Garden columnist was ahead of her time

I’ve been following Vita Sackville-West on Twitter; co-creator of Sissinghurst Castle Garden, one of the most famous gardens in England. This may come as a surprise to anyone familiar with this poet, writer and garden columnist who wrote in the Observer newspaper from 1947 until 1961. She died only a year later in 1962.

Vita is not tweeting from beyond the grave, although the words are hers, taken from anthologies of her articles. Tweeting on her behalf is a former head gardener at the Morris Arboretum at the University of Pennsylvania. Though anonymous, I call them the Vita tweeter.

Sackville-West was quite a character, said to be 50 years ahead of her time with innovations that would perhaps be forgotten were it not for these gems that pop up on Twitter.

One from May 1949 recently caught my eye: “An unusual way of treating clematis is to grow it horizontally instead of vertically. For this you need a kind of oblong trellis; or a rectangle of rabbit wire or sheep wire will do equally well, besides proving more durable.”

The following day’s tweet continued: “Every few days in the growing season you will have to go around & weave the strands in & out of the wire for clematis grows at an amazing rate; & its instinct is to grow perpendicularly: but do this as gingerly as you can for clematis seems to resent the touch of the human hand.”

And on the third day: “The reward is great. For one thing, you will be able to gaze right down into the upturned face of the flower instead of having to crane your neck to observe the tangle of colour hanging perhaps 10 or 20 feet above your head.”

I’ve never been able to grow a clematis that high, but then our climate isn’t anything like that of Sissinghurst.

The idea though is brilliant, something rarely considered. We do this with climbing roses, so why not clematis? It’s a way to conceal a wall or fence that runs out of enough height to accommodate a vigorous climber. Rather than planting two or three shorter varieties, this is exactly what I plan to do with the clematis I planted last year at the new trellis. It’s only my height and I’m no basketball player.

I’m looking forward to more original tips from Vita. Regarding clematis, however, I expect her to say something like plant ground cover or other plants at the base the keep the roots of the clematis cool. This suggestion has been circulating since before Vita’s time, and yet it is a myth. These plants start out at the nursery in full sun in black plastic pots with no problem and are still in these hot pots at the garden centre when you buy them.

Clematis have no more reason to prefer cool roots than any other plant. Adding plants at the base only results in competition for nutrients. What they do like is consistent moisture in the root zone and this is best achieved by keeping that area mulched.

Another long-standing myth regarding clematis is to add lime to raise the pH value, making the soil more alkaline. This would be fine if that’s what the poor plant needed. The soil in this area is generally neutral, 7.0 on the pH scale. Clematis grow simply fine here, yet they do prefer slightly acidic soil, as low as 6.2, so forget about adding lime.

I don’t know if Vita added lime to her soil, and I can’t ask her, but the clematis grow magnificently at Sissinghurst garden there, like everything else. Visiting isn’t possible and may not be for some time, but at least I can follow the story on Twitter.

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