It is much easier to achieve flowering from the purchased Asao clematis than to keep it in winter and make it bloom again. The plant is not so capricious in care, as it requires some (minimal) knowledge about its features. The popular name in Russia of all clematis is “clematis”.
Clematis "Asao": description
A variety of Japanese selection. It is named for the Japanese city where it was received in 1971.
Clematis ("Asao") Asao is distributed through horticultural nurseries. Introduced to England (from where it began to spread throughout Europe) in 1980.
Large (up to twenty centimeters in diameter) flowers appear in May - early June in the middle zone of the Russian Federation on the overwintered shoots of last year. Do not fade until two weeks. The second portion of flowers appears on the shoots of the current year from mid-summer. If last year's shoots with faded buds were cut in time, then this flowering will be very magnificent, the diameter of the flower will be slightly smaller (up to 12-15 centimeters), but the number will exceed June. The duration of the second wave depends on the age of the bush, the quality of pruning, top dressing and the correct planting (on the formation of root buds).
Flowers on the plant, both simple and semi-double, only in the first wave of flowering, opened. Coloring is intensely pink with light veins in the middle of the petal. The middle of the flower is yellow. Faded buds are preserved during the season and delight the eye with a silver color.
The plant is very leafy, a vine with a height of up to three meters. Bearing required. The diameter of the bush is up to 80-100 centimeters. The root system is medium in size; growth is moderate. This feature makes it possible to grow Asao clematis in containers.
Reviews of gardeners about growing a plant in the middle zone of the Russian Federation indicate its rather high winter hardiness with a well-formed shelter and proper pruning for the winter.
Shade-tolerant, prefers landing sites with weak shading in the afternoon, is sensitive to regular watering (loses flower stalks when irregularly irrigated), but does not tolerate high groundwater.
Ideal for beautiful landscape silhouettes.
Clematis Asao: planting and care
It is desirable to buy a plant in the spring. Otherwise, the plant will be difficult to take root, and to deal with shoots (last year and this year) is almost impossible.
Due to the fact that clematis Asao, like all other representatives of this species, forms root buds, you need to correctly place the seedling in the soil. The root pit measuring 60x60 cm and a depth of 30-40 cm is ideal for planting. It needs to be half-filled with deciduous humus, adding a little soddy soil (sandy loam or loamy soil, the pH reaction should not be alkaline), to ensure that there are no roots of perennial weeds, especially such as Pavilica, sow thistle and burdock. Place the seedling so that its root neck is five to six centimeters below ground level.
This is necessary so that, firstly, clematis does not dry out in the summer, towering its roots above the soil, and secondly, so that the root buds do not freeze in winter. Pour the remaining voids with a mixture of turf with humus, pour water with ambient temperature (not from the well and not from the well), add soil when settling. Mulch from above (it can be coniferous litter, wood chips). If very sunny weather with high daytime temperatures is expected, cover the clematis Asao with a spanbond or other non-woven fabric for a week. Periodically need to be watered as the soil dries.
Properly planted clematis already in the first summer after planting can bloom. Not plentiful and not very large flowers, but will bloom.
Trimming and shaping a bush
Breeders include clematis Asao to the trim group B (or second) according to the generally accepted classification. This includes clematis with early first flowering on the shoots of last year and the second in mid-summer on newly overgrown shoots.
For abundant flowering, a seedling of the first year should not give a tall bush, so you need to monitor the shoots and not let them grow longer than 60-70 cm. The pruning should be sharp, sanitized in a weak alcohol solution and thoroughly dried with a garden tool. The young seedling is susceptible to various viral diseases, therefore, it is not necessary to provoke the plant with a contaminated tool. By winter, the seedling should form strong shoots, thin and small should be cut before shelter for the winter: they are not needed for flowering next year and will weaken the plant.
A seedling of the second and subsequent years requires a different approach to pruning. After exiting hibernation, the plant needs to be checked for broken shoots, the broken off parts need to be cut. After flowering of the first wave, it is necessary to cut off last year's shoots, leaving only newly grown ones. It is on them that the second wave blooms.
After flowering, before wintering, you need to cut the shoots, leaving them one to one and a half meters long. Small and broken must also be cut.
Preparing for wintering in the middle zone of the Russian Federation
Since clematis Asao bred in Japan, you need to treat it as a fairly thermophilic plant.
Preparing for the winter comes down to the following activities:
you need to remove the trimmed shoots from the supports, carefully turn them into a ring and lay them on the ground;
to fill with loose peat, two buckets are needed on the bush;
cover with a spruce top, in its absence you can use cut garden plants (raspberries, chrysanthemums), large sawdust;
It is necessary to fill up and cover clematis when the temperature steadily goes to a small minus (up to five degrees).
In snowy winters, plants need snowing.
Clematis works in spring
To release the plant from shelter must be extremely careful. The first warm days give no reason to completely remove the shelter. Night frost lies in wait for tender shoots, and in these cases they will die. The clematis itself will not suffer, but the first wave of flowering in early spring will not be anymore.
Only when there will be no night frost below minus five can the plant be released from the “dungeon”. Overwintered shoots begin to release buds, after a week or two they will begin to bloom, and new shoots will come out of the ground. By the end of May, buds will appear on the old shoots, and their full opening will begin in early June.
Top dressing
The plant changes its crown every year, so there is a fairly serious diet for it. Four times a season - this is the feeding plan.
The first time - in the spring after the growth of new shoots. It can be a urea solution (1 g per 1 liter of water) with the addition of humus. Before top dressing, you need to shed the soil thoroughly, since the roots of the plant can go deep into the ground.
The second time - after the first wave of flowering. Organics - a weekly infusion of grass diluted one to ten (per liter of water in a bucket of water). Need to shed thoroughly.
The third time - before the summer bloom. You can use a solution of chicken manure, or special complex fertilizers for perennials.
Last time - a month and a half before trimming. A weak solution of mullein with the addition of humus is suitable.
Breeding
Two methods are acceptable for reproduction, judging by the reviews of amateur gardeners: cuttings and layering.
The essence of the cuttings is as follows. A newly formed process is selected (the stem should not be light green) with good leaves. It is cut with a sharp knife, it is possible with a scalpel. It is cut into several parts, each of which should have a pair of leaves. One of the leaves is cut off (so that less water evaporates), the stalk is lowered into the Kornevin (or equivalent) solution and planted in a sand-humus mixture. Within a month, roots will form. To maintain the microclimate, you need to close the container with a bag, periodically looking at and removing excess moisture from it.
It is better to keep the seedling a year after the cuttings in a container.
In order to get Asao clematis layers, you need to bend the well-formed shoot to the ground, fix it with a bracket in a prepared small container (so as not to damage the main root system) or at a distance of 40 cm from the main bush. Sprinkle with earth. The root system will form during the season. Check whether the roots grow, you need to constantly. The next year, a new plant can be planted.
Container landing
Clematis Asao has a not too large root system, so it can be grown in containers.
As a container, it is better to take a ceramic container (15-20 liters). It must be disinfected if used previously. A ten-centimeter layer of drainage is laid at the bottom, followed by a mixture of humus with soddy soil. Clematis will grow well if you monitor the moisture of the earth and feed it monthly. Due to the fact that clematis should winter under shelter, the plant must either be transplanted into the ground, or dig a container in a greenhouse, then cover, as described above ..