Clematis care guide for beginners: entry-level varieties are easy to grow

How do you care for clematis? Beginners who don't know how can come take a look! When my mother came to Nanning, Guangxi at the beginning of the month, she said this when she saw the clematis in the park. Why are you city people so strange? You even grow weeds in parks, everywhere. If I were back home, I would just use a few buckets of herbicide, tidy it up and grow vegetables, wouldn't that be nice? I smiled and said nothing. My mother always said the countryside is not good and the city is good, but after coming for a few days she was making a fuss about going back, saying there was concrete everywhere and no one to talk to.

I asked my father why he hadn't come to Nanning, and my mother said, if he came, who would feed the chickens at home? I just came to take a look, and once I see everything is fine, I'll feel relieved. My mother then looked at my balcony and said you city people really know how to live. This balcony doesn't dry clothes, it's all flowers. This must be that clematis you were talking about.

These flower pots don't breathe enough. They're not even as good as the peppers I grow in a water vat back home; those grow so much. And your soil is too lean, not fertile enough, and you're still growing flowers? You're not even as good as a farmer. How about I bring you some chicken manure from back home? The chicken manure at home has been sitting for over half a year. Now it's used for crops, and it's really great. The rice at home is now almost as tall as me.

Also, you water the soil too much, right? How can it grow well like that? If you were soaked in water every day, would you feel comfortable? After my mother scolded me a few times, I really felt that the farmers in the countryside were right. I summed up my mother's words into a few points, which might help you grow clematis well.

The soil must be fertile enough

It likes a warm, moist and semi-shady environment. It is relatively cold-resistant. It is suitable for fertile, well-drained alkaline loam containing manganese salts. After collecting seeds in autumn, sow them immediately, or store them in sand until spring sowing the next year. Divide plants or take softwood cuttings in spring, and propagate by layering in late winter and early spring.

Fertilizing must be safe

I remember my mother growing vegetables. When planting small seedlings, she basically did not fertilize. Only after some time would she use a little manure water. Vegetables grown with this kind of water taste very good. The family still keeps an open-air toilet. Of course, there is also a septic tank in the house, but it takes a long time to open. There are many vegetables grown at home, and without manure water it really won't do. Actually, growing flowers is the same. Manure smells bad, but it is high in organic matter. So we should use more fertilizer high in organic matter, and then clematis can grow well.

Watering must be scientific

The rice at home often has no water, and my mother has to go grab some water every night, sometimes squatting until midnight. My mother says that during the peak growing season, water demand is high, and if there is no water at this time, it is the same as having no harvest. So my mother always says farming is hard and tells me not to do farming. Actually, clematis is the same. During the peak growing season, water more; during the flowering period, water less. In high temperatures, control water more and provide more shade. Only in this way is it easier to succeed in growing clematis. Especially in summer, high temperatures must be avoided, otherwise problems will arise.

My mother said, I'm going back, the old man at home is unhappy. After decades in the countryside, I still haven't been to a big city. I'll come again next time. Actually, the best gardeners should be in the countryside. Having spent most of their lives with crops, they understand best what crops need. Actually, when we grow flowers, we should also learn from them. Only by understanding the needs of plants can we grow them well.