They Bailed on Me
Posted by in GardeningI was all set to make a lovely meal last night. I bought some tuna steaks and was going to grill them and serve with a lovely mango salsa. I had some fresh pretzel rolls from the store and local corn on the cob and some green beans from the farm stand. Then Mr. MarthaAndMe texted that he had a late meeting and wouldn’t make it. No problem – Teen Martha loves tuna so I would make it for the two of us. Then she went shopping for shorts, had a crisis (couldn’t find any!) and decided she had to keep shopping before going with friends to a fair. That left me and Dude Martha, who insists he does not like fish. The tuna remains in the fridge and I’ll try again tomorrow. (if you’re wondering, I had a salad for dinner and he had tuna from a can which does not qualify as fish, apparently)
In the meantime, this is a photo of my amazing clematis vine. I can’t grow much of anything, but this thing is going nuts. I originally planted it next to the garage where it did nothing at all. Then a few years ago I moved it to the backyard next to the deck. It went crazy and now gets tons and tons of flowers. This past winter my crazy dogs who now can run free in our newly fenced yard decided it would be fun to chew the vine down. By spring, there was nothing left. I was sure it was a goner, but it has come back to its full beauty. Now if I could just manage to tame it a little bit! It wants to just grow along the floor of the deck and I keep trying to get it to wrap around the posts.
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Brette your flowers are gorgeous! Wow, I’ve never tried to grow clematis but will now. I love the look of them wrapped around a mailbox. Isn’t it a bummer when you plan a wonderful meal and no one’s there for it 🙁
There’s a house down the street that has these growing on a post on their front porch and they go all the way up to the roof – just gorgeous. They must be easy to grow if I’m able to get mine to look like this.
It always seems that no one shows up for dinner when I have fish. It doesn’t keep for long and once you’ve defrosted it, you don’t want to refreeze it, so it’s usually a make it or toss it proposition. I bought this tuna yesterday fresh, so it should still be ok tonight. If anyone makes it home for dinner!
This was a wonderful and funny post! I love Dude’s stance that tuna from a can is not really fish! Your clematis is beautiful. I have one too, climbing on a fence but it only flowered once (in spring). How often does yours flower? Do you fertilize it?
God no, I don’t even water it. Mine blooms for most of the summer it seems. I cannot explain it! How old is yours? I think they flower more once they get older. Mine didn’t do much the first few years and now it is raucous with flowers.
Beautiful clematis! My mom has one growing up the rail on her front porch. I don’t see them here in Florida.
Funny as a kid I wouldn’t eat fish. Now I love it, especially a good tuna steak! You should of called me! 😀
You’re on next time! There are a lot of things I would not eat as a kid that I love now – avocados, salad, tomatoes, capers, tacos, etc
I know the feeling all too well…a dinner planned, and slowly, the calls and cancellations come in. However, it looks like your clematis saved the day; at least it is something you can be happy about. It’s a beauty. Does it need a lot of sun?
That is so funny that tuna from a can is not fish. 🙂 Love your clematis and I’m jealous as I’ve always loved them. I had one for two summers at our house in the city and then it just died out.
It gets part sun part shade, but seems to grow in the direction of the sun.
Clematis like to have a cool root run — it could be that it did better when you moved it next to the deck because the roots are shaded.
I have a suggestion for getting your clematis to grow on the porch posts rather than spilling over onto the floor. Vines do their “climbing” in various ways. Clematis is not a twining vine, so wrapping it around your rails won’t do much good. Instead, it climbs by grasping onto something with its petioles (leaf stems). You can get it to go where you want it by giving it something narrow enough to grasp — perhaps by stapling some nylon mesh or even chicken wire to the posts you want it to grow against. A trellis that has a narrow grid pattern, or a sheet of lattis, would also work well.
Thank you for this great tip! I had no idea, so I will definitely give that a try.
Great tips on clematis in the comments section. Mine is three years old and this is the first year it flowered albeit briefly. Keeping my fingers crossed that it will do better next year. It really had beautiful flowers.