Wilting Clematis cartmanii Avalanche

I have had Clematis cartmanii Avalanche for about 2 years and it is climbing well and produces a wealth of beautiful flowers. However, about a month or so after flowering this year - all the leaves are drooping, there seems no indication of disease on the leaf. Can you offer some advice please?

Re: Wilting Clematis cartmanii Avalanche

Reply from Rosemary Cunningham

Mine too!!!!

Re: Wilting Clematis cartmanii Avalanche

Reply from Valerie Munro

Hi Janet

From the sound of it your clematis seems to be suffering from the dreaded clematis wilt, but please remember that the disease looks awful, it is not terminal!

Clematis wilt affects mainly the large flowered hybrids, and includes your Clematis 'Avanlanche'. The symptoms you will see are wilting terminal shoots, starting with the youngest foliage. The leaf stalks then begin to darken where they join the leaf blade. Whole sections of the plant may die back.

The cause of wilt is a fungus which produces fruiting bodies on the older stems. You should cut back any affected stems to healthy tissue, below ground level if necessary. But do not under any circumstances put these trimmkings onto the compost heap - the fungal spores will spend the winter in the soil and spring into action again the following year.

Heaping up the soil around the developing stems encourages more new and healthy growth to appear from below ground level. Or, if you can dig the plant up, make a deeper hole for it and then drop the plant in so that more of the stem will be covered by soil.

The way the garden chemical market is shrinking, there is nothing you can spray the plant with so just keep it well fed and watered so that it can better withstand any fungal attack.

I hope that this helps

Auntie Planty
www.auntieplanty.co.uk

Re: Wilting Clematis cartmanii Avalanche

Reply from Derek Williams

I have had Clematis cartmanii Avalanche for about 2 years and it is climbing well and produces a wealth of beautiful flowers. However, after flowering this year - all the leaves are turning copper, there seems no indication of disease. Can you offer some advice please?

Re: Wilting Clematis cartmanii Avalanche

Reply from Astrid Morgan

Are the roosts waterlogged? My Avalanche has Rot. Not enough sun and the roots too wet I fear. Don't know if I can do anything for it. It is just turning brown, withering and is, to all efeects - dead. the brown leaves seem to be all over, not from the top down or bottom up. I have had mine for about 4 years.