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Memoriam
S SE ECCTTIIOON N 1 1 –– Y YO OUUR R S SO OCCIIEETTY Y
From Your Editor, Brian Collingwood
elcome to The Clematis 2013 Once again I am greatly indebted to everyone who has contributed in whatever way, at home or from overseas, to this 2013 Edition of our Society’s annual Journal, The Clematis. I would particularly like to thank all Authors, especially the new ones, once more; every single script is greatly appreciated. Also, many thanks to those who have generously contributed their best images – for plants, of course, a picture really does paint a thousand words.
To all who read this Edition, whether your particular appreciation is in the growing, breeding, propagation, history or even the more technical aspects of Clematis, I hope you will find something of interest and enjoyment in these pages
This year’s Journal summarises the affairs of the Society over the past year, followed by a wide range of original articles, touching on many aspects of the culture and the enjoyment of clematis. As in previous issues, several excellent contributions have been penned by everyday gardeners or unsung BCS members – no formal expertise required –so if you have something to say about clematis, please do let me know and I will gladly include as much as possible, for the enjoyment of other members, here in our Journal.
How fortunate we are, as a Society, to have a generous number of selfless individuals dedicated to the organisation and advancement of our Regional Groups, which continue to grow and flourish as a result of their efforts. Local Groups allow members to get together for great clematis and other days out, without the need for lengthy travel and the associated costs. In this Edition of The Clematis, Sue Reade summarises some of the many activities undertaken by the BCS Northern Group, since its inception; continuing the theme, Josie Hulbert’s report presents a typical enjoyable Midlands Group garden visit, on this occasion a pleasurable day looking over the clematis at Meadow Farm
The prototype BCS Facebook page was launched last September: the aim is to try to build further awareness of the Society, on the internet. In due course this may help increase our membership. Development is at an early stage but results so far have been encouraging, with several new joiners, already. To all new Members reading these lines, the BCS extends the warmest of welcomes into our Society.
I hope you enjoy reading this year’s Edition of The Clematis as much as I have enjoyed compiling it. It only remains for me to wish all readers and their loved ones health, happiness and the very best of good fortune for the remainder of 2013, and beyond.
Brian Collingwood
Articles for TheClematis2014:please send to B. Collingwood, by post or email: bcollingwood@ntlworld.com. Hand-written submissions are most welcome. 600 words are suitable for a shorter article. If submitting technical articles, please include explanation that will aid the lay reader.
COPYRIGHT OWNERSHIP OF THE CONTENT OF THIS PUBLICATION RESIDES WITH THE RESPECTIVE AUTHOR OR AUTHORS. THE REPRODUCTION OF ANY PART IS FORBIDDEN WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION PLEASE CONTACT THE EDITOR FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
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The British Clematis Society
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Membership runs from January 1st to December 31st each year
Single Membership Family Membership
Personal membership 2 persons at same address
UK £20.00
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Application to join should be made to:
The Membership Secretary, Linda Crowther 11, Norton Mandeville, Ingatestone, Essex CM4 0LN. Tel 01277 822883 email: ljc.1@btinternet.com
Cheques payable to ‘The British Clematis Society’ Overseas payments by Eurocheque, Bank Draft, International Money Order (in Sterling), Internet (Paypal)
Or simply use your credit card at our Website http://www.britishclematis.org
If you might be interested in assisting the BCS in any of these positions, either now or in the future, please telephone the Chairman, Charne Griffiths, for an informal chat.
All other matters which do not fall into the areas of responsibility set out above, please contact the Chairman, Charne Griffiths, see page 3 for details.
Chairman’s Notes 2013
Charne Griffiths
TThe Society once again started the year with a ‘winter visit’ – this time to John Massey’s garden, in Staffordshire; a good sized group attended. A number of members had travelled a fair distance to attend, notwithstanding the winter weather. Despite the rain, everyone enjoyed the many interesting plants, and took advantage of the delicious food in the tea rooms; some bought plants from the nursery and visited the shop. At the end of the garden visit, Committee members managed to fit in a meeting that had been postponed from January (due to snow). We were able to gather in a lecture room, close to John’s house – he even supplied us with hot drinks!
Our 2013 Spring Meeting & AGM was held on 6th April, at Pershore. Denise MacDonald retired from the Committee after nine years of great service, including three years as Chairman. She has continued to work on behalf of the Society since the spring and we are very grateful. We are indebted for all who continue to work for the Society, even though they may have now formally retired from Committee. Keith Shortland was elected to Committee and has agreed to be the new Trials Grounds coordinator.
Liz Gibbison then gave a fascinating talk about running a clematis nursery and, after lunch, there was an opportunity to explore potting, seeds, cuttings and plugs. Everyone seemed to go home with a collection of small pots!
The BCS was represented at the 2013 Malvern Spring Show but it was not possible for the Society to participate in any other major show this year. However, a modest Clematis Festival was held at Sunbury, and Denise and Alec MacDonald, along with Sylvia Currie, went to Holland. Other members have promoted the BCS through sessions at other venues and by giving talks and demonstrations – every opportunity to promote the society is important, because we gain more members through personal contact and by recommendation.
The middle of July saw a visit to the Rose Society Gardens, in St Albans. This was a good time to see the roses in full bloom and help identify the clematis growing, here and there, among them. At the end of July, twenty members and partners enjoyed an interesting long weekend in the Isle of Wight, organised by Margaret Morris.
The Regional Groups once again had very full programmes of talks and visits – these groups allow many more members to take part in BCS events, as distance and travelling time are less than for national events – great thanks again to the group coordinators. Committee is planning to produce an amalgamated Calendar of Events in April 2014, so that it is easy to see what, when and where anything is happening.
Thanks to Keith Shortland for taking on the role of Trials Grounds coordinator – we are making progress on a possible venue; thank you also to Everett Leeds, for continuing to give his support and assistance in this area.
We now look forward to our Autumn Indoor Meeting, when the speakers will be Chris Cocks (Taylors Clematis Nursery) and Mike Warren.
Finally, I would like to thank everyone who has helped to support me, as I take on my new role. Since the BCS is run by volunteers, to keep it going, we need every member to play a part, no matter how small.
TREASURER’S ANNUAL REPORT RESULTS FOR THE YEAR TO 31 DECEMBER 2012
The Society made a surplus of £1,042 (2011: £1,314). Volunteers still continue to undertake the majority of day-to-day administration of Society affairs, which would be expensive to provide if the Society had to pay for external provision of these services.
Forecast for 2013
While the Society still continues to attract new members, in line with the majority of other Plant Societies’ experiences, membership numbers have fallen. The finances of the BCS still remain strong.
The Committee continues to monitor costs. The Society is faced with continuing changes and increased reporting requirements of our affairs, in line with our status as a Charity and the Society maintains specific reserves for such purpose. These summarised accounts do not contain sufficient information to allow for a full understanding of the financial affairs of the Society. Copies of the Trustees’ Annual Report, Independent Examiner’s report and Full Accounts can be obtained from the Treasurer: Peter Hargreaves, Grafton Cottage, Barr Lane, Barton under Needwood, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, DE13 8AL.
peter.hargreaves@smithcooper.co.uk
BRITISH CLEMATIS SOCIETY
MINUTES OF THE 23rd ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD AT PERSHORE COLLEGE, SATURDAY 6th APRIL 2013
1. Attendance – 72 members and their guests were warmly welcomed by the Chairman, Denise MacDonald.
(a) Apologies for Absence were received from Vicki Matthews, Betty Stothard, Paula Stothard and those sending proxy votes.
(b) Proxy Votes Received. 23 members returned proxy votes, which nominated the chairman as proxy. A list of those members sending proxy votes was made available at the meeting.
2. Minutes The minutes of the 22nd AGM, held on 14th April 2012, having previously been published in the 2012 Journal, were agreed by those present to be an accurate record and were signed off by the Chairman.
Matters arising The Chairman advised that such matters would be covered during the course of the meeting.
3. Chairman’s Address National events
Early in the year Val Le May Neville-Parry held two open days for members to see her fantastic Clematis Montana Group National Collection, well worth the journey to the New Forest, Hampshire. In July we had a splendid two day visit to Lancashire, first to Gresgarth Hall, a quiet and peaceful garden with lots of clematis and then to Richard and Joy Hodson’s Hawthornes Nursery and Gardens with his Viticella Group Collection and a chance to buy clematis – throughout the year Richard has shown us an A-Z selection of Viticella Clematis in the BCS Newsletter
The Autumn Indoor Meeting
The Autumn Indoor Meeting was held at Cambridge, with great speakers Tom HartDyke – taking us on his plant hunting adventures round the world, and Fergus Garrett, showing us wonderful colour plant combinations from the gardens at Great Dixter, both past and present day.
Local Groups
We had an active year, with the local groups attracting good attendances to their many interesting and varied events. The Northern group visited open gardens, Thornton Hall NT, Millgate House in Richmond, and Erddig, N. Wales, also N.T; The Midlands group included visits to private and Yellow Book open gardens, Hidcote and members’ gardens. The East Anglian group enjoyed gardens in Cambridge, Chelmsford and Boyton Cross. The Wessex Spring meeting was well attended and several local members held open days in their gardens. We repeated the winter meeting, this year at John Massey’s Garden where about 60 members, who braved the adverse weather conditions, were conducted round the garden by John himself.
Trials Grounds
Everett Leeds and his team gathered at Wisley Trials ground for the last time, to clear the clematis, all of which have found new homes; some donated to the Ventnor Botanic Garden and some to Burford House Garden, both undergoing restoration. We have been offered several new sites for the Trials Ground. We need to find a new team of judges and a decision will be made depending on where volunteers are located. Keith Shortland has agreed to act as Co-ordinator. Both the Royal National Rose Society and Marcus Eyles at Burford House are keen to take advice from BCS, to improve their Clematis collections.
