Clematis Carousel

As a flowering group I find Clematis hard to beat. Even their seed heads are beautiful as this picture of C. 'Nelly Moser' shows. From tiny, delicate flowers to large, blowsy dinner plate blooms, they add effortless height to my borders. With some judicious choosing and placing, I manage to have Clematis in bloom every month of the year.

I currently have the following Clematis in flower - these came into flower during July and are still going strong:

Clockwise from top left:

1. C. 'Souvenir du Capitaine Thuilleaux' (2nd flush) 2. C. 'Arabella' (in bloom from May to October usually) 3. C. 'The President' (2nd flush) 4. C. 'Polish Spirit' 5. C. 'Crystal Fountain'? (2nd flush) 6. C. 'Kermesina' - stubbornly flowering on the other side of the fence at the moment 7. C. alpina 'Francis Rivis' - this spring flowering Clematis always seems to bloom again for me 8. C. 'Hagley Hybrid' (2nd flush) 9. C. 'Jackmanii Superba'

From November to March/April, Clematis cirrhosa 'Balearica' is my sole flowerer. Soon it will be joined by its relative, 'Freckles'. I'm growing them on a sheltered, west facing wall, which encourages a prolonged season of flowering. They're different to most Clematis, being evergreen and with a fluted, almost oak-like leaf. I chose 'Balearica', not only because of its winter interest, but also because I've been volunteering as a freshwater biologist on a wetland project in Mallorca, so it's a reminder of happy times out there.

From March to May Clematis montana var. Rubens 'Elizabeth' (opposite) and C. Alpina 'Francis Rivis' (see above) hold the show. The latter has draped itself over a Corkscrew Hazel (Corylus avellana 'Contorta'), thus adding interest to this tree during its dull, leafy phase. During May, my Clematis display really gets going - these will flower until the end of June:

Clockwise from top left:

1. C. 'Guernsey Cream' 2. C. 'Miss Bateman' 3. C. 'Dorothy Walton' 4. C. 'Elsa Spath' & C. 'Hagley Hybrid' 5. C. 'Ville de Lyon' 6. C. 'Daniel Deronda' 7. C. 'Josephine' 8. C. 'Nelly Moser' 9. C. 'Josephine', C. 'Souvenir du Capitaine Thuilleaux' & mystery Clematis

So now we're back to the current display shown at the start of this post, which have been flowering since July. These will be joined later in August by others such as C. 'Elsa Spath' and C. 'Josephine'. 'Elsa Spath' in particular flowers late on into the year - last year, only the hard frosts experienced at the end of November bought its flowershow to an end and by then, C. cirrhosa 'Balearica' was ready to take over the baton.

My mystery Clematis









This is my floosiest of them all and I adore it. It's meant to be C. 'Crystal Fountain', but the flowers are nothing like those shown on the label. I can't match it with any other Clematis in the catalogues either. Can you help?

I have 30 varieties of Clematis spread over my front and back gardens. I've had to employ a little ingenuity to fit in the last 9 of them. I not only wanted to have more Clematis in the garden, I also wanted to add height to some of my borders. My solution was to buy 3 obelisks and to have 3 Clematis of the same pruning group grow up each of them.

We also have a lot of bare fences with no soil in which to grow plants. I've been experimenting with growing some potted Clematis up these. Success has been variable so far - 'Miss Bateman' has decided she'd prefer to trail rather than grow up the trellis provided! 'Polish Spirit' shown in the first collage has been much more successful though.

Do you have a favourite flowering plant group? Tell me about it...

Update - September 2008
The esteemed Raymond Evison has solved the case of my mystery Clematis. It's a sport - you may like to read more about it here. It turns out I have not one, but two new Clematis in my garden!