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My Comtesse De Bouchaud Didn't Come Back

18 years ago

I have my Comtesse de Bouchaud planted together with a Polish Spirit; this is their third summer, i.e., their "leap" year, and the foliage is certainly "leaping". We had a dreadful winter, and a slow, cold, wet spring. The first sign of growth I saw was May 1st. On July 1st, the first flowers opened. There's now roughly 100 flowers open. They're all Polish Spirit!! What happened to my Comtesse de Bouchaud? Does anyone know? There's easily another 100 buds, and they all look like they'll be Polish Spirit. Am I being hysterical? Is it too early for flowers from the Comtesse? Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.

Christine

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Comments (8)

charlottev
18 years ago
My Comtesse has been blooming for a few weeks and its in mostly shade, so considering I'm in zone 4 and you're in zone 6, your should have bloomed earlier than mine. I wouldn't give up yet, it could just be slow and surprise you later or next year. Stranger things have happened. I thought my Marie Boisselot was dead this spring too and about a month later than usual, it came up and is now blooming, so I jumped the gun as well. Hang in there. If it doesn't come up next spring, well, then I'm inclined to think it's a "goner". Good luck. P.S. You can dig around the area where you think it should be and see how the roots are doing.
CanadianCeedub
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks Charlotte, I won't give up yet. Its root system is completely intermingled with the Polish Spirit, as I planted them (as a total newbie) only inches apart, having no idea how big they'd get. I actually thought I could grow them on their own little trellises, side by side...LOL.

Christine
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I have H.F. Young - which is a light prune Group 2 and I always hard prune her every year. This year which is now her 3rd year - she has come up with sooo many stems - I couldnt believe it! Anyways I do think that with some varieties of light prune like for instance Proteus - you would definately have to light prune because if you do not you would miss out on the double flower it produces in the first bloom of the year. But I would think with Ramona - you should be fine. Worse come to worse - you would cut her down hard and find out for sure what will happen this year - then next year you will know for sure! I also have Ramona and have always treated her as a light prune - until last year when she got hit with wilt - then she was cut to the ground. So this year she is starting to show her head once again. Lynn
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Good Morn & hoping all Mom's had a great yesterday & week-ends! Just updating on the Clem finds I over-wintered, well protected outdoors in a cage-pen! All 3 survived & were all greening by the time they were released from their winter-cage ~ it helped that we had a mild winter!!! Due to a trip for a Cardiac Stent right before X'mas & the Card. rehab that ensued - ran out of time & had to postpone setting them in the ground. Spring arrived 2 mos early by the time I thought to set them in site, they've all crawled up the fence/trellis & budded ~ didn't have the heart to interrupt their fun, so I left them alone since they were all in lg/deep nursery pots & doing well! In the meantime I took home a small pot of Clem on special from a seed'n'feed shop w/ a tag that says *unknown color* as I was repotting stuck deep was a broken orig tag ~ thrilled for the surprise t'was *Asao* yay!!! FWIW!!!
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Comments (6)
Thank you both. I do prune it down in the spring. Since reading the comment about "planting in full sun", I've been racking my brain how this could apply because there has been no change in my plantings. Then as I was putting the garden to bed, I had an eureka moment. Both last year and this, I planted a nasturtium next to the Comtesse de Bouchaud. But this year the nasturtium went from being a trailing vine to an aggressive climbing vine, putting the clematis in the shade. So I'll be ultra careful about this next year. P.S. A good many of my plants turned into giants this year (some of them unpleasantly so). I don't know if it was my new fertilizer (22-11-22) or if it was the weather.
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mamoo_z5
18 years ago
I too would wait until next spring before you decide it is gone. I have two Comtesse that have been blooming for about 3 weeks now.
I have The President that last year I hit by mistake with just a little weed killer & it died back to the ground & I thought for sure I killed it. It showed up this spring better than ever. So wait Clematis can trick you.
alpiner
18 years ago
"so considering I'm in zone 4 and you're in zone 6, your should have bloomed earlier than mine"

Thanks for your good observations but the above isn't always valid. Zones are not always to do with frost free days (length of growing season). For example, Many plants in zone 3/4 southwestern Alberta bloom after those in zone 2 Saskatoon. Winnipeg (zone 2?) has roses and clematis in bloom a couple weeks before Calgary (zone 3)

The time the ground thaws, number of daylight hours, evening temperatures, etc. have a big bearing on when a plant flowers or a fruit ripens.

Great advice about not giving up. We have about 50 clematis in our garden and every year a couple of them 'disappear' only to pleasantly surprise us the following year. This makes them even more special,,,sort of like 'The Prodigal Son'.
CanadianCeedub
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks MaMoo and Alpiner. You've given me new hope for the Comtesse. As well, there is now a 3' vine in front of the Polish Spirit which has different foliage but no buds yet. I have taken a cutting from it, and am keeping a close eye on it in case it does bud. Fingers crossed.
CanadianCeedub
Original Author
18 years ago
Well, the 3' vine eventually got some buds on it, and one of them opened this morning - its a COMTESSE DE BOUCHAUD!! Its just one little vine though, but I'm so happy it didn't totally die on me. And equally glad I didn't give up and buy another one to replace it! Whoa, that would have been some kind of big plant next year! I think now that the winter just stunted it some. Hopefully it'll be fine next year. Thanks everyone.

Christine
mamoo_z5
18 years ago
Christine I am sure you will be pleased with Comtesse next year. She will be much bigger & she is strong & loves to climb high. Glad to hear she is beginning to show good signs. Have fun with her.
CanadianCeedub
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks MaMoo; there's now 4 flowers open, and more on the verge of opening.

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