Garden overachiever presents quite a challenge

Every garden has problems, but plants doing too well has to rank at the top of the list of problems most gardeners wouldn’t mind having.

It is rare that a plant thrives so much that intervention is required for its long-term health.

Such action awaits me as soon as I work up the nerve. Four years ago, I planted a pair of ‘Little Bas’ clematis in 24-inch square pots inside my fenced vegetable garden. They’ve been absolute stars, easily clambering over the arbor above the gate and raining down beautiful tendrils of purple open-cupped flowers beginning in late June and usually continuing for most of the summer.

Like many “permanent” container plantings, the soil level has dropped, with the crowns of the plants falling deeper and deeper below the rim of the pot.

It was a reminder that not only should the depth situation be rectified, but they probably needed some fresh soil as well. Clematis, like most vines, are nutrition hogs. They want a rich soil — well-draining, of course — and consistent moisture. This is where the Clematis-growing adage about “feet in the shade and head in the sun” comes from. They don’t care about the shade, but they do care about consistent moisture, and one way to help with that is a thick layer of mulch.

Perhaps it shouldn’t have been as much of a surprise as it was, but when I plunged my spade in at the edge of the pot, I was met with significant resistance. When I stuck my hand in to find out what my spade had come up against, I felt a vast network of fibrous roots, perfectly shaped like the cube they were growing in.

I tipped the pot on its side, thinking that perhaps I could slide the entire thing out intact. After about 30 minutes of trying, it became clear the laws of physics would not allow such a maneuver.

That’s when I called in the calvary for physical help to get the pot — still miraculously intact despite all my prying against it at the root ball—upright and for some advice.

You know you might have a plant problem when the owner of the best Clematis-specialist nursery in the country writes you back as soon as you email him. Dan Long, owner of Brushwood Nursery in North Carolina, didn’t mince words with his advice: Those vines need fresh soil after that many years in a pot and I need to do whatever it takes to get it to them.

So the plan is to start cutting — probably with my cheap serrated bread knife — and pull out the biggest root ball I can. Then I’ll repot the plants in the same pots with a mix of high-quality, peat-free potting mix and compost, then mulch the soil surface.

Long assures me that ‘Little Bas’ is a tough cookie that will be just fine. I’m sure he’s right. I just need to take a few deep breaths and channel all my gardening confidence to get the job done.