Publications
Bernard Allen has now completely updated all the information leaflets and booklets. Bernard has indicated that he would like to step down from this post and will train up his two volunteers. Brian Collinwood produced yet another excellent edition of our journal The Clematis and has set up a BCS Facebook page, with ever-changing pictures and news, and links to our website. This has attracted some new members. Jack Gittoes continues to keep us informed with the quarterly Newsletters.
Shows
BCS had stands at Malvern, Ardingly and Tatton, where all the Societies were poorly sited. These were disappointing this year, most days were very wet. We do not have anyone to lead the teams this year at both Tatton and Ardingly. We have been invited to take a stand at the Wisley Autumn Flower Show in September and are waiting for confirmation of our entry. The shows we do are a very important part of putting us in the public eye, new member recruitment and fulfilling our aims of encouraging gardeners to grow and enjoy clematis. We need leaders and volunteers to man stands at shows.
Display gardens
Helmsley: Unfortunately we have now ended our formal involvement at Helmsley, due to differences of ideals with the garden management, though we are still happy to offer
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advice if required. Sunbury: Sadly, during the year we lost William Davies, who was so instrumental in setting up the collection at Sunbury But the team of volunteers continues their care of the collection. Pruning will take place on 2nd March and the Festival will be held on June 22nd this year.
Seed exchange
A seamless handover (at least to the naked eye) of the seed exchange from Mike Brown to Paul Dunstan.
Membership
Our membership continues to shrink, as will be seen from Linda Crowther’s report. We must continue our efforts to recruit new members. Did you find one this year? It is the responsibility of every member to try. We must recruit new and younger members if we are to continue as a Society.
Committee
The new Committee Members have all settled in and I feel that I am leaving a strong team to the next Chairman. My grateful thanks to all the Committee members for their enthusiastic help and support, and to Charne Griffiths and Bernard Allen in their roles of Secretary and Vice Chairman, and to Richard Barker for his advice and patience, helping me with legal matters. I am pleased to report that Charne has agreed to stand as Chair and that Keith Shortland is standing as a Committee member. Please remember there will be more vacancies to fill next year –indeed, we still have a space this year. If you have been too shy so far, please do step forward – it is your Society. We can only continue to enjoy it if we all show our enthusiasm as active members. I also want to thank all the
volunteers who help out at shows, meetings such as this, those who run the local groups; and all those ‘in the background’, who are always there. Lastly, I would like to thank all Society Members for your support, over the last three years. Happy Clematis growing to you all, in 2013 and 2014.
Denise MacDonald
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On behalf of the BCS Everett Leeds expressed our thanks for the huge amount of work done by Denise. We were pleased to present Denise with a bouquet of flowers, to express our thanks.
4. Annual Accounts 2012
Abbreviated draft accounts were circulated with the February 2013 newsletter. Members were advised that final copies would be available at this meeting. Final approved accounts, signed off by the Independent Examiner were therefore circulated at the meeting. There being no queries or questions to the Treasurer, their adoption was proposed by Mike Brown and seconded by Everett Leeds. Passed unanimously.
5. Report of the Membership Secretary:
Linda Crowther reported that the total of paid up members was 439 but that there were 96 members unpaid to date. However there were 9 new members in the first three months of the year. It is a sad fact that membership numbers continue to drop; we are all fully aware that this is a general trend for all Societies, not just horticultural ones. Linda urged everyone to encourage their family and friends to join the Society, and hopefully there will be a more positive report to give in 2014.
6. Honorary Membership
As advised in the Agenda, the Executive Committee recommended that Josie Hulbert be considered for Honorary Membership in recognition of her invaluable services to the Society, over many years. The Society particularly wanted to thank her for setting up, organising and leading the Midlands Group, as well as the contributions she has made in many other ways to the development of the Society.
Proposed by Mike Brown, seconded by Valerie Nicoll.
Passed unanimously.
Josie receives Honorary Membership
Honorary Officers
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7. Trials Grounds Results: Everett Leeds presented Wim Snoeijer with the BCS Trials Awards for cultivars trialed in the last 3 years.
A Certificate of Merit (80% of possible marks) was presented for Clematis ‘Zostarri’ (STAR RIVER). Certificates of commendation (70% of possible marks) were awarded to Clematis ‘Zospi’ (SPIKY), Clematis ‘Zotwi’ (TWINKLE), and Clematis ‘Zohapbi’ (HAPPY BIRTHDAY).
8. Election of Officers
As there were no contested positions for election or re-election of committee members, it was agreed this would be dealt with in batches. The following motions were put to the membership:-
Hon Secretary Valerie Nicoll, 36 King William Drive, Charlton Park, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL53 7RP
Hon Membership Secretary Linda Crowther, 11 Norton Mandeville, Ingatestone, Essex CM4 0LN
Hon Treasurer Peter Hargreaves, Grafton Cottage, Barr Lane, Barton under Needwood, Burton on Trent, Staffordshire DE13 8AL
Proposed by Val Adams, seconded by Heather Cromie. Passed unanimously. Committee Member
Keith Shortland, 3 Elm Grove, Milton under Wychwood, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire OX1 6EF
Proposed by Josie Hulbert, seconded by Annette Stevens. Passed unanimously.
Charne Griffiths again thanked Denise MacDonald, on behalf of the Committee and the Members, wholeheartedly, for all her work for the Society in her three years as Chairman and also for her contribution to the Society over the preceding six years.
The Chairman closed the Meeting at 11am.
The Day Clematis Came Into My Life
Massimo Mazzoni Italy massymassi@hotmail.com
y first experience with clematis takes me back about sixteen years. While growing up I spent a lot of time in the countryside with my grandparents and, from a young age, I’d always loved and appreciated everything about the world of plants – flowers in particular. One day, just by chance, I bought my first ever clematis, in a garden centre. I didn’t know clematis at all and, at the time, no-one else seemed to have any information or knowledge about them. However, for some reason I was instantly struck by the beautiful image on the plant label, so I decided to buy it and take it home, just to see how it would grow in a larger pot – then I would no doubt learn and understand a little more about what kind of plants clematis are.
Even just a couple of months after transplanting, it was evident just how tenacious the plant was, clinging to any support which it happened across, in the vicinity. Soon, the first flower buds appeared and, by and by, the first flowers – showy and very beautiful! I was stunned by the vigour and elegance of the plant and the captivating splendour of its flowers.
By the winter, however, and to my great despair, the entire plant seemed to have shrivelled up and lost all signs of life and I resigned myself to having to clear the pot out, before spring. One day, however, before I had gotten round to actually doing it, my mother shouted to me from the garden ‘Massimo, have you seen that dead plant? It’s got big green buds on it!’ I immediately went out to have a look and to my complete surprise and utter delight there really were swollen, fat, green buds, dotted here and there on the ‘dead’ old vines!
Before long, a cloud of beautiful pink flowers completely blanketed the foliage. It was amazing and I was ecstatic. It was at that moment that I realised how much I already adored clematis and their wonderful charms.
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From that day onwards, learning about these marvelous plants, and searching for new-to-me varieties – to increase my private collection –has been continuous. At present, I grow about forty different cultivars in the garden: for reasons of space, the majority of them are in pots, however, with a little care, the results are very satisfactory indeed.
Over the years I've learned a lot about growing clematis in my location and climate – so I’ve been able to give good tips and suggestions to anyone I’ve met, who is
The Clematis 2013 interested in growing clematis. For example, in our latitudes, winters are quite cold and summers very hot, so the best thing, always, is a position of partial shade. The plants get the warming morning sun for a few hours but avoid too much exposure to baking hot sunshine. The soils in our area are predominantly heavy, with clay – we therefore need to be careful in the selection of plants and mindful of the best way to amend the soil at planting time. The varieties that do best in our climatic conditions are the Viticellas, however, with a little care, we can get very good results from all clematis, even in the warmer regions and the areas around the coasts.
In the summer, in the interior of Italy – more or less everywhere – we are swamped with Clematis vitalba and, in some locations (where left wild and uncontrolled) it can become a real invasive pest. It is ubiquitous, from the countryside to the mountains! In open country and in other sunny areas Clematis flammula is found almost as frequently – great masses of billowing, delicately fragrant white flowers, a beauty so natural yet so magical to the eye.
As a result of my passion for clematis, together with the help of my parents, some sacrifices along the way and with the enormous benefit of a small piece of land owned by my grandparents, we have achieved the goal of constructing a small clematis nursery, at our home. We grow around 1,500 plants per season. Great thanks in this regard are owed to Wim Snoeijer for his willingness, dedication and patience; all of our clematis liners come directly from the J. van Zoest nursery, in the Netherlands.
One special September day, when we received our first ever batch of liners in 9cm pots, it was like a dream come true and I knew we were taking the first steps on a long road.
My day job is in a supermarket but I spend most of my free time in the nursery – for me I suppose it's almost like having a second job but, at the same time, the nursery gives us all great hope for the future and each day we have the pleasure of working and living with these beautiful plants.
At our nursery we take great pride in sharing our passion for clematis with all our customers, in a friendly and genuinely enthusiastic way. Our ultimate goal is to introduce as many people as possible to the world of clematis, so that they too might share in the same passion that we ourselves have come to know and love. massymassi@hotmail.com
’ll return, shortly, as to why I ultimately came to join the British Clematis Society but, thinking back, I believe the seed of my passion for this lovely (and occasionally infuriating) group of plants was sowed quite unconsciously, many years before.
As I remember it, one sunny Sunday afternoon, my husband, children and I went for a drive out; we saw a garden centre and decided to stop – probably due to someone wanting to use a toilet, as garden centres usually have one. I have no idea how long ago this was, but it must have been at the time Raymond Evison was working for Treasures of Tenbury, or perhaps soon after he left. Treasures was the garden centre we had stopped at.
