The Gardener's Almanac

Some of my clematis flowers were badly eaten by something, but I never found any caterpillar or pest on them, what

do you think is to blame?

The damage was probably caused by earwigs.

 

They are generally a nocturnal pest, i.e. mainly feeding at night, hence the reason you have found nothing.

 

To prevent damage, trap the earwigs in inverted pots stuffed with straw or crumpled newspaper.

 

Place them on sticks / canes amongst the plant/s, then shake the pests out every morning and dispose of them.

Your clematis may have been attacked by clematis wilt.

 

This is usually due to a fungus gaining entry around soil level, as a result the shoots wilt and die back to ground level.

 

Cut the dead wood out now and then water around the base with Supercarb.

My Clematis armandii leaves tend to turn brown for part of their length, is this unusual? and can I take cuttings from

the plant?

Clematis armandii takes a long time to replace one set of leaves with another, so older leaves are often half green and brown.

 

Try pruning after flowering, cutting back the older flowered stems to encourage strong new shoots to replace them.

 

Propagate with hardwood cuttings.

See here;

Late summer-flowering clematis i.e. those that flower from July onwards into autumn, should be pruned back hard in late

February or early March to just above the lowest buds.

 

If the plant has been neglected, do this to only one third of the stems a year and gradually bring the plant back under control.