Why are my climbers dying?!

[leaf17]

Hi all,

After 2 years of rampant growth and flowering, my passion flower died. This was a couple of years ago. Last spring, I dug it up and planted a clematis montana in its spot. It grew well last summer but this year has shown no sign of life whatsoever.

I'm puzzled as to what's going on and hoping for some guidance. Both plants were planted in the ground with free draining compost. The site is south west facing, getting several hours of direct sun a day. I watered during dry spells. Perhaps most confusingly of all, there's another clematis montana just 2 metres away which I planted 4 years ago that's doing TOO well! I'm struggling to keep it under control.

Any ideas what's going on? I didn't spot any symptoms on either the passion flower or clematis, they just didn't show any signs of life after their first and second winters, respectively.

Thank you,
Jack

 

[leaf17]

This is the happy clematis. The unsuccessful plants were just to the right of this image.

 

[nao57]

Can't really help without seeing the damaged, dead plants. And how often were you watering? Whats your temperature high averaging now?

 

[cpp gardener]

Yes, other than ‘to the right’, what was different?

 

[leaf17]

I've found some photos that may help, please see below. Weather-wise, I live in York in north of UK. In terms of watering, I'd soak the base of the plants about every week during a dry spell but wouldn't water through autumn to spring which perhaps I've got wrong. But I'd be surprised if this caused the passion flower to die which would surely have had a well established root system given how established it was.

First image is passion flower when it was healthy, July 2023.

Second image is passion flower showing zero signs of life. May 2024. There was no green growth at all for a couple more months so I took it out and planted a clematis montana in the middle of summer. It established itself well in the months leading to autumn.

However, as you can see in images 3 and 4, barely any sign of life in April 2025 and there's no green at all now.

In images 5 and 6 (April 2025) you can see a thick, clear liquid oozing from a couple of areas.

Thank you very much for your help.

 

[cpp gardener]

As for the Passionflower, how cold did t get that winter? It may have frozen in the winter.
The Clematis, I’m stumped.

 

[DiggersJo]

I find clematis notorious in this country, but if any was going to survive okay it would be Montana ! As for passion flower the trouble is normally getting rid of it. Saying that we had a much more established plant die on us in a really bad winter many a year back up north. I currently have a 3-4 year old plant at the front of the house, we live not far further south, but obviously not on the east coast. Ours is planted with its base under a hedge and trained under paving and up the house wall i.e. its roots are well protected. I too suspect cold has done for your passion flower, and perhaps youe clematis. Could it be that end is more exposed to the cold?

 

[leaf17]

Thanks for your thoughts. Perhaps it was the cold that winter but I can't remember if we had particularly cold spell that winter.