What happens when you cut a massive decades-old white wisteria down to the ground because it was strangling the house and covering all the windows?
Wisteria smothering the windows before I cut it down
Well, undeterred it puts on a surge of growth and creates a sprawling bush at ground level before climbing up the house again. Moral – if I don’t want something to grow I need to be drastic and do more than cut bits off when I see them.
So I made a decision and painted Roundup on the stump to stop it growing. We shall see.
Massive stump and branches which I am trying to discourage from growing again
What happens when you replace an old broken trellis with a new one and have to practically massacre a trachelospermum in the process and then tie it back up like leaning a drunk on a lampost?
Through the winter I thought it wasn’t going to make it but then in spring it burst into life and put on a ton of new growth round the base of the bay window and flowered as usual in June.
wonderful trachelospermum jasminoides taking its chance now the wisteria has gone
Moral – tough plants will do their thing whatever we do to them. Just give them time.
What happens when a gardener who came only once many years ago pulled the lovely clematis Montana off the top of the shed so he could paint the roof with something he said would keep the rain out?
Sad that no clematis will grow over the shed these days
Well what happens is that since then the clematis has refused to put one leaf on the roof timber and nothing I do will persuade it to clamber up and make a lovely pink roof for the shed. It now grows everywhere BUT on the shed roof. It even likes to grow inside the shed. Presumably there was something in the chemical used that repulses plants. Lesson learnt – don’t let strangers paint your shed.
What happens when you know you should cut a clematis down to ground level in spring but you think “that’s surely not necessary” and you only cut it down to tummy height?
Massive tangle of Class 3 clematis smothering an obelisk and climbing into the magnolia and not flowering much
Well, it grows stems about 15 ft long, tangles itself round everything within reach, makes a huge cloud of green, heads up into the magnolia tree and produces very few flowers. (none at all in this photo).
Moral – next year I will cut it down to a foot from the ground as the books told me to do.
What happens when you site a birdbath in a sunny spot? It goes not green but a slimy brown.
Horrible brown slime but the birds still seem to like it
The bath is coated in a thick layer of brown crud which floats about in the water. If I scrub it, more appears overnight. Some kind of chemical reaction I imagine – water plus sunlight plus neglect equals crud.
I would like to give the birds nice clean water to wash in but since they have a drink, then a bath and then poop in the water I’m not sure I need to bother.
Thanks for reading my Six on Saturday today August 4th and Thankyou to the propagator who hosts these blogs on this theme. Over on his blog today you can find other people’s Sixes.
I clean my bird bath with a little bit of bleach water, it does deter for awhile but the algae scum comes back. If it were closer to the hose I would hose it out every day or so, but it is not. Mine is also glazed which doesn’t give as many places for the algae to hide. Someone also told me to put some anti-algae drops in the birdbath. Available where fish aquariums are sold. It works if you remember to use it.
Thanks for that advice Marla, I will get some anti-algae drops. Can’t do any harm can it.
I do know about wisteria taking over. I trim mine back and trim again and it still wants to climb the house. I really think all the green in your space is pretty.
Thankyou very much Beverley. Sometimes I look around and wonder where all the flowers have gone as it’s mainly green but I agree with you that green really is the nicest colour. My wisteria was so high up I had to pay someone brave with a ladder twice a year and I just thought “why am I doing this?”. Very glad it’s gone. It only flowered for about a week each year.
I’d have been a bit more drastic with the Wisteria stump and drilled a couple 1/4 inch holes just inside the bark and poured a little undiluted Roundup into them, then plugged them with a bit of twig.
Ooh Jim, one leaf from that stump and I will take your advice and do just that. Thanks for the tip, I shall keep an eye out for any hint of growth.
That’s very interesting about the clematis not growing on the shed, almost as though it can make its own decisions!
I know, really sad though as before it had made a lovely green and pink roof on the shed and now it’s headed up into my neighbour’s apple tree instead and is making its way INTO the shed. It’s avoiding the roof so stubbornly I can only think it was what he painted it with.
A brilliant post Julie, wonderfully capturing the recurring battles, frustrations and win some lose some emotions of being a gardener. Thanks!
Thankyou so much. Lovely to get up on a Monday morning and find such nice comments. More What happens when…. topics to come.
Watch that Roundup stuff …
Oh? Really? Could it lead to disaster? !! See you on Thursday I hope, before you go away.