clematis root at boxstore worth it?

13 years ago

I want to get a clematis started to run up a telephone pole on the edge of my property.

A local boxstore is offering a clematis root for five dollars. It appears that a few have already sprouted, so viability doesn't seem to be an issue.

my question is whether this has a good chance of long term success, or is it worth spending more for an already established vine?

anyone tried growing clematis from a root?

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Comments (6)

sandyl
13 years ago
I bought a bare root Clematis Henryi from a boxstore in the spring two years ago just as a rescue and really just to see if I could do anything with him and if so how long would it take to get him to any size. Well I planted him and within a week he totally disappeared and I thought oh well I would keep the pot watered and just see what happened. The little plant didn't come back for the remainer of the first year. Last year late spring, early summer he reappeared and grow about 2" and thats where he still is right now. I have 20 plus Clematis to keep me busy and have paid good money for most over the years and believe me you get what you pay for. I purchased 7 last year from Paradise Garden and they where shipped in 4" pots and one even had a bloom on it when I received it. I potted all my new one's up in five gal pots and went to move the pots about a month ago and they had foot long roots already coming out of the bottom of their pots and Crystal Fountain right now is about 4 foot tall and has 8 to 10 large buds on her. So, long team for little box store bare roots its not worth the trouble and the waiting. I am still hoping my little bare root Henryi will make it some day and be a big boy. I am not giving up on him.
buyorsell888
13 years ago
Personally, I don't feel they are worth the time to baby along or the money even though cheap. Box store packaged plants are often NOT true to name/label either and that is a big problem for me. May not be for others but it is for me. I no longer buy bulbs or plants in packages from anyone having had so much trouble with them being rotten inside and not true to name.

I got cheap yellow daffs instead of peach/white. I got cheap yellow Asiatic lilies instead of expensive Orientals etc. I give up. Should have known better. Nothing against a bargain but it must be blooming for me to buy at a big box store so I know it is what I am paying for.....

