If you go to your member page you can add your zone and something that tells where you are generally such as your state or "Cape Cod" or "Bay Area". That will help you get feedback.

I am assuming that the fence is the solid wood fence with the lattice on top, not the cables around the deck. If so, do you have something for the clematis to climb? They climb by wrapping the leaf stems AKA petioles around things, so it needs relatively narrow things to wrap around, such as a narrow-barred trellis 3/8" diameter or less, wire fencing, etc.

Is the whole area relatively bright and open or are there overhanging trees? Clematis need enough light to bloom and will take a long time to grow into the sun at the top of the fence if there is too much shade.

I don't grow any of these specific clematis, but have some general thoughts as to planting. I don't think I would plant pairs in the same hole just because I think the stronger growing plant will out-compete the weaker. I would get rid of the grass along the fence, loosen the soil along the whole bed and mix in compost since clematis are fairly heavy feeders, and use a buried edging to keep the grass out. It is really difficult to manage grass around clematis stems without accidentally cutting the clematis stems. I'd plant each clem in its own hole as close as a foot or two apart so that each can get started without competition. To keep the soil moisture more even, I'd cover the whole bed with organic mulch such as wood chips except right against the clematis stems.

The other potential issue is that you have different planting groups mixed together. The different groups each bloom best when pruned according to group. So for instance a hard prune group clem like Polish Spirit will only bloom near the top on new growth if not hard pruned over the winter. Nelly Moser is a group two which gets a light prune after the spring bloom. If you hard prune it with the type three's you lose the earliest blooms. If they are planted together it is difficult to prune them separately. In my case, since I live in a zone where group two clematis are usually winter killed back to near where I prune my group threes, it doesn't matter much since I only get the new wood bloom on my group twos, so depending on your goals, it may be fine to mix groups.

I have linked below the search forum for Clematis on the Web which you can use to look up your planned clematis. When I look up with the name of the plant I only use one word of the name since this search engine doesn't like spaces, and there's no need to fill in any other field. There is also a pruning guide in the FAQ of this forum (look for the link above the list of threads on the clematis forum page.)

Here is a link that might be useful: Clematis on the Web

This post was edited by nhbabs on Fri, May 2, 14 at 19:10

Polish Spirit will completely swamp Nelly. Nelly is a good choice for a north facing fence but the others are much taller growers and I'm not sure if the montana or 'Freckles' will grow in your zone.

Your fence will need a wire mesh for them to climb too. I have struggled with trying to grow them up solid wood fencing with lattice on top for years. My husband put up net trellises and wood ones and they just do not climb them well at all. He resists tearing it all out for wire but wire mesh (livestock fencing not chicken wire) is what they climb best.

Thank you for really good advices! After reading up on the pruning groups, I think I'll stick to the simpler format, grow armandii as the base with some nelly (or similar) to fill up/over it. The edge of the lawn has a flower bed, it just doesn't show up in the photo, that's how dark the shadowed area is.

buyorsell888, I plan to use wire fencing from Homedepot - will this work? Cattle panel is not available in my area...

Here is a link that might be useful: 5 ft. x 50 ft. 14-Gauge Galvanized Steel Welded Wire

That wire should work fine. Fasten it so that there are at least a few inches of room between it and the fence so that there is room for the clematis to wrap its stems. You can also usually get a green coated wire mesh at the big box stores if you prefer the aethetics of that.

You still have 2 different pruning groups, since armandii is group one and Nelly group two, but neither is hard prune so you can probably make it work. Armandii isn't hardy everywhere (zones 7, 8, 9), so be sure that you can grow it before planting it. If you are in the southeast, I know that some folks have found that many of the early large-flowered (type II prune) clematis languish in the heat and humidity of high summer. If you are in the southeast, do a search on this forum for posts by nckvilledudes since he had a lot of experience growing in that region.

I'm in California Bay Area 9b, quite close to the bay, so it rarely gets humid in the summer - our summer is super short....I'm hoping that the north facing fence can make it even cooler for the clematis.

Definitely will go look for green wires, thank you so much!!

This post was edited by aquaread on Tue, May 6, 14 at 13:00