Unable to post a picture at present but wonder if from my description you may be able to offer some advice.  Should it be cut back now and if so, by how much?

Hope you can help

Many thanks

Posts

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117

    Slugs and snails can do an awful lot of damage very quickly to emerging clematis. I've lost an entire stem of one of mine and that was the culprit. Loads of buds and foliage wilted overnight and died off. If you trace back to where the shoots have come out the ground you might see the evidence - they strip the outer coating from the woody stem and it's curtains. They often eat the new soft growth but once the plant gets going it's easy to forget that they can still do some serious damage. Sounds like that's what's happened. I've taken all the dead stuff off the affected stem and I've been more vigilant - but I found and dispatched a huge slug hiding on a nearby plant just after the stem started to go. image

    I've used pine cones round my Clematis - with great effect. They don't like them at all!

    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • pinkpeonypinkpeony Posts: 107

    Thank you, Fairygirl.   So much damage has been done around the garden this year by slugs and snails and yet neighbouring plots seem unaffected??  I've just cleared a lupin bed which has been destroyed!!  I shall take your advice on the clematis and then clear the soil around it - I have some pine cones left from Christmas so they'll be put to good use.....

    Thanks again.

  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190

    I think that sometimes you just have to say, S'

    *d the environment and drop a tiny few slug pellets in discreet places. As long as you dont go silly.Wildlife thrives in my garden, birds, toads frogs, hedgehogs, they dont seem to want to eat dead slugs and they cant be eating the actual pellets as they are all thriving.Its heartbreaking, not mention expensive when your plants get destroyed.

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,064

    There are eco friendly slug pellets based on ferrous sulphate.    scatter them regularly around susceptible plants from Valentine's Day on to get the perishers as they emrge from hibernation or hatch from eggs.  Scatter at weekly intervals throughout the gorwing season and that should protect your plants from the worst.

    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
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