Reproduction Of Clematis, Diseases And Pests, Use In Garden Design

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

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Fight against diseases and pests of clematis

Clematis varieties Multi Blue

Diseases. Clematis has fungal, viral, bacterial and physiological diseases.

The most dangerous clematis disease that can destroy the entire collection is wilting or wilt caused by various microscopic fungi. The most common is verticillary and fusarium wilting. With this disease, usually during the budding period, the shoots lose turgor, wither and dry out. Sometimes this happens with individual shoots, but then all the rest can successively die.

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The cause of wilting is the clogging of the vessels of the plant by growing fungi. The infection lives in the soil and on the lower parts of the shoots. The disease mainly affects weakened plants, overfed with nitrogen, having defects on the shoots, through which the infection enters the plant. Wilt can be caused by different fungi, the same ones that cause different leaf spots. Spots control is also very important for the prevention of infectious wilting.

Physiological wilting can be confused with infectious wilting, which occurs when the lower part of the stems is mechanically damaged. The stems of clematis are very fragile and with careless weeding, garter, due to strong wind, they can break, which will lead to wilting of the shoot. So when you detect the wilting of the shoot, you must first eliminate the likelihood of its breakage.

Prevention of wilting is planting healthy planting material, filling the center of tillering and the lower part of the shoots with coarse sand, shedding soil at the base with bacterial preparations: extrasol, phytosporin and others. Trichodermine (glyocladin) is effectively introduced into the soil at the base. These measures should be started in spring and repeated in summer and autumn.

If a disease occurs, wilted shoots must be completely cut out and carefully removed from the support. The soil at the base of the bush must be shed, and the lower parts of the shoots must be sprayed with chemicals. A good effect is given by foundationol, in its absence, HOM, ordan and other copper-containing preparations. New drugs are now on the market to combat root rot, a soil-related infection.

They must also be effective in controlling clematis wilting. Copper preparations are effective against all fungal diseases. By spraying the lower parts of the plants with copper and other preparations, we also prevent wilting by fighting spotting. A good effect is provided by a disinfecting spill and spraying with pesticides, followed (after 7-10 days) by treatment with biological preparations.

Pests. Of the pests, aphids and spider mites are the most common, from which fitoverm and other similar preparations are very helpful.

Root root nematode is dangerous for clematis. It damages the roots of the plant, on which swellings then appear - galls. The infected plant is stunted and may die if severely infested. The main thing is not to bring a nematode with planting material into the garden, destroy heavily infected plants, disinfect the soil, and not plant clematis in the place of those who died from diseases.

Reproduction of clematis

There are many ways to breed clematis. Species clematis reproduce well by seeds, varietal ones - by dividing bushes, layering, cuttings, grafting. Let's consider just a few methods that are convenient for amateur breeding in the open field.

Layering is the rooting of shoots without separating them from the mother plant. You can root last year's lignified shoots, young shoots of the current year, lower nodes of shoots by hilling (vertical layers). The simplest and most effective, I think, is rooting last year's shoots in the spring. In autumn, a weak pruning is carried out on the plant, leaving shoots of a meter in length, regardless of the pruning group of the variety, and the plant is covered for the winter to preserve these shoots.

In the spring, after checking for the presence of live, well-developed buds, the shoot is placed in the prepared groove. The shoot is attached to the ground, for example, with wire hooks, but does not fall asleep immediately. After young shoots with a length of about 10-15 cm grow from the buds, the shoot is covered with light moisture-absorbing soil (for example, a mixture of sand and peat) so that the young shoots come out of the soil. Their tops are pinched, the soil is watered and kept moist all summer.

To improve rooting, you can cut the bark in the region of the nodes before laying the shoot and sprinkle it with root. It is useful during the summer to water the layers with heteroauxin, zircon and other means that improve rooting. The next spring, the layers must be separated, cut into separate parts according to the number of rooted nodes. Usually such seedlings are grown in a special bed or in pots before planting in a permanent place.

Cuttings. Clematis can be propagated by both last year's and young cuttings. Last year's cuttings can be cut from shoots preserved on plants in winter or cut in autumn and stored at a low positive temperature. The cuttings should have one internode and two nodes.

After soaking in heteroauxin, they must be planted in loose soil, for example, in a mixture of peat and sand. Unlike most cuttings from other plants, both nodes must be buried in the soil. The upper node will be in the soil at a depth of 1 cm, the lower one - at 3 cm, i.e. The cutting is planted obliquely, only the upper tip of the shoot sticks out of the ground. Cuttings of the current year (young) are cut after the end of shoot growth, during budding.

