Uncommon Clematis

– Holly Scoggins

Here’s a couple of clematis (clemati?) you may not be familiar with. Both are easy to grow but differ from the more common large-flowered form. There is a great deal of hybridization within the genus, so many cultivars are placed within “groups” rather than described as a cultivar of the species.

Clematis ‘Princess Diane’
Texensis GroupClematis 'Princess Diana' in the author's garden.

Clematis ‘Princess Diana’ in the author’s garden.

Crossing a large-flower clematis cultivar with Clematis texensis (scarlet leather flower) resulted in this lily-shaped beauty. Pointy little buds open as four hot pink tepals; bright yellow stamens grace the center. The buds on this rebloomer just keep coming; mine has been blooming for 40 days at this point and doesn’t seem to be slowing down. The princess seems pretty happy in her part-shade (sun in the afternoon) situation in my garden.I swear there's a lovely wire tuteur under there...

I swear there’s a lovely wire tuteur under there…

 

Some catalogs/sites describe ‘Princess Diana” as reaching only 8’ in length; mine’s wrapped up and down a 6’ tall tuteur/trellis thingy at least 4 times. Guess I need a bigger tuteur (doesn’t everybody?). Cold hardiness seems to be up for discussion – some sources state USDA Zones 6 to 9, others 4 to 8 (I’m a solid 6a here in the mountains of SW Virginia, recently warmed-up from 5b).

Various pruning strategies are associated with different groups of clematis. This one dies back to the ground and blooms on new wood, so I just cut it back in early spring to clean last year’s vines out of the wire supports.

Clematis xdiversifolia ‘Blue Boy’
Herbaceous/Integrifolia GroupClematis 'Blue Boy' scrambles through a deciduous azalea.

Clematis ‘Blue Boy’ scrambles through a deciduous azalea.

‘Blue Boy’ is one of the herbaceous clematis, resulting from a hybrid of Clematis integrifolia and C. viticella. Multiple stems arise from the crown and scramble, flop, and otherwise meander through and over anything in the vicinity. Lovely blue-violet blooms festoon the stems from early June through frost (“festoon” is one of my favorite words – need more opportunities to use it!)

Nice contrast to the ornate foliage of Ligularia japonica.

The rosy stems contrast nicely with the ornate foliage of Ligularia japonica.

Despite its delicate appearance, this is a very tough and cold-hardy (Zone 3!) clematis. Enjoy all summer, and then chop ‘Blue Boy’ back with the rest of your die-back perennials in winter.

Linked is a wonderful, detailed piece by Julie Lane-Gay on the herbaceous clematis group:
http://www.pacifichorticulture.org/articles/better-in-relationship-herbaceous-clematis/

 

2 thoughts on “Uncommon Clematis”

  1. I guess we’ve gotten so taken by the big blue “mailbox” clematis that we’ve forgotten these more delicate flowers that actually look better. A question if I may… does the rule here for pruning (blooms on new growth so cut to the ground in late winter to early spring) apply to all the clematis? I have one unknown variety that I desperately need to prune but it’s such a tangle on the fence that I’ve put it off. Now it’s just a jungle. I’ll have to check to see if it blooms on new wood or old wood and get brave this year. (It’s at our rental house so I don’t check it often to know which type of blooms it produces.) PS… Love the new website, and welcome to all the new writers!

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