Hello. Last spring, I was rehabbing a home and found a clematis in the yard. I let it grow until summer and it had medium, pale-purple flowers that were so pretty. When we were about to work on the yard, I decided to chop of it off, dig it up, and re-plant it in MY yard. When I got it home, it was so scraggly due to the vines that I decided to chop it all the way down to its roots, leaving a vine or two that had leaves. It didn't look right, so I thought, what the heck, I just threw the whole thing in a 2-gallon container and left it sitting outside for a few weeks. It actually flowered (only 1 flower, and it was small)! Since it was thriving just from the root ball, which only had a tiny bit of dirt, I thought I'd add more dirt in it. It grew even better, but didn't flower for the rest of the summer. In the fall, I chopped it back down to the root ball and placed it in the garage, where it didn't get any sun. Today, I just went out there and was cleaning out the garage. To my surprise, the clematis has been growing. I'm thinking about re-potting it now that I have the time to do so. I have an empty 18x18 flower pot that I want to put on the deck. Will the clematis do all right in a container? I am hoping so and that it gives me those flowers like it did last year --- very pretty! My concern is, the vines are very thin and they are growing UPWARDS. They are all growing from the root ball (all coming out of the dirt, instead of one big stem). Should I reduce the vines growing upward? Below is a picture of it that I took when I was cleaning the garage today.
Since posting this thread, I hadn't done anything with the clematis. Until today. I saw how much it grew in the last few days (the weather has been nice so we aired out the garage where the clematis is) and the plant started leaning to one side. I replanted it in a huge pot and placed a trellis in it as well. I see that I will have beautiful purple clematis flowers here in the next few weeks (I might have to take the plant back inside in a few days since it's going to drop back down to high 20s and it was 80 today... Missouri weather for ya). Can't wait to post pics!
I'm sorry I missed your original post - Clematis do very well in containers! (Provided you give them something to grow up, like a trellis or your deck railings or something.) I look forward to seeing pictures of your blooms.
Thanks, Lorax! The clematis is the only thing I have outside right now (besides the day lilies that I also took from the house I was rehabbing --- they're doing well). I took pictures of it a while ago and it looks a little weak since I just re potted it last night. I hope I did it right; otherwise, I'll be inclined to re pot again sometime this year. It might be hard to see (one you can see against the foliage), but there are about 6-8 blooms and I lost a few while re potting. I can't wait to take pictures of it when in full bloom!
Here's another look at my Clematis, taken April 19, 2011. Poor thing has seen its share of 60+ wind and down to 37*, but it's still going strong. See all those flowers!?
Gorgeous! I'm so glad it's working out for you. It also makes me miss Clematis (boo hoo, but I can grow passionflowers so that kind of makes up for it...)
Thanks, VioletGreen! Lorax, I looked up passion flower (passiflora?) and the pictures that came up on Google are amazing! I'm very interested! :) I would like to get my hands on those... I wonder if they sell them at Lowe's? LOL I came across passion fruit, too, which I've eaten before when I was growing up in the Philippines. Can't wait to get mine (the plant)!
