A glimpse of my father's garden in the North, from our Christmas visit. He'd told us over the phone that a gale one night had brought down a section of the clematis montana on the south facing garden wall. In the busy couple of days between our arrival and Christmas Day we looked out at the mass of fallen clematis from the living room window and planned to clear it up once the festivities were past. The tangle was so huge that we had no inkling that the wall had been affected. When we at last went out to the other side of the wall we were shocked to find this whole section broken clean away.
The clematis was growing over a strong wire netting frame attached to the wall at intervals by iron posts. Over 30 years the clematis had become like a flexible extension to the wall, one with just enough give to exert pressure on it through the iron posts and take out a whole section of concrete blocks.
I say 'was' because after our departure my Dad, never one to do things by halves, has had the whole plant removed. It took the garden contractors 3 lorry loads to clear it. It will be very strange this spring not to see the glorious display of flowers. The best of the display was always unseen by us, as it was on the south facing side which borders a farm track down to the river. This is a popular walk for inhabitants of the village, and people would stand and admire the mass of pink flowers.
Understandably it's not going to be replaced by another strong-growing clematis, and I'm now researching gentler options. I think I'll wait a while to suggest any, however, as the collapse of the wall gave my Dad quite a shock.
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10 comments:
That is a shock I'm sure. I bet the clematis was beautiful in bloom!
what a pity for the flowers !! I know how strong is the wind in Scotland but i didn't know it could break walls !
Hei hei og takk for kommentar hos meg på mitt snøbilde i går morges. Nå har det smeltet bort, ikke alt men en del. Veiene er i alle fall bare slik at det er litt lettere fremkommelig her!
Når dere flyr inn til Torp så flyr dere rett over hustakene her, jeg synes det er koselig med flyene over her! Jeg blir "ikke" reisesjuk, neida...
å joda! Hele tiden. Drømmer veldig om London om dagene, vi får se ;)
Heartbreakingly tragic for your father as well as for those who admired the glorious display. What a shame, my heart goes out to him.
What a pity. The clematis is a beatiful flower I like them a lot. I have a several my self in our garden.
Thank´s ever so much for your comment on my blog.
Greetings
Gunilla//Norrskenets tradgard//Northen Lights Garden
I have to ask, what color clematis? And it is so sad to see it go but it sure did cause a lot of damage.
Thanks for the comments.
Tina, the clematis was a sugar pink, and in full bloom the whole wall was just a mass of starry pink blossom.
Sounds stunning!
I hope you find a good replacement. It's too late now, but I wonder why he didn't cut it way back instead of taking it all out.
Sue, we did try to persuade him just to cut it hard back, but he had got such a fright, and clematis montana is such a rampant grower, that he felt more comfortable with the whole plant cleared. Five years ago perhaps he would have cut it back, but he's now in his 80's and it was all a bit too much.
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