– 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 Group
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…
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 Group
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!)
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/
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!
Hi Sandy – Lee Reich did a nice article a few years ago (Fine Gardening) on pruning requirements for the various groups of clematis, plus a linked article on which species/cultivars fall into which group. Not sure if this will hyperlink or not, may need to cut ‘n’ paste:
http://www.finegardening.com/pruning-clematis