Near the entrance to the shop my husband pointed to a small display of very large flowering clematis (at this point I doubt I even knew they were clematis). Well, I can tell you, they must have really been something to stop my husband in his tracks, as, at the time, neither of us had much interest in gardening. With four children bounding around – and two dogs digging – in the piece of land at the back of our house, our ‘garden’ was a cross between a very lop-sided football pitch and a racing track – not a garden!
The image of those plants always stayed with me, locked away somewhere. I know the memory can play tricks with you as the grey cells get a little bit worn and weary but these blooms really did seem ‘as big as dinner plates’. There were several large whites and a few very showy pink and white striped, together with a deep velvety red plant. Never, since, have I seen such large flowers.
Sadly, as I was not a gardener at that time, I did not take note of the names of the plants but, over the years, I have
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often wondered which they could have been, and, with a little research, I have come up with a few ideas.
Could the white one have been C. ‘Edith’? I have thought about this because, at the time, ‘Edith’ was also a much loved aunt, and this may have stuck with me, in my subconscious
Raymond Evison named this clematis for his mother, introducing it in 1974 –this was the year we got married, so the date fits and the plant would have been on the open market for the next several years after that. ‘Edith’ is quite a large white; early flowering, in May/June. I know it’s hard to believe now, but May and June were often sunny, then!
Now onto my thoughts about the showy striped plant – this, I think, could have been C. ‘Carnaby’; this ‘flashy little number’ was introduced by Treasures of Tenbury in 1983. I believe it was introduced as an alternative to C. ‘Bees Jubilee’, which had been on the market since 1958. ‘Bees Jubilee’ was introduced as a ‘more modern’ version of ‘Nelly Moser’, which had been on the market since 1887. The growers of the time probably thought they may supersede old ‘Nelly’? Well, they were wrong if they did: when was the last time you saw a C. ‘Bees Jubilee’ or C. ‘Carnaby’ in your average garden centre? I bet ‘Nelly’ is still there, though. Not that I am saying ‘Nelly Moser’ is the better choice, as, personally, I can’t grow her for more than a couple of seasons without losing her. Again, though, the time frame fits, when I may well have been out and about on a Sunday afternoon, with the family. C. ‘Carnaby’ also flowers in May/June.
This brings me onto the red clematis. This is a little trickier, as this flower is not as vivid in my memory as the other two, but the impression that did stick firmly in mind was the velvety texture C. ‘Niobe’ is dark red and velvety (I love her, even though, over the years, she has often played ‘now you see me one year and now you don’t the next’). Introduced in 1975, I can find no direct link between her and Treasures, but she was a very popular plant at the time and, to this day, remains on the market – she could well have been the third in my trio. Again, flowers are produced in May/June.
Now I can hear lots of you saying ‘Josie, those three are not as large as dinner plates!’ Well, that’s as may be, in a normal garden centre, but remember, we are talking about a much renowned clematis centre, which had access to all kinds of the latest growing supplements and facilities. Naturally, they would have put out the biggest and best blooms they could, to entice the public into parting with their hard earned cash.
The question remains: had the seed of my passion already been set, many years earlier? The next time I saw such a fine display (in 1992) it led me to become a member of the BCS. It’s a question that, for me, must forever remain unanswered!
Even if I am wrong in my guesses, wouldn’t they make a fine display, growing together in a garden? So, out with your spade, and see for yourself!
My Father’s Clematis Garden in Canada
Edward J. Gilbert, Thunder Bay, Canada edwardgilbert@shaw.ca
MMy father, Douglas Edward Gilbert (1916-2009) was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent but came to Canada with his family in the 1920s. When he was age 16 he began a career as a rose grower, in commercial greenhouses, a profession he continued until the 1960s, before opening a retail shop.
His hobby throughout his working life and after his retirement, in 1975, was gardening. He had a lovely greenhouse for propagating plants and his gardens were spectacular. The local newspaper sent a photographer out one year to my dad’s home to take pictures of his gardens, which were published in the paper along with a brief article about his love of gardening. When he moved further north in 1983 to live with me in Thunder Bay, he continued his passion for gardening and, a few years later, won a City Beautification Award for his accomplishments. At the presentation ceremony a slide show of his gardens was given, featuring a lovely selection of views of his clematis, roses and other garden beauties. His award Certificate hangs in a place of pride in my home and is a constant reminder of the many enjoyable hours my father and I spent together, working in his garden.
Thunder Bay is a city of some 112,000 people, located in the Province of Ontario, on the north shore of the largest lake in Canada, Lake Superior. We are fortunate, for the lake moderates our climate and puts us in the 4a climate zone when all around us is the colder zone 3b. This allowed my father to grow plants here much as he did when he lived much further south, although winter frost can penetrate to four feet. The winter climate, especially freeze and thaw and refreeze cycles, are hard on plants, if special precautions are not taken. For clematis, my father would cover the ground around the plants with a thick layer of straw or leaves and although this helped to protect the plants’ roots, he always lost a few each season and had to purchase replacements. The daily range of temperature is from 17.6° C in July to -14.8° C in January. We get plenty of sun;
in fact, the Thunder Bay area gets more bright sunshine than most of the locations to the east.
Douglas E. Gilbert, 1985
My father used to make his own trellis and he would arrange them in various spots around the house exterior, to take advantage of the best lighting and temperature conditions. I still remember the purple clematis he grew on two trellises he’d installed against the fence, in our patio, when we lived in southern Ontario. They were always a mass of bloom and they obviously appreciated the protected location.
Among the cherished gardening relics he left is a book entitled The Complete Book of Garden Magic by Roy E. Biles, first published in 1947, purchased from the Dominion Seed House in Georgetown, Ontario. Dad’s name is written in the book along with the date - 1955. Another relic is a scrapbook he began in about 1970, into which he pasted various newspaper articles about gardening. In preparation for this piece, I looked through his scrapbook and found two articles he had saved about clematis. The first was entitled Clematis is a beautiful flowering vine and states: ‘Add variety and colour to your garden this year. Plant flowering vines. Clematis is one of the most beautiful flowering vines’ says T. J. Blom, Ontario ministry of agriculture and food horticulturist. ‘Clematis is a shrubby, deciduous winter-hardy climber with striking flowers and leaves of three leaflets. The flowers, which consist of four to six sepals, are usually pink, purple, red or white. This unusual plant is a native of China, although there is one type which is common in the Niagara Peninsula (this is in southern Ontario). They are available at most garden centres and should be planted now, in an area which receives five to six hours of sunlight. This plant prefers shade at the base of the vine but the top of the plant can take quite a bit of sun. However it is not advisable to plant vines on the south side of the house. Because Clematis vines are deep-rooted, they should be planted at least 1-1/2 feet deep, on a trellis or wire support. The vines grow very quickly and attach themselves easily to a trellis or other types of support. New vines should be pruned to eight inches at planting.’ The article goes on to cover other culture matters and gives further tips for success in the growing of clematis.
The next article in my dad’s scrapbook is dated September 25th 1982, just a year before he moved to Thunder Bay to live with me, and was entitled Colourful clematis has
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numerous uses. The article, in part, says ‘So widely grown is Clematis‘Jackmanii’, whose velvety-purple blooms are borne in profusion in late spring and throughout most of the summer, that some assume it is the only variety that can be grown.’ This is the (purple) variety that my dad grew most often. Another clematis grown in our area, as mentioned in the article, is Clematis paniculata (now C. terniflora), ‘...popularly known as the Sweet Autumn Clematis.’
The author continues by saying ‘The large-flowered clematis boast an unusual array of colours, including a very deep, ruby red one named ‘Niobe’, which was introduced last year.’
Photo from 2000, showing two trellises in our patio, on which dad grew clematis
‘Other fine reds are ‘Ville de Lyon’, ‘Voluceau’ and ‘Crimson Star’. Outstanding pink varieties include ‘Nelly Moser’, ‘John Warren’, ‘Lincoln Star’ and ‘Bees’ Jubilee’; among the whites there are ‘Henryi’, ‘Duchess of Edinburgh’ and ‘Mevrou Le Coultre’.
Photo of our home in Thunder Bay, 1985, showing the trellis on which my dad grew a pink clematis
‘Good blue and purple kinds, in addition to ‘Jackmanii’, are ‘Lady Betty Balfour’, ‘Edomurasaki’ BLUE BIRD, ‘Mrs PT James’, ‘Will Goodwin’ and ‘General Sikorski’. The article concludes with growing tips and some news about recent introductions.
At the rear of the house was dad’s ‘English Garden’. He did not grow any clematis in that part of the garden – mostly shrubs, perennials and a variety of annuals, as the location was always in full sun.
I hope you enjoyed reading about my father’s gardening experiences and his love of clematis and a wide variety of other plants. He was known locally as ‘the man with green
Photo from 2000 – my father’s ‘English Garden’ fingers’ and seemed to be able to grow just about anything and everything. Although the rose was my dad’s favourite flower he always felt that his garden was not at its best unless it contained a wide selection of various cultivars of clematis.
Due to old age and ill health, dad had to hang up his gardening tools for the last time in 2006, after which time I maintained the garden, under his direction. It still looks lovely today, but nowhere near as nice as when he was in charge. Dad now rests in the Aurora Cemetery, Ontario, surrounded by beautiful plants, shrubs and trees – a fitting place of repose for a man who, lifelong, loved gardens, and gardening, so very much.