The middle vegetative part of the shoot goes to the cuttings. Young cuttings have one node with two leaves, the area of which must be reduced by removing some of the lobes. When planting, the knot is deepened by 1-2 cm. You can also use cuttings with one knot and a "long leg". In this case, the cuttings are broken out of the node (or cut out) so that there is no shoot above the node, and the entire internode remains under the node. It is better to root such cuttings in water in a dark vessel.

The lower part of the leg should be covered with water; as it evaporates, the water should be topped up. It is better to root in a room at a constant temperature of + 20 … + 25 ° С. As soon as roots up to 1 cm long are formed, the cuttings must be planted in the ground. All cuttings should be planted in cuttings (special beds, covered with polyethylene and shaded from direct sunlight) or covered after planting with jars, caps from plastic bottles.

They take root well in diffused light in constantly moist soil and air, without overheating and hypothermia. It is advisable to water them with preparations that promote root formation during the rooting process. For the winter, the cuttings should be covered with lutrasil on a low support (plastic boxes) so that the cuttings do not press down with dense snow to the ground and do not suffocate. Before planting in a permanent place, it is advisable to grow rooted cuttings for another year in the garden or in pots.

Clematis in garden design

It is difficult to create a complete ornamental garden without clematis. But it is important to plant clematis so that they are as decorative as possible and at the same time feel good. One of the most important points is support.

They must meet many requirements: be strong and durable enough, fit well into the style of the garden and be beautiful (clematis will close them only by the end of June). They should be clematis-friendly. Clinging to them, the vine should rise up. It is necessary to take into account the height of the vine and its ability to cling to supports.

The support should be such that in the fall it is easy to remove the whips from it without breaking them. For different occasions, specially built pergolas, screens and arches, wooden, metal or plastic gratings, nets with a sufficiently large mesh and cords are convenient and beautiful. Sometimes you have to use removable supports: bamboo pins, sticks with coconut fiber.

If this variety of clematis has a height of 3-4 m, and flowering is concentrated in the upper part of the vine, an arch will be a good support, along which the whips, having risen, will descend from the other side. Having planted such clematis on both sides, we get an arch completely covered with flowers. Nets and trellises are very convenient for clematis undergoing short pruning in the fall. After cutting, unnecessary lashes remaining on the support can be removed by cutting them into pieces.

If you need to carefully remove the lashes for wintering with nets and trellises, this will not be easy. It is much easier to remove vines from cords, pins. It is convenient to install removable supports for clematis planted in a rose garden, which do not interfere with the shelter of roses and clematis. In any case, when planning the planting of clematis, you need to think about its support.

Consider several effective and fairly common options for using clematis in design.

Blue Light Clematis

Any vines, and especially clematis, greatly decorate the house, veranda, entrance to the house. You can put supports (gratings) along the wall at some distance from it, or stretch the mesh, cords to the wall, to the roof of the building.

It is very good if the combination of wall color and clematis flowers is thought out. Lattice walls, entwined with clematis, can fence off a patio, a seating area, a "green room". Very decorative arches with clematis or a combination of clematis and climbing roses.

A system of arches or a pergola can be made over the path leading to the house or gazebo. The gazebo, entwined with clematis and roses, looks very romantic. You can plant clematis and along the fence with an east, south or west exposure. It is very important to think over the viewpoints, viewpoints, i.e. the places from which clematis will look most advantageous, taking into account the direction of lighting, the distance to the clematis, its height.

We never consider planting plants separately from the whole garden, from its neighbors and companions. Planting companions solves many problems - this is the extension of decorativeness during the period when the main plant is not blooming, and the masking of imperfections, for example, the bare bottom of clematis, and the creation of harmonious or contrasting color combinations. It is important to respect the distance between plants and take into account the size and compatibility of the root systems.

Subject to the distances (at least 50 cm), clematis look very good in a company with roses, and options with roses of different groups are possible - climbing, scrubs, floribundas. Close enough to clematis, covering their foot, you can plant phlox, astilbe, other perennials with shallow roots, bulbous plants. Annuals are very convenient and even useful for clematis, especially marigolds and marigolds, which repel pests.

With well-chosen varieties of clematis, suitable design, following simple rules of agricultural technology, any gardener can make his garden even more beautiful.

Tatyana Popova, gardener

Photo by Vladimir Popov