Hi

I don't grow clems with shrubs, so I won't comment on it. I would like to suggest that you pay attention to the pruning code and blooming time before you plant two together. It's a nightmare to try to prune where an A and a C are growing together! Also, you may want two colors blooming at the same time for a certain effect (say red white and blue in July) or you may want to extend your blooming time by planting an earlier and later blooming plant (don't forget: OF THE SAME PRUNING CODE).

Best of luck to you.

Generally you plant on the east or north side of a shrub so it is growing towards the sun, far enough out so the clematis won't have to fight the roots too much. You may have to lead it into the shrub with a string.

In a dwarf quince, I have C. durandii (which leans into the shrub, rather than climbs) and C. 'Duchess of Albany', which is only in its second year now.

Thanks, laceyvail, for the extremely helpful information. I appreciate your taking the time to respond. Happy Easter to you.

Anybody have any experience with any of the clematis I named growing through shrubbery? Are some more suitable than others? I imagine type 3's would be best, correct?

I'm not sure how tall that viburnum is, but you'll have to be careful not to swamp it with a big clematis. Any of the viticellas I grow would swamp that for sure. I'd also worry about Comptess de Bouchaud and Josephine. I've never had much luck with Will Goodwin or John Paul II - if they behave the same with you, they might be small enough (of course, mine may grow in different conditions than yours). I don't grow Bonanza. Come to think of it, my John Paul II grows in about the same amount of sun that your viburnum will have, and of your list, I guess I'd try with him, if it were me.

I don't know if Will Goodwin will work well. I have trouble getting it on the trellis. It needs constant guidance or it just puddles on the ground in front of the trellis. It's pretty when it does that, so it could be nice in front of the viburnum,. but it might take some effort to get it in the shrub. Will Goodwin is group 2, but I treat it like a three. Bonanza is very pretty (just added that one to my list) and it's not huge, so maybe it would be good to place that one behind the shrub. If it did work out, the pale blue/purple of the Will Goodwin and the darker purple of Bonanza would be a very pretty combination. All of what I just said is in theory though, I am in no way suggesting that you do this, it's all a crap shoot, ya know. :-)

I have a friend who prefers to use viticellas for growing into shrubs because they are more reliable, and she also likes Comtesse de Bouchaud because it's a strong grower, but I found it slow to establish itself. The viburnum has a medium to fast growth rate, so by the time Comtesse de Bouchaud does establishes itself, the viburnum will be tall enough handle a larger vine, and the pink would show up nicely against the darker viburnum leaves.

My Will Goodwin looks like the second photo.
http://www.clematis.hull.ac.uk/new-clemdetail.cfm?dbkey=598If

This is Bonanza
http://www.clematis.hull.ac.uk/new-clemdetail.cfm?dbkey=2984

I love the combination.

Thanks, everyone, will mull over the suggestions. I should not have gotten so many clematis at one time! Decisions, decisions.

You are so right about the "crap shoot". I have put some clematis in places where they have done nothing and others have just taken over the spot I put them in. You just never know.
I DO want to recommend Henryi for anyone who has a really shady spot. It has just gone gangbusters on my back stairs in just a couple of years.
Picture of Henryi clematis:
{{gwi:582843}}

Henryi clinging to the stair rail is so beautiful it makes me wish I had a long stairs to do the same.

I purchases a bareroot Henryi last weekend and am hoping for good things from it, too.

And My Henryi has been a dog. It was brought home half dead as a freebie but it has never done much in at least 7 years in the ground. I didn't hard prune like I should have the first few years but I have the last two and it still hasn't done much. It is Henryi for sure, it has bloomed, but I'm not impressed. Maybe it just takes a decade to leap when they start out scraggly and not correctly hard pruned.

Don't feel bad, buyorsell888, I have a Polish Spirit that is a dog. This is its fourth year and has never had a single bloom. People say Polish Spirit is supposed to bloom like gangbusters. This may be the year I give up on it. :-(

And I killed 2 or 3 Henryii before I bought my present plant. I planted it to grow up a small crabapple, figuring they could get big together, but this plant is a monster, and in it's second year I began to worry that it would shade out the youngish crabapple! Why this one has grown so well when the others were weaklings..... crap shoot is right.

I've been planning to try clematis on shrubs this year so I've done a lot of reading on it. Type 3 is best since it's pruned winter or early spring, low each year, so you don't have to carefully disentangle live and dead stems, and you don't have to look at scraggly leafless stems in your shrubs all winter.

Match the ultimate sizes of your shrub and clematis since otherwise one may overwhelm the other. The clematis needs to be planted outside the ultimate dripline of the shrub so there is less root competition. Make sure they have plenty of water and food since that wil also help reduce competition and help them both grow well. Since your shrub is already well established, check out how far out the roots go and plant outside that. Otherwise the clematis may never really get going due to too much root competition. I've read that it's easiest to plant the shrub and clematis at the same time if possible, so I guess you'll have to give the clematis some extra TLC to be sure it gets going. Once it's big enough to want to climb, you can simply move tendtils over to lean against the shrub or have it grow up a string or sticks to guide it towards the shrub.

Your Henryi was gorgeous! I do have a long set of stairs and a deck that is 6 ft off the ground at one end. I've been thinking about sweet autumn- anyone have any experience w/ that? I'm concerned it will be invasive- like wisteria here.
[By the way, don't feel bad about "going a little nuts", I have several clematis and I have them all mixed up! Now that I know a little more (emphasis on 'little'), I would have made some different choices. I know I have a Niobe (new last yr), a Will Goodwin -new this yr and still unsure as to whether it will make it, a Jackmanii, and about 3 more that I am not sure about! Plus, when I got a spring order from Bluestone, there was a Huldine in it- and the more I think about it, the more I am sure I did not order it! I just gave it to my neighbor- she wants to hide her fence. I know I want an autumn bloomer w/ a fragrance and My angel (dark orange).] Oh, well, as long as I have room to plant things, I'll be happy. :) Brandy
t

Brandy, I wouldn't consider Sweet Autumn invasive. I have one growing on a large arbor, and while it can get to 20' long, it doesn't have the strength that a wisteria has, so it won't stress or pull down its support. It makes the arbor into a green tunnel. Even though the effect is very pretty, I'm moving it this year to a different spot, because I want color on the arbor and I want it earlier.

The problem with Sweet Autumn clematis where it's invasive is that it seeds into wilder areas, not like wisteria which sends out long roots.

I don't do well with Will Goodwin, having lost 3 seperate plants.
But before I knew much about clems, and only had a few, I noticed that Will was the last of the ones I had to break dormancy and start putting up new shoots.
So I wouldn't give up on him yet.
I hope you have better success than I did.

Marie in Maine