Bibliography
The Complete Book of Garden Magic Roy E. Biles: Herbert Jenkins Limited, 1947 ASIN: B0007E20W0
[Ed.Thisbooknowavailableagain,throughAmazon]
Early Large-Flowered Hybrids
Richard Munday UK rmmunday@yahoo.com
IIhave always loved the early large flowered hybrids with their ‘dinner-plate’ sized blooms: the big ‘stripeys’ such as ‘Nelly Moser’, ‘Doctor Ruppel’, ‘Fireworks’ , ‘Mrs N. Thompson’; the dark blues and purples, for example, ‘The President’ , ‘Lord Nevill’ , ‘Elsa Späth’ , ‘Lasurstern’ and the pale blues, for instance, ‘Mrs Cholmondeley’ Imagine my surprise, on joining the BCS, to find that some people were discouraging people from planting them, because they can be difficult! A bit like going to church and discovering that the people there don’t believe in God! Yes they can get wilt, they sometimes disappear without trace after winter, they require a framework to grow on and can also ‘sulk’ for long periods – nevertheless, a well grown plant has an almost tropical exuberance that makes one forgive their faults. I’ve also found that mycorrhizal fungi (sold as ‘Rootgrow’) makes a big difference as to how well they perform.
As I write this, in June, I have lovely plants of ‘Doctor Ruppel’ in full flower and, flowering for the first time, but absolutely magnificent, the big stripey ‘Akaishi’. Decent flowers on several others as well. The best plant I ever had was a ‘Fireworks’ that produced really huge blooms – up to 9” across, every year for about ten years; it never once wilted at all but alas, it finally succumbed during the long drought of 2011.
I’m not too sure exactly how I got into clematis; I remember my father had a few plants and he always kept a copy of the Fisk catalogue at home. In subsequent years I would have their latest catalogue sent to me and those sumptuous pictures of ‘Doctor Ruppel’, ‘Henryi’ and ‘Elsa Späth’, contained therein, got me well and truly hooked. Fisk’s 1962 book Success with Clematis describes plants in mouth-watering terms: of ‘Lasurstern’, Fisk says ‘A well grown plant will bear up to a hundred or more of these enormous and exotic blooms, each individual flower lasting up to six weeks’; of ‘Beauty of Worcester’, ‘a well grown plant will bear two or three hundred blooms from June to September’. The 1961 Fisk catalogue has the most amazing picture of a plant of ‘William Kennett’ displayed against a tile-hung cottage. Barry Fretwell’s 1989 book A Comprehensive Guide to Clematis describes a plant of ‘King Edward VII’ he had spotted in Devon – ‘fifteen feet wide and around twenty-five feet high, with flowers along the topmost growth and sheeted down to within ten feet of the ground’.
So, I have asked your Editor to appeal for pictures of these blooms from fellow BCS Members, as a reminder of some of the plants still cherished by so many clematis lovers.
‘Akaishi’ Richard Munday ‘Beauty of Worcester’ (double) J. Feltwell
‘Beauty of Worcester’ (single) J. Feltwell ‘Elsa Späth Everett Leeds
‘Elsa Späth Silver Star Vinery ‘Fireworks’ John Feltwell
‘Fireworks’ Richard Munday ‘Henryi’ Charlie Pridham
‘Henryi’ John Feltwell ‘King Edward VII’ Linda Beutler
‘King Edward VII’ John Feltwell ‘Lasurstern’ Bernard Allen
‘Lasurstern’ Linda Beutler ‘Lord Nevill’ Charlie Pridham
‘Lord Nevill’ John Feltwell ‘Mrs Cholmondeley’ Bernard Allen
‘Mrs Cholmondeley’ Bernard Allen ‘Nelly Moser’ Massimo Mazzoni
‘Nelly Moser’ Bernard Allen ‘Mrs N. Thompson’ Massimo Mazzoni
‘Mrs N. Thompson’ Massimo Mazzoni ‘The President’ Massimo Mazzoni
‘The President’ Massimo Mazzoni ‘Doctor Ruppel’ Richard Munday
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White Clematis in the Garden
Marie Holt Canada gb@gravelwatch.org
IIam a real lover of white in the garden, even though here in Elora, Ontario, Canada, I spend months of the year with snow. And so in addition to Dictamnus, Gillenia, Leucanthemum, lupins, roses and white balloon flowers, I am very fond of white, or even near white, clematis in my gardens. They really POP! against dark green foliage.
June:
‘Gillian Blades’; Group 2
I grow very few Group 2 clematis, but this one is a must for me. I was astonished to discover that when the flowers of this clematis begin to open, the sepals have a pale blue wavy edging. Gradually, the flowers turn to all white. Often there are late season blooms as well as the early ones.
Clematisrecta;Group 3
My new Clematis recta replaces the eighteen year old plant that was destroyed by chipmunks. The frothy blooms rise through a small obelisk and the stems are allowed to ramble freely through roses and other clematis nearby. Some people prefer to keep it
‘Gillian Blades’
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more rigidly contained. The foliage began as almost a burgundy colour, but later reverted to green. We shall see what happens as it matures.
‘Evipo003’ BLUE ICE; Group 2
This clematis is new to me. It is one of those grocery store finds that asked to come home with me. I much prefer plant shopping to grocery shopping! It did quite well in its first season with us.
‘Evipo021’ CHANTILLY; Group 2
CHANTILLY has very pale pink tones. This is another of my ever increasing ‘grocery store’ collection. After a short period of wilt, it produced some excellent blooms!
Clematisangustifolia(Syn. C.hexapetala); Group 3
This is a small replacement plant for me. Many years ago I discovered this clematis at a distant nursery. After moving to the countryside, I am lucky to have found it again! It is a small, very sweet plant that I grow among perennials.
‘Huldine’; Group 3
‘Huldine’ came from our previous house 15 years ago. I have had ‘Mary Rose’ weave through her much of that time. If forced to pick a favourite clematis, this may well be it! I love her ‘sophisticated simplicity’. Is that an oxymoron?
The reverse markings are gorgeous and the vine deserves a spot away from a trellis and wall – all the better to see them. At this point I dare not move her, though.
‘Maria Cornelia’; Group 3
‘Maria Cornelia’ is quite new here. She has a presence that is unique. I am ever so fond of her habit and find that she suits our country place well. I am charmed by her! I hope she is up to our harsh winters.
July
‘Alba Luxurians’; Group 3
‘Alba Luxurians’ is one of the earliest plants in my garden. She grows alongside ‘Romantika’ and they look quite fabulous together. What a contrast! Most springs she blooms before I realise it and that is because the first blooms in our chilly spring are green, like the foliage. As temperatures warm up, the blooms are white with green tips. Such fun! Both plants achieve a great size.
‘Little Nell’; Group 3
One of my first clematis purchases was ‘Little Nell’. I was visiting my son at university in Boston and we took a side trip to a clematis garden centre. I think that visit was the beginning of the addiction... ‘Little Nell’ is with me still, some twenty years later. I need to be careful about attaching her to a support because she would prefer to scramble along the ground, if left to her own devices.
Unnamed little clematis from seed; Group 3
I simply adore these tiny bells. I have several plants similar to this...all unnamed. I'm not sure how to use the plants well. For now they all live together.
‘Minuet’; Group 3
Half white, no? ‘Minuet’ has been a slow starter for me, but well worth the wait. I have had her for about four years now. She grows through a large Ninebark ‘Diabolo’ and puts on a great show, year after year. Masses of flowers, without fail, every time.
Clematisrecta
‘Evipo003’ BLUE ICE
‘Evipo021’ CHANTILLY Clematisangustifolia
‘Huldine’ ‘Maria Cornelia’
‘Alba Luxurians’ ‘Little Nell’
Unnamed clematis ‘Minuet’
‘Zoiamladyq’ I Am ® Lady Q (perhaps) TWINKLE
Clematiscampaniflora GAZELLE
FOREVER FRIENDS
Clematisterniflora
‘Huldine’ and ‘Mary Rose’
‘Zoiamladyq’ I Am ® Lady Q (perhaps); Group 3
What a fine grower. I am not sure where this plant came from. Perhaps it is a mislabeled plant. I am so happy to have her! She's only 2-3 years old now and I have been delighted by her remarkable show.
‘Zotwi’ TWINKLE; Group 3
New arrival this year! TWINKLE is supposed to have hints of pale blue. We shall see what develops. She has just been planted in our vegetable garden to overwinter there. Next spring I'll find her a permanent home!
Clematiscampaniflora; Group 3
This vine's blooms definitely have hints of blue. Such tiny flowers! I love it more and more, as the years pass. The plant is huge. Said to come from Portugal, I wonder what it looks like in the wild?
‘Evipo014’ GAZELLE; Group 3
A real favourite!
GAZELLE is another member of my ‘grocery store’ collection. I'm reminded of little birds in flight. So sweet! I'd look high and low for this one if ever it needed replacing.
FOREVER FRIENDS and ‘Tentel’
August
‘Zofofri’ FOREVER FRIENDS; Group 3
A special friend sent this clematis my way. It astonished me with rapid growth...then wilt. I refused to believe it could be lost. It regrew quickly and bloomed magnificently after that. This year it did the same thing. I am hoping that our severe drought was partly the cause. I am hopeful that next year it will skip the wilt stage entirely! It is blooming now in September and is so beautiful!
Clematisterniflora; Group 3
Always, always, masses of flowers! Rampant and billowing, known over here as ‘Sweet Autumn Clematis’. What a beauty.
There are other whites in our rural garden, but I also enjoy deep toned clematis. The two harmonise well, I think!
Clematis in a Small Garden in the North – Supports
Sue Reade UK sue.reade@uwclub.net
WWhen my garden was no longer needed as a place for children to play in, I began to reclaim it, bit by bit. One of my neighbours had put up a ghastly fence (which I’ll come back to, shortly) after I'd mentioned that a shot from their son's air rifle had hit my kitchen window! Thus began an extension of my clematis collection. I already had one –‘Nelly Moser’ – bought for me by my mother-in-law; she was well known for her love of clematis, amongst the family at least.