I have purchased really nice Clematis at Home Depot in a gallon pot for ten bucks but they were blooming at the time so I knew they were what they were labeled. I have over 60 Clematis and I don't want duplicates!
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Sounds like the soil we have here in the south except my nemesis is clay. Digging holes and over amending it with much of anything will result in swimming pools that plants will rot in when we do have rain. What I have found is that adding a little additives to the hole, compost or composted pine bark chips, to help with moisture percolation and spreading mulch and organic matter on top of the soil will eventually generate a tilth to the soil in the manner that Mother Nature generates it naturally. The amendments will decompose, attract worms that will till the material deeper into the soil, and will deposit their own natural droppings to the soil which will increase tilth. Another little known thing that adds organic matter to the soil is the natural death and decomposition of root hairs on roots. I suggest you read a good book on permaculture to learn about how people can generate growing conditions and grow plants in less than hospitable conditions. A good one that was a real eye opener to me was a book entitled "Gaia's Garden--A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture" by Toby Hemenway. I wish I had read it years ago when I first started gardening. No one, myself included, is telling you not to use something that makes your life easier, but as is often the case, there is often more than one way to skin a cat and permaculture techniques are a means of accomplishing this which do not involve something that is purchased in a container and are much less expensive in the long run and better for the environment.
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I experimented a few years ago with bareroot clematis and this is what I did: I didn't bury them deeper because I didn't know about that at the time. They did fine, but when they were planted into "permanent" locations they were buried deeper. I believe that the plant should have some green about the soil for photosynthesis. I cannot bring myself to completely bury a clematis. The only way I would do it is if a university held a controlled study and concluded that it made no difference. lol The roots can easily rot or dry out so watch the moisture in the soil. Dead clematis roots are black. Check out the link to see the color of healthy clematis roots. I would have soaked the roots for a bit before plant, but I have also not soaked the roots, so I can't tell you how much of an advantage soaking has over not soaking the roots. Here is a link that might be useful: clematis roots
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Janet was asking about the type of soil, I believe, not the pH since clematis can live in either acidic or somewhat alkaline soil. Is your soil free draining, mucky, does it drain well with added organic matter, etc. ? Clematis like moisture but they don't like to sit in standing water. I don't believe anyone here has ever suggested letting clematis get rootbound in one gallon pots. Some of us do believe that small sized clematis are better served being potted up in one gallon pot so that their root systems get better established and more substantial prior to being planted in the garden however. This is especially true for very small clematis plants, especially the type IIs, since doing otherwise can make the plant more prone to attack of clematis wilt.
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Hi Greenman, It's nice to see you posting and I enjoyed reading about all the landscaping you've been doing. I can't believe how much planting you've done...you sure have been busy! The heat and sunlight here always will be a challenge and I have found many 'full sun' plants grow fine for me with only a couple of hours of direct sun or even in almost completely dappled shade. With your succulents, did you do a massive amount of soil improvement to give them the drainage they need? In general, clay drains too slowly for them. Since I have evil clay soil, I only grow succulents in containers where they can have the near-perfect drainage they require. They do still make burlap bags, and you're most likely to find them at farm supply stores like Tractor Supply Company or farm-oriented feed and seed stores. I usually only see them here in stores in the spring when they sell them right beside the seed potatoes so you can, presumably, store your harvested potatoes in them a few months down the line. One way to help your container plants in the hot months is to buy a larger pot and place the entire plant, container and all, inside the larger pot. That gives the potted roots some insulation from the heat since the outer pot would take the brunt of the heat. I look forward to hearing about your vegetable garden as you build and develop it. Ditto what George said about the native elms here. We have them all over the place on our property and they are tough, having survived all kinds of drought and years of flooding rainfall equally well. To go along with the plants Marcy suggested, the plant that grows best for me in a hot exposure is gomphrena 'Strawberry Fields'. It grows alongside our driveway/roadway/rural mail box and rarely wilts, even in August. It gets nothing but rainfall, being far beyond the reach of a waterhose. My most reliable summer plants in a southern or western exposure are echinaceas, gomphrenas, zinnias and verbena bonariensis. All of those are either perennial or reseeding annuals at our place. Dawn
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billums_ms_7b
13 years ago
In my humble opinion, if you are just starting out with clematis and the plant at the box store is sufficiently cheap, why not give it a try? (Then again, I got the bargain hunter gene from my Mom, so your mileage may vary)

For instance, in the heat of the summer I like to drop by the local Lowes because they have a section of plants that they have "lightly killed". (Usually they missed watering things and those little pots dry up fast in our summer heat)

On one occasion I found a ton of poor little abused, unloved, and unwatered clematis dropping all their leaves, but they were selling them for fifty cents apiece. At that price, I'll take the risk.

A little old lady who was also looking through to see what varieties they had assured me that clematis are tougher than they look and these would bounce back over time. She was totally correct. Every single plant I bought that day is now blooming away in my yard this spring.

I'm sure I would have gotten better and quicker results buying gallon sized plants and the risk of getting something mislabeled would have been lower, but sometimes you just have to love a bargain. Plus, you get the satisfaction of rescuing a poor abused baby from certain death.
flowergirl70ks
13 years ago
Depends on your age and how long you want to wait. I bought a little string of Niobe 3 years ago. This year it's finally making decent growth.
greenjesse
13 years ago
I bought a clematis root from lowes and I was skeptical with me being a beginner and all. The bag was dried out, the sprout was broken, and I wasn't even sure if it was dead or alive! I planted it in a gallon size pot and made sure it was always semi- moist (someone told me that they love water) so I just kept to it. That was in February, now it is about 4 inches with 15 leaves! But yeah, there is still no way to know what kind I actually got.
claire25
13 years ago
Just a question from a newbie here...are you sure Clematis are the best choice for trainig up a telephone pole? The don't attach themselves to surfaces in the way that vines such as trumpetcreeper do, so they need a lot of support when being trained vertically. How are you planning on attaching them to the pole?

clematis root at boxstore worth it?

Comments (6)

sandyl

buyorsell888

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