Clematis can be safely considered among the most popular among gardeners plants, because their bright and incredibly diverse varieties of real garden decoration. On the eve of the onset of cold weather, the question arises as to whether to shelter the clematis for the winter, because many plants will simply perish without shelter.
Do we need to cover clematis for the winter?
The answer is unambiguous and positive, and it concerns not only the cold regions, but also the middle and southern bands. However, many varieties are winter hardy, so you need to deal with this pig with a reasonable approach. If too much overdoing, the plant simply prohibits and will die not from cold, but from putrefaction.
Now let's look at the question of whether clematis should be sheltered for the winter, from the point of view of an experienced gardener. If you have acquired a frost-resistant grade, and in the description it will quite overwinter in your latitudes without additional shelter, you can not worry. But this is the case if the winter is snowy. Then there will be enough hilling or sheltering in simple boxes.
How correctly to hide clematis for the winter?
Now we will touch on the issue of when to trim and cover clematis for the winter, after all, for most regions it is still recommended to insulate the planting. In particular, terry hybrid varieties usually need more care.
We will divide the question of how to cover clematis for the winter, for several blocks:
- Pruning. Before you cover a young or mature clematis for the winter, it must be cut off. Pruning begins in the middle of autumn or closer to the cold, depending on the climate. Almost all species of this plant can not be prepared for wintering without such manipulation. It is important to properly cut the right: for flowering varieties on last year's shoots, we leave the shoots of the current year. If you have varieties blooming on the shoots of the current year, pruning will be much stronger, and shoots are allowed to trim up to three kidneys.
- Treatment for diseases. Correctly to cover clematis for the winter will turn out after treatment with fungicidal preparations, as the fungus is the worst enemy of this culture. And from the variety or species, nothing depends: we process the bushes "Fundozol" always. Even if winter suddenly turns out to be short or a thaw, the bush will not rot under cover, the fungus will not be scary. With the drug, we not only spray the bush itself, but we also tarnish a small area of the soil around so as not to allow the growth and development of bacteria.
- Hilling. After the treatment of the above-ground part, it is necessary to prepare for the wintering and underground. For this we will use hilling. The plant should be covered by 15 cm, for which a mixture of peat and humus is perfect. Now we leave everything as is and wait for the desired temperature on the thermometer.
- We are waiting for frost. To cover clematis for the winter it is possible only after on a thermometer there will be constant -5 ...- 7 ° С. Now the plant has stopped its growth and is ready to go to winter mode. Never cover plants, and clematis in particular, in wet weather. So you knowingly doom them to perdition from decay. We cover only in dry weather and only with dry materials, not forgetting about a small prodution from prohibition. Then even in the thaw period your bushes will remain unharmed.
What will we cover the plants? Traditional dry leaves, lapnik or brushwood quite fit in this case. Excellent wooden boxes or packing boxes. First we provide a frame, from the same box, so that under the snow cover your shelter does not sag and the plant does not become frozen.
Instead of boxes often use arcs from branches or any other frame. In these air domes or houses, we always put poisonous chemicals from rodents, so that mice do not use your efforts for wintering.