My plan was to cover the aforementioned fence, all year round and with this in mind I ventured over to Harry Caddick's place to buy four new plants. I bought a yellow one (not sure which) and ‘Semu’, which covered itself in flowers for a few years and then, to my horror, died, along with the yellow one! Two dead out of four was not particularly encouraging, however, ‘Princess Diana’ is still thriving and the last, C. cirrhosa ‘Wisley Cream’, gives me lots of brightness in the winter time. I put the latter on a metal obelisk, in another part of the garden and it’s my experiences with this aspect of growing clematis that prompted me to put down some thoughts about supports.
plenty of growth. A friend suggested pruning away every third stem; well, at the next flowering I had the most wonderful display, from November and all the way through to March. C. macropetala ‘Wesselton’ fought its way through and flowered well, but nothing much ever came of ‘Lasurstern’, poor thing. After a couple more years with only a very few flowers I decided to dig out the ‘Wisley Cream’ – and discovered that my obelisk was rotting away, underneath!
How do you go about replacing an obelisk? First, you find one, and then the fun starts! I decided on a wooden one: this turned out to be a mistake, especially when it got small rust coloured fungal spots on it. The suppliers did replace it, though, without question, however, in spite of the deployment of guy ropes, it still got blown right over by the wind. Help!
At this point, having thought long and hard, and after having looked everywhere for something suitable, I finally settled on having one made, bespoke. I found a local ‘smith’ and commissioned a simple design, 2m in height. I couldn’t see the point in paying extra for ornate decoration, as, once the clematis are growing, you can't see the finery anyway! The next door neighbours joked that it looked like a climbing frame for my grandson It was duly concreted in. It never moves, of course, however strong the winds. I wasn't too sure about the concrete bit, but it was only a small amount, poured into the hole, for the feet to go into.
In the meantime, I had tied my lovely C. macropetala ‘Wesselton’ to my archway and it was beginning to grow up and through it, so it would be a big job to move it onto the new support. Time was tight when my two youngest grandchildren appeared on the scene, so, my new structure ready and waiting, I finally found a morning to do the moving. I'm sure you experienced readers would have done what crossed my mind… but, instead, I moved the entire plant and tried to separate the stems. This, of course, proved to be a Herculean task, so I just tied the whole lot onto the obelisk and hoped to
find time to sort it out, later. I know I should have been brave, and simply chopped most of the growth off, instead of hanging on to it! The sorting-out bit still has to be done. However, I am very pleased indeed with the design; it's really easy to tie the stems into absolutely any position and at any height you want them, and at 2 metres high, I haven't run out of obelisk yet.
As for other types of support – more learning curves. I wouldn't buy another archway – I find they are usually just too narrow. In pots, I often use small stakes, as they look so natural, but canes are okay too, as, with a well established plant, the foliage completely hides the support. I don't care much for the metal ‘twisters’, for insertion into pots – I can't ever get them to stand at the perpendicular and I find the ready made metal ones quite awkward to work with. My garden is small, so growing plants in pots is the norm; fortunately, some time ago, another BCS member kindly gave me a large number of stakes; I am now quite sold on this method. It's adaptable to any size pot and the natural look is superb.
Along the fences I use standard wooden trellis – but have had them made with arched (rather than flat) tops, I think this helps display flowers better.
I find it's crucial to site new plants carefully and with forethought. I bought ‘Fascination’ and put it next to a fence, to replace a lost plant. After a couple of years, though, I dug it out, intending to give it away, as I was so disappointed with the display. Once in a pot, however, it was a different story – the flowers were suddenly so much more visible, instead of being lost in the sultry depths of a dark brown fence.
When tying in stems, don’t worry about every last one; any errant vines can then mingle, at their will, into the borders or through other plants, creating additional colour and interest. I once read that it would take two lifetimes to learn everything there is to know about horticulture. I'm beginning to realise that I may need that – just for my clematis.
Clematis – Tuscan Style
Massimo Mazzoni Italy massymassi@hotmail.com
Interesting insights into growing clematis in Italy. Massimo Mazzoni kindly answers some questions about his clematis nursery in beautiful Pescia, Tuscany.
WWhen did you first start growing clematis in your home town of Pescia, in Tuscany?
My very first experience with Clematis was about sixteen years ago. I bought a plant in a garden center, just because I was fascinated by the picture of the flower on the label. At that time I’d never seen such flowers and, in this region, very few people were at all familiar with clematis. So I decided to buy the plant and take it home, to grow it and see just what it would be like.
How did you discover your first clematis plants and how many do you now grow? I can't quite remember which the very first cultivar actually was, but what I recall very well was that in the first spring it produced an impressive cloud of pink flowers, above the lush green foliage. I was so entranced by the sheer effect, size and beauty of the flowers that I decided I had to read up and get to know a lot more about clematis in general. This was in the relatively early days of the internet and most of the available information was in English. Of course, our climate is completely different to yours, so some of the information was inapplicable; certainly it was difficult to find cultural information in my own language, or pertaining to local conditions. As I’ve said, clematis were not well known in these parts, so I started travelling around Italy, visiting any nurseries I could find that stocked any clematis; also, visiting horticultural shows that I came across, where clematis might be more important. Just how many miles I’ve travelled, up and down the length and breadth of Italy, ‘plant hunting’, I can’t tell you! Among the early plants, as you might expect, were ‘The President’, ‘Niobe’, ‘Miss Bateman’ and florida ‘Sieboldii’ (Clematis florida var. sieboldiana’). My love of clematis has continued to grow, over the years and, in tandem, the number of plants I am cultivating
VivaiodelleClematidifrom my kitchen window has steadily increased with time! So far, I have managed to collect about forty different cultivars, most of which I keep in pots (as space in the garden is limited) and, with care, they do very well. I’ve always enjoyed cultivating attractive flowering plants, but my interest in clematis gave me a big boost, and I decided to start my new adventure – our nursery, VivaiodelleClematidi– around two years ago. My full time job is in a supermarket and the nursery is a second job for me; nevertheless it represents a ‘dream
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come true’. With some sacrifices, and a lot of patience, I can spend part of each day working with my plants. Of course, all this doesn’t leave much free time, however, with the help of my parents, I am making steady progress.
In our little nursery we now grow about sixty different cultivars, covering a fairly wide range –‘Patens Group’, Viticellas, Texensis Group, Integrifolias, C. flammula, C. armandii and the various forms of C. florida. At this point I must give a big thank you to Wim Snoeijer for his helpfulness and patience, as, now, all our young stock liner plants are bought in from the J. van Zoest nursery, in the Netherlands.
What are your general climatic conditions, spring, summer, autumn, winter?
The seasons are much altered, in recent years. In central Italy, the frostiest winter months are January and February; spring only lasts for a short time and the cold winter quickly transforms into very hot summer weather. The intensity of the sun is very strong indeed, especially around midday. It is essential to site all the plants in garden or terrace areas where the sun cannot impinge directly, or, at most, where they can enjoy some direct sun, but only for a few hours, in the morning. Otherwise, the strong sunlight causes rapid burning and withering of the
In our tunnel we can quickly progress ‘liners’ from the young plant stage to adults ready for selling and planting out
In the greenhouse
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leaves, desiccating and thereby debilitating the plants and reducing their vitality. If overexposed, they don’t recover properly until the autumn, when the temperatures fall and the air becomes fresher.
In recent years we’ve had to steadily evolve our management of the plants, to get the best results. In the last few seasons the cooler winter temperatures have not manifested until very late on in the year – until mid December the temperatures have been mild, still, and the clematis continue to grow and flower throughout. We find, therefore, that things work best if the plants are not tidied or pruned until just at the very end point of the season – January to mid February. The plants begin growing again in spring and, if they are pruned back once more, in September, we can usually expect a second splendid flowering, over the course of a few months.
From this year’s Open Day
In my experience, the types that best withstand the heat are the hybrids of the Viticella Group, the Jackmanii-types and the Texensis Group. Early-flowering Patens-types are much more easily damaged, so we have to be extremely careful about light exposure –these plants can suffer badly, if we get it wrong. Cultivation in containers virtually guarantees excellent results because we can precisely control the location, conditions, light and moisture. Whether they are plastic or terracotta pots doesn’t seem to make any difference – in my experience the results are just about the same. We therefore use a range of pot types and don’t worry too much about this particular aspect.
How do you find the large-flowered cultivars fare, in Tuscany? How do you advise customers with regard to establishing new plants?
In my area of Italy the soils are quite frequently heavy and clayey. To get beautiful clematis the rule of thumb is to improve the structure of the soil before planting. In my own early years I had some disappointing failures because the plants did not grow well at
More views of this year’s Open Day, in the beautiful Tuscany sunshine all. They lacked vigour, remained small, and blooms proved quite scarce. Once in the soil it was almost impossible to remedy the situation – in fact, I found it best to dig plants back up, and replant them into pots. Although this was a lot of work, I benefited greatly from the experience as, on doing this, I quickly saw how much happier the plants were. As soon as they were in the new medium – immediately – plants developed better, produced lusher foliage, and, above all, made many more flowers. If you want plants in
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the open ground you must thoroughly prepare the plot, every time, fertilise well, and make sure the roots are well drained. It is essential to have a good volume of softer, penetrable medium that the roots can get fully into, and absorb nutrients from – which they cannot do, if the ground is too compact and heavy. Given a good medium, plants will do well either in pots or outdoors at a prepared site. The golden rule with clematis is to always cater for the needs of the root – if you look after the needs of the root, you will always get very good results.
What are your own favourite clematis, and why?
What about pruning - in your climate?
In our zone the best time to prune is around the end of January to mid February, when the temperatures are about at their lowest averages, and before the plants restart into growth. This year, I completed the final pruning and fertilising in the second week of February.
