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Vines are the wildest, least civilized, most untamed and untamable of the flora kingdom. They are ramblers, scramblers, climbers and literally choke other plants out of existence with their tenacious ways. If you’ve ever driven down a highway along the south eastern part of the USA you’ll know how destructive a vine out of control can be. There are solid tracks of the dreaded Woodbine (Wild Lonicera), Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) and the more infamous and fearsome the Kudzu vine covering every inch of hillsides and swallowing up strong, well-established trees and shrubs until they die screaming a painful death. All right, so I haven’t actually heard any plant screaming but it can’t be a pretty way to go!
Alas, vines have to do this to survive. They started out in the deep, dark, hot and humid jungles of the world and needed to claw their way to the top for what little sun they could get at. They just never learned to become as refined as their hybridized cousins. The killer instinct or rather the survival instinct is still much alive within them. Massive efforts are undertaken every year to eradicate invasive vines and you want to know how to propagate them? Gees, what are you thinking?
Don’t worry. I know exactly what you’re thinking. You think you can control your vines, keep them in check and besides you only want “nice” vines, the civilized hybrids of which I spoke. You want Trumpet vines, Wisteria, Honeysuckle, Mandevilla, and of course, the Queen of the Vine world. You want a Clematis.
Vines are super easy to propagate as you can well imagine. They pretty much do it on their own but the Clematis is different. It is a persnickety thing, I must tell you. It needs its head in the sun but its roots need to stay shady cool (mulch 4 inches deep or a thick-growing ground cover around the base helps). It likes to be fed consistently and pruned delicately. It can’t be dry but heaven forbid if it should get soggy! It requires things just right, just like Goldilock’s bear friends.
Being it is a perennial, in theory one should be able to dig up the plant, once the weather cools in the fall, and divide it as you would any other plant. But we are talking about a Clematis and frankly I used to be afraid to breath to loudly around them for fear of them shriveling up in dismay. I did say they were persnickety. The only way I have heard of propagating these plants is by layering. This method is easy and most effective for vines. My Honeysuckle does it all on its own, the little darling! It creeps along the ground and roots all along the way. That’s how I get so many Honeysuckle plants to give away to friends.
Just take a stem of the Clematis very carefully off its trellis making certain it is still attached to the plant. Lay it down on the soil making certain the joint where you find a leaf meets the ground. Now cover this with soil and hold it down with a rock or brick. Within two months or so it should have rooted. At that point you can sever the connection to the mommy plant and pot this little treasure. Now you can treat it like the baby it is. You are the proud mama or daddy of a new Baby Clematis. Congratulations!
I’m not much for following rules so I must confess that I had to see for myself if I could divide my Baltyk, Clematis ( a beautiful, large-flowering lavender-blue). You see, when someone tells me I can’t do something instead of slumping off in defeat I take it as a challenge. My garden is my Laboratory and me, Dr. Frankenstein. I dug up the vine leaving a good bunch of roots still in its place and replanted the rest. If it grows back next year I’ll know it can be propagated by root division. I’ll let you know how things work out.
In the mean time try the layering for all vines of which you want more. This method works well with shrubs too. Happy propagating!
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Author Bio Box: Glory Lennon
 For more garden talk, funny short stories and romantic novel excerpts visit http://www.helium.com/users/32782
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