Some of my favourite clematis are: ‘The President’: for her beautiful violet flowers, with wavy tepals that seem to quiver in the breeze – and her hardiness. One of my very first clematis, she always performs superbly well. ‘Gravetye Beauty’: I love her strong red flowers of tulip form and her light, heart-shaped leaves. An extremely vigorous clematis that produces an abundance of flowers, like a multitude of sky-facing trumpets. ‘Freda’: the foliage is a lovely bronze-green and the small pink flowers are so delicate, subtle and pretty. They remind me a little of begonias – really charming! Clematis armandii: this species, so strong and powerful, with a fantastic fragrance and evergreen leaves...simply marvellous!
Do you also grow species clematis in Tuscany?
We’re gradually beginning to get more involved with some of the species. I’ve had two plants of Clematis flammula in my garden since last year. I love this clematis for its form,
flowers and above all, its perfume. I will be propagating the species in numbers, very soon. It is a beautiful endemic of this region – I think people should be made more aware of the great wealth and diversity of our own, local flora, especially this beautiful plant. At our latitude we also have many populations of Clematis vitalba, but, of course, this is not regarded in the same light as Clematis flammula, because in our climate it can become a nuisance, if left uncontrolled.
Which would you say are the most popular clematis in your region?
As is not unusual, most people are immediately struck by the glitz and glamour of the large-flowered forms, so the most popular clematis are those from the ‘Patens Group’ . People do eventually move on to other forms and types, usually after a little guidance; they tend to do this once they have gained some experience and confidence with the large-flowered plants first, then they know they can get good results with other types of clematis, too. One of our aims is make customers more appreciative of some of the smaller flowered forms, so they get to see that these, too, are very beautiful.
Which would you say are the most suited, that you have tried, in your climate?
As long as the ground is prepared correctly and sufficiently, virtually all clematis can be grown well, here, even in the open garden. We get the very best results from the Viticella Group – they grow really vigorously, reach a good height, and, above all, we get fantastic flowerings. In open situations, plants of the Patens Group don’t stand the heat very well, and can struggle. We always get fabulous results from Texensis Group plants.
What are the most common questions asked by customers new to clematis?
The most frequent question is: Do clematis only live for one season? Why did my clematis turn dry and look dead at the end of last year? People new to clematis are generally unaware that the ‘seasonal cycle’ provides for a rest period, during which it looks as though they have died off. I remember thinking the same thing, myself, when I had my own early experiences with clematis. Of course, the other main questions pertain to pruning and maintenance. We strive to give customers as much accurate information, and growing tips, as possible, so that they fully understand how they can best make the plants thrive, and flower as well as possible.
Do you know of any people propagating clematis in Italy?
To be honest, no, I don't know of anyone else producing clematis from liners, as we do, in our Region. Usually, where nurseries do actually sell any clematis, they are just another plant among many others being sold. These plants tend to be larger adults, ready to be immediately sold, for planting out straight into the garden.
Are clematis increasing in popularity in your Region/in Italy, generally? Without doubt, in the last few years, clematis have become much more popular. There’s a far wider range of plants available nowadays and you can find them at virtually every garden centre, most flower shows and even in supermarkets! Unfortunately, though, I don’t think this is always in the best interests of the customer, because they don’t really get the information and advice they need. The imperative here is sell, sell, sell. Most people buy clematis purely for the beauty of the flowers, but they don't really understand what they
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are actually getting when they buy a very young plant. This, of course, can result in disappointments that ultimately put people off the genus. This isn’t so important to the commercial mass vendor, of course, but the downside is that for nurseries who do want to see the plants do well, for customers, it can create a bad impression in their minds and put them off trying them. Fortunately, there are also those who want to see buyers really get a lot out of their plants and are minded to offer advice, assistance and the benefit of their experience. Overall, we definitely do see more clematis being grown well, in people’s gardens nowadays, and this is always very gratifying.
Are there many good books on Clematis available in Italy?
Unfortunately, no! In fact, there are hardly any at all, you just find the occasional brief booklet now and then, with very general comments only. This is definitely a future goal of mine – to write a good ‘Clematis book’ in the Italian language, with sound advice and lots of good images. ‘Piilu’ in a pot Personally, I have studied and consulted quite a few books published in the UK and elsewhere, in English:
An illustrated Encyclopedia of Clematis Toomey, Leeds, Chesshire. The Montanas, a Book for Gardeners John Howells. Trouble Free Clematis, The Viticellas John Howells Clematis for Small Spaces
Raymond J. Evison Clematis, an Essential Guide
Ruth Gooch
What about the website?
Our website is actually under construction as we speak. A lot of work is going into it; it will be straightforward to navigate with information relating to all our cultivars. It will also give tips and ideas for cultivation, details on pruning and siting, for every clematis group. For the time being, whilst it is under construction, I use the Vivaio delle Clematidi
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Facebook page to publish photographs, plant descriptions, culture details, growing tips and videos.
Do you produce any of your own plants from cuttings, or other methods?
I’ve begun to experiment in producing cuttings, with some success. Sometimes I layer plants also, but, obviously, this is nowhere near as productive as the cuttings method. I find I get best results working with Montana Group cuttings. But I don’t undertake it as a serious venture, just an amateur’s interest. Recently I’ve had particularly good results with cuttings of Clematis armandii. I’ve tried taking the cuttings at various points in the year and found that the very best time is in mid September, so now I always take them at this time of year. I bury one node in a potting soil/perlite mix, and keep them in the greenhouse. I don’t use rooting hormone. After about six or seven weeks, the roots are visible, emerging from the base of the pot. If the same type of cuttings are taken in spring, after flowering, or before the summer, I find they won’t root well enough. I don’t know exactly why this is the case, it may be to do with temperatures, hormone levels, etc. But, without doubt, September is best!
Do you send plants out by mail order?
Most of our plants are sold directly from the nursery and we occasionally go to flower shows – but time is very limited for this. We do, however, also send quite a lot of plants out by post, to all parts of Italy. People email us (clematidipescia@hotmail.it) or contact us via the Facebook page, asking for specific cultivars and to check on availability. We use the normal inland postal service to send plants; in Italy the service is reliable and quick and the plants usually arrive at their destination in just a couple of days, in perfect condition. It is also much cheaper than using a courier – good news for customers; this keeps costs down, especially important right now in these times of austerity.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Our nursery is a small business based on a great passion for growing clematis. We have limited space but we have managed to build a small tunnel of about seventy square metres space. The actual owner is my mother, but it’s me that does the day to day work of managing the plants, and everything else, right through to keeping the books. We don’t really want to expand too much – we just like to buy-in very young plants (our plants come to us as rooted cuttings in 9cm pots) and grow them on, into fine, strong vigorous plants, ready for planting out in the garden. We don’t plan to change this philosophy – we simply concentrate on producing high quality, healthy plants and we put in the commitment, enthusiasm, care and attention necessary to achieve that aim. That’s the way I prefer to run the venture. We produce the best clematis plants we possibly can for people who appreciate clematis or want to try them.
I hope things work out so that I can develop and expand my work in connection with clematis. For the time being, though, things are fairly modest in extent; nevertheless, I am very grateful for all the help and support given to me by my nearest and dearest – my family and friends – over the last several years. Without them I would not have got the same results.
I look forward to the challenge every day, hopefully I can move on to bigger and better things in the fullness of time. You have to always keep your feet on the ground, though, even if you let your thoughts fly. To-date, my dream of having my own small clematis nursery has become a reality and we are living it; I am sure that what we are working towards, we will achieve in time to come.
FromWikipedia:
Tuscany is a region in Italy having an area of about 23,000 square kilometers (8,900 sq mi) and a population of about 3.8 million. The regional capital is Florence (Firenze). Tuscany is known for its landscapes, traditions, history, artistic legacy and its permanent influence on high culture. It is regarded as the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance and has been home to many figures influential in the history of art and science. Tuscany is famous for its wines, including the well-known Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Morellino di Scansano and Brunello di Montalcino.
Tuscany has an immense cultural and artistic heritage, expressed in the region's churches, palaces, art galleries, museums, villages and piazzas. Many of these artifacts are found in the main cities, such as Florence and Siena, but also in smaller villages scattered around the region.
All images Massimo Mazzoni
When Vine Becomes Liana
Dr John Feltwell UK john@wildlifematters.com
TThe native clematis, Old Man’s Beard or Wild Clematis, Clematis vitalba, is a veteran of many an English woodland and its stems, as thick as a man’s arm, are as good as it gets so far as lianas go in Britain, reminding one of tropical lianas. Such magnificent woody stems can be found amongst the yews along the Pilgrim’s Way of the North Downs in Kent, reaching to the canopy, where they flower, but these C. vitalba liana are located in the Cévennes Mountains in Gard, France.
Not only is the Wild Clematis a well established UK native plant but its modestly scented light-honey coloured flowers (at least when freshly opening) are attractive to such gems as the Silver-washed Fritillary, Argynnis paphia, Britain’s largest fritillary, with its silver washing on the underside. The Silver-washed flies in late June, July and August and is widely distributed in England and Wales, below a line drawn between the regions of Montgomeryshire and East Kent.
Taking Dictation
Fran Palmeri USA franpalmeri@gmail.com
S S
ummer in Florida is when I catch up on my reading. I’m stuck indoors a good part of the day and the piles of books grow exponentially with the heat index. This year, it seemed, I was running into clematis at every turn of the page.
In Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate, Wendy Johnson described the ‘pale yellow tresses of fragrant clematis’ cascading down the trees in her woodland garden. Clematis virginiana, with an anecdote about Charles Darwin, cropped up in Mrs William Starr Dana’s book How to Know the Wildflowers, a tome I would encourage anyone to read, if they find a copy.
Interestingly, in The Findhorn Garden Story, I found ‘instructions’ from the ‘clematis deva’ , one of the ‘nature spirits’ who inspired those gardeners in northern Scotland. Clematis ligusticifolia (Western Virgin’s Bower) and Clematis lasiantha (Pipestem) are mentioned by Judith Larner Lowry in her book, The Landscaping Ideas of Jays. Ray Bradbury’s poem (see page 52) has been posted on my refrigerator for ages.
The Florida Scrub Jay
Loosestrife (Lythrumalatum)
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All these writers touch on how plants and humans relate to each other, a subject which interests me.
At the library I found Janet Browne’s wonderful two-part biography of Charles Darwin. Some scientific observers of nature draw such brilliant conclusions from their findings they change the way we think forever. But it puts these luminaries beyond our reach. Thanks to Browne, Darwin stepped down from the pedestal I’d placed him on years ago. I looked over his shoulder as he experimented with insectivorous plants, orchids, and climbers like clematis. He admired Traveler’s Joy (Clematis vitalba) in the hedgerows of the village, while at home he trained this white-flowered clematis along the rafters of veranda. This very wet summer, as I sloshed through parks, I photographed Florida species of some of the plants he experimented with: bladderworts, sundews,
loosestrife, beggarweed and clematis. Darwin was a tinkerer. He varied the diets of insectivorous plants and admired their methods of trapping insects. He called the sundew ‘a most sagacious animal’. There was no end to his experiments. Once, he placed a pitcher plant on the piano and had his wife Emma play, to see if it would react to the vibrations.
Clematisvirginiana
His nature was to be the astute observer and in his notebook he set down the variations and growth habits of individual species, and how they behaved under different conditions. Careful to back up every assertion with facts, he wrote up his findings in books or publications such as the Linnean Society Journal.
The late 1800s were a time of intellectual ferment, brought on in part by Darwin’s The Origin of Species. Mrs Dana, who was putting together her field guide at that time, was no doubt familiar with Origin but she must have delighted in his other books such as the one about his work with climbing plants, including clematis. In her description of Clematis virginiana, Mrs Dana wrote ‘This graceful climber works its way by means of its bending or clasping leaf stalks. Darwin has made interesting experiments regarding the movements of the young shoots of the clematis. He discovered that ‘one revolved,
Monarch butterfly on mist flower describing a broad oval, in five hours, thirty minutes; and another in six hours twelve minutes; they follow the course of the sun’.
The Findhorn gardeners were poles apart from Darwin. In the 1960s, with the help of nature spirits, Peter and Eileen Caddy and Dorothy Maclean created a diverse, enormously productive garden in a rocky, sandy landscape in northern Scotland. Instead of a scientific experiment based solely on observed facts, Findhorn was a mystically based agriculture. Through meditation, Peter, Eileen and Dorothy sought guidance in their venture while Dorothy received practical advice from devas and other nature spirits, on how best to grow individual species. I picture Dorothy, sitting with pad and pencil, writing down instructions from devas about the how, when and where of
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planting vegetables, fruit trees and flowers. The nature ‘guides’ often spoke to her in a spiritual context. On June 7th 1970 she recorded, from the clematis deva: ‘It does not matter through which part of creation you contact our kingdom, whether by way of a flower in full display, as I am now, attracting you with a solid wall of soft color and scent, or by way of a little clover leaf, a wisp of wind, a drop of rain, or the sun itself. All have the breath of God in them. The air you breathe – is it not full of God, is it not your life force? All of creation shares in it, contributes something to it’.
Experienced gardeners and mystics soon gravitated to Findhorn. Sir John Trevelyan, who considered it a ‘community filled with enthusiasm, energy and love for all life’ ,
Female Roseate Skimmer, Orthemisferruginea wrote in the foreword to The Findhorn Garden Story ‘We are called upon to love our plants in a new way, to cherish and talk to them, to speak in thought to the beings of the trees and give them thanks for all their work for us’.
Though Darwin was deliberate in leaving God out of his writings, he, too, loved plants. Janet Browne labeled his obsession with orchids an ‘unexpected love affair late in life’. His son, Francis, who helped him with his research, noticed that his father showed ‘a kind of gratitude to the flower itself, and a personal love for its delicate form and colour. I seem to remember him gently touching a flower he delighted in’ . Closer to the Findhorn approach, Wendy Johnson, a Zen Buddhist, also combines meditation with gardening. She first learned to garden at a California Zen monastery where she discovered that ‘gardening is about awareness and relationship’. In Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate, she lists seven principles of gardening, the first of which is ‘to learn
gardening from the wilderness outside the garden gate. As I work to keep the links alive between wild land and the cultivated row, I get my clearest instructions from listening to the voice of the watershed that surrounds our garden’ .
When I put a plant in my Florida garden I’m conscious of where it comes from: sunshine mimosa grows in pinelands, mistflower favours moist meadows, Clematis crispa prefers a damp, shady place by the Myakka River.
Those with their hands in the soil tend to communicate with plants. In her book The Landscaping Ideas of Jays, Judith Larner Lowry, who owns a nursery in California, relates how, when she asked fellow gardeners if they talk to plants, they laughed – but a surprising number said they did. Craig Dremann of Redwood Seed Company admitted he ‘talks to entire ecosystems and twice in his life he has received detailed answers’. When writing his pamphlet The Redwood Forest and the Native Grasses and Their Stories, ‘I took dictation directly from the plants’, he told Lowry. In addition to being a nurseryman, Dremann is an artist.
Do I talk to plants? It would seem strange not to, when I let a passing bird or butterfly, the dragonfly that alights next to me, even a snake, know how much I appreciate it. Why not plants? Sometimes they talk to me. Once, I was in a hurry to leave a park and passed up a clematis by the side of the trail. ‘What about me?’ it seemed to ask, petulantly. Dutifully I went back to photograph it, and, as I did, what looked like an orange lightning bug arrived, looked me in the eye and said, ‘bet you don’t know who I am!’
The Ray Bradburys of the world are more open to this kind of communication. Shakespeare gave us ‘tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones’. Walt Whitman wrote about a dream in which his ‘favorite trees step out and promenade up, down and around, very curiously –with a whisper from one, leaning down as he passed me ‘We do all this on the present occasion exceptionally just for you’.
None of us lives in a vacuum. Whether we do detailed experiments with plants, create a ‘Findhorn’ garden or just plant a few wildflowers, we take our cues from the natural world. It’s our way of giving thanks – our little votive candle to the magnificence of nature.
Bibliography
Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate: Wendy Johnson: 2008: Bantam Trade, New York
How to Know the Wild Flowers: A Guide to the Names, Haunts and Habits of Our Common Wild Flowers: William Starr Dana: 1991: Mariner, Boston
The Findhorn Garden Story: Eileen & Peter Caddy, Dorothy Maclean: 1988: Findhorn Press, Forres, Scotland
The Landscaping Ideas of Jays: Judith Larner Lowry: 2007: UC Press, Berkeley
Redwood Forest and Native Grasses and Their Stories: Craig C. Dremann: 1987: Redwood City Seed Co.: Redwood Ca.
A Brief History of the British Clematis Society 2002-2011
Everett Leeds UK everett@leeds-family.co.uk
TThe Spring 2001 edition of TheClematisfeatured an article by Everett Leeds, BCS founder member and past Chairman, entitled ABriefHistoryoftheBritishClematis Society1991-2001. Everett now brings us up to the recent past, recalling the subsequent ten years of BCS events and people.
2002
Ron Kirkman was Chairman and Richard Medland was Treasurer. Dr. Mary Toomey, our Editor, having retired at the end of 2001, Dr Wilson Wall stepped into the breach and produced two Journals, one called the Spring and the second Winter issues. It would appear that the BCS trip to New Zealand and the Clematis Festival at Burford House, Tenbury Wells in 2001 have fallen between two stools, as they were not mentioned in the last Brief History 1991-2001. Over thirty members made the most memorable trip of their lives and saw New Zealand species growing in the wild, as well as some fantastic scenery and local culture.
(I even sold my 1956 Velocette Venom motorcycle, to help pay for Carol and me for the trip!)
The Clematis Festival in August 2001 was a weekend-long indulgence on our favourite genus, with input from Christopher Lloyd and Raymond Evison in such a nostalgic setting, run by the late John Treasure. Robin Savill and Charles Chesshire put the weekend together with the help of Mike Brown, Margaret Morris and other worthies, who can always be relied upon to help out in times of need. After
several years’ work, The Encyclopedia of Clematis made its first appearance.
On the 25th April 2002 we lost one of the ‘greats’ in the world of clematis. Dr Magnus Johnson: landscape architect, nurseryman, hybridiser, author and botanical artist died aged 95, in his homeland of Sweden. To us and future generations he will be best known for his scholarly book Släktet Klematis, published privately in 1997 by his son-in-law, the late Bengt Sundström. This academic study was later translated into English by Dr Mary Toomey and Mrs Rita Eustace, under the title The Genus Clematis, consisting of 896 pages. It was available from 2001.
Members ‘Open Gardens’ featured strongly this year and were co-ordinated by Gill Brown. There was also a weekend event in June at Helmsley Walled Garden and Burton Agnes Hall in Yorkshire.
The International Clematis Register and Checklist was produced by the first Registrar, Victoria Matthews, on behalf of the RHS. Mike Brown continues to provide the seed exchange.
Just to give the present day reader an idea of how much support the Society had from its members, the Society was present at the following shows in 2002 - Harrogate, Malvern, Chelsea, N.E.C., RHS Hampton Court, Tatton Park, Castle Howard, Shepton Mallet and finally the Harrogate Autumn Show.
C. ‘Emilia Plater’, raised by Brother Stefan Franczak of Poland, was awarded a Certificate of Merit from the Trials Ground. Shannan Read produced four newsletters, and a (so it is thought) Clematis repens, aka ‘The
Bells of Emei Shan’, made its
first appearance in the UK. (Emei Shan is the mountain on which the plant was found in China, by plant hunter Dan Hinkley.) Single Membership; £12.50, Joint Membership: £18.50
2003
This year saw the return of just one edition of the Journal, labeled Winter Edition. Ron Kirkman was again ‘in the Chair’.
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Harry Caddick sells the Clematis Nursery at Lymm Road near Thelwall Viaduct, Warrington, Cheshire.
The Society held its first Photographic Competition organised by the late William Davies at Hyde Hall, facilitated by Robin Savill, who was there and at that time working for the Royal Horticultural Society.
Another very sad moment in our Society’s history arrived on 18th February 2003 with the sudden and untimely death of Richard Stothard, our ‘Secretary and administrator’. We met at a clematis coffee morning run by Carol & Everett Leeds, around 1990/1, and he served the Society with great enthusiasm, humour and great organisational ability until his death from leukaemia.
Japanese clematarian Kazushige Ozawa died in December. His cultivars ‘Rooguchi’, ‘Odoriba’, ‘Asao’ and ‘Kakio’ PINK CHAMPAGNE continue to give pleasure.
The BCS was again represented at many shows; Harrogate (Spring & Autumn), Chelsea, Hampton Court (as a Plant Heritage Stand), Sandown Park, NEC, Blenheim and Tatton Park.
Sylvia and Brian Jackson, members who live on the northern boundary of Brighton, wrote an interesting article on opening their garden under the National Gardens Scheme (The Yellow Book). A quote that rings a bell is ‘Now, I buy one I fancy and worry where there is a space for it afterwards’.
C. ‘Lansdown Brown’, a C. fusca × C. integrifolia hybrid, was found growing in Gill Brown’s garden.
2004
Everett Leeds is elected Chairman and Lin Hawthorne takes on the Editorship of the Journal. Shannan Read is the Webmaster & Karen Park, the Treasurer.
Richard Green and Ian Lang, the doyens behind the very successful Clematis on the Web website, announce a Survey of what grows well and where. This is an on-going project, to date.
Our Trials Ground organised by John Maskelyne at the Royal National Rose Society looks as though it is coming to an end as the Rose Society is in financial difficulty and will have to sell some of its land and buildings.
Garry Gaunt has a good working relationship with the Trustees of Helmsley Walled garden and appeals to the membership for more volunteers to help.
17th August 2004 was another black day for the clematis family. Honorary Member Jim Fisk MBE passed away. A modest, generous man who gave assistance to anyone, private or commercial, who loved the Genus. His many introductions are still on sale now, ‘Doctor Ruppel’, ‘Gillian Blades’ & ‘Gladys Pickard’ (after his secretaries), ‘Hagley Hybrid’, ‘Mayleen’, heracleifolia
‘Fulton’s Variety’ and macropetala ‘Wesselton’ to name but a few. It was he who, coming home from the Navy after WW2, started the first ever clematis only nursery and his displays at subsequent Chelsea Shows brought the Genus to the public’s notice.
C. ‘Broughton Bride’, raised from seed by
Vince and Sylvia Denny, was awarded a Gold Medal certificate. C. ‘Zoin’ INSPIRATION by Wim Snoeijer and C. ‘Michelle’ by Robin Savill were awarded Certificates of Merit. C. ‘Aotearoa’ received a ‘Commended’ Certificate.
Guernsey Post Office produced a set of stamps featuring the cultivars introduced by Raymond Evison and Poulsen Roser, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the RHS.
In April we undertook the first planting at Sunbury Walled Garden with plants donated by many individuals and a great number from Thorncroft Clematis Nursery. It was also decided to call our planting there the Richard Stothard Memorial Planting.
Brian Collingwood extolled the virtues of growing clematis from seed in a lengthy article in the Journal and Graham Spencer delivered a very interesting lecture on Plant Breeder’s Rights for Beginners (PBR). One interesting facet was that the breeder/holder of the PBR has to police it himself.
The First Supplement of the International Clematis Register and Checklist is published.
2005
Margaret Morris becomes the Chairman of our Society. Charles Hills is Treasurer. Everett Leeds establishes the International Clematis Trials Ground at the RHS Deers Farm site in Wisley Village, Surrey. Total membership drops to 842.
Wim Snoeijer writes a great article based on the
theory that the present day C. ‘Jackmanii’ does not look anything like that illustrated in Moore & Jackman’s The Clematis as a Garden Flower (1872).
Dr John Howells’ book Clematis, The Montanas is published and puts forward the theory that the species was introduced a few years before that attributed to Lady Amhurst (in 1831). I can remember being spellbound by the lecture Dr John delivered at the International Clematis Society meeting at Cambridge, when he talked for forty-five minutes on the subject, without seemingly referring to any notes.
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The Society organises a coach trip to the Courson Plant Fair and Monet’s Garden, in France. The Society awards honorary membership to Mike Brown.
Dr. Brian Cromie retires from the post of Publicity Officer and Bernard Allen takes his place.
Single Membership: £15.00, Joint Membership: £22.50. Membership had been at around 1000 for several years but was now just below. Robin Savill wins a Gold Medal for his clematis display at The Great Autumn Show, RHS London.
2006
Margaret Morris continues as Chairman, Jack Gittoes takes over the production of the Newsletters from Glenis Dyer. Val le May Neville Parry takes on a Plant Heritage collection (NCCPG) of the Montana Group.
On 6th April John Maskelyne died suddenly just after his 80th birthday. John, a former Chairman of the Society and co-ordinator of the first trials ground at St. Albans RNRS ground, was a great plants person and a tireless member of many horticultural Societies. It was through his love of Roses that we were introduced to the RNRS at St. Albans. Unlike many of his generation he embraced the new computer technology with enthusiasm and skill.
More sad news. Ben Clifton, a gifted plantsman and keen clematarian passed away, after a short illness. His garden at Yalding, in Kent, was a treasure and, although he never learned to drive a car, he always turned up at many a distant location of Clematis events, having travelled by public transport.
Author and gardener Christopher Lloyd OBE, VMH also passed away this year.
On 26th July Nelson Fairley succumbed to cancer after a long and courageous battle with the disease. It was Nelson who suggested our special clematis planting at Bourne Hall, Ewell, Surrey (discontinued through vandalism after a few years). He then turned his attention to the Sunbury Walled Garden and, although stricken with cancer, dug more holes for planting than us fit mortals and a particular corner of the site now has the unofficial name of ‘Nelson’s Corner’. The Sunbury Millennium Embroidery Gallery and Café was opened to the public on 21st June.
The Midland Regional Group was formed by Josie Hulbert. As from September 2006, Duncan Donald takes on the role of Clematis Registrar. The Timber Press Pocket Guide to Clematis is published.
Barry Fretwell closes his Peveril Clematis Nursery to retail trade but continues to hybridise his cultivars. One of his best loved must be C. ‘Arabella’ and he is also noted for bringing the viticella C. ‘Mary Rose’ syn. C. viticella ‘Flore Pleno’ back from obscurity.
The Second Supplement of the International Clematis Register and Checklist is published.
C. zemuensis flowers, for the first time in nine years, at Wakehurst Place, Sussex. (nothing exceptional, a vitalba look-a-like)
BCS Membership reduces to 814
2007
Margaret Morris, Chairman. David Victor co-opted on to the Committee. Brian Collingwood takes over the mantle of Editor of The Clematis Journal.
The AGM is held at the Town Hall, Sandbach, Cheshire, 70 members attending. Educational Booklets on Herbaceous and Viticella Groups produced.
Extreme weather conditionsRain. Shows attendedHarrogate, Malvern, Edinburgh. Shows at Ardingly, Loseley, Tatton Park and Southport were badly affected by the weather.
On the new trials ground at Deers Farm, Wisley Village, C. ‘Blue Eclipse’ gains a Certificate of Merit. Another C. koreana seedling raised by Vince and Sylvia Denny in 1989. C. ‘Kaiu’ and C. ‘Buckland Beauty’ are awarded ‘Commended’ certificates.
Paul Radcliffe, the head gardener at Helmsley is forced to retire through ill-health.
A new species in the Viorna group in the USA, C. carrizoensis, is described in detail in the Journal.
On 11th November 2007 Dr John Howells, a founder member of the BCS, died age 89. He helped form the International Clematis Society in the mid-1980s and later our Society in March 1991. He served as a committee member, Chairman 1993-4 and Editor until 1995. He wrote articles for the Garden News weekly and was the author of a string of clematis books - The Rose And The Clematis As Good Companions (1996), TroubleFree Clematis, The Viticellas (1998) and Clematis, The Montanas: A Book For Gardeners (2005). Professionally he was an international medical authority on Psychiatry and former director of the Institute of Family Psychiatry.
A very useful article in The Clematis gives germination times for over sixty species and cultivars, ranging from twenty-six days for GOLDEN TIARA to 637 days for C. texensis.
The
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2008
David Victor is now Chairman. Mike Brown still doing the seed exchange and Steve Christmas our Webmaster. Membership Secretary Glenis Dyer reports a declining membership standing at 688.
C. ‘Zobluepi’ BLUE PIROUETTE by Wim Snoeijer of Jan van Zoest BV, Boskoop, The Netherlands, was awarded a ‘Commended’ certificate from the planting of 2006 at the Trials Ground. A lovely upward facing mauve cultivar resulting from C. integrifolia ‘Rosea’ × C. ‘Warszawska Nike’.
We lost another treasure this year, Gill Brown. Gill worked tirelessly on behalf of the Society and held many roles, her last being Membership Secretary. She regularly opened her garden at Newnham, Hampshire with attendant refreshments in the tiny village hall served by her friend Emma Sly and helpers – her meringues were ace! The garden was a delight and clematis absolutely thrived there. She had a wonderful way of mixing the right plants with each other, gorgeous roses amongst them.
Sheila Chapman put on another stunning display at Chelsea of clematis climbing through old brick walls and arched stone window frames. It must be a Gold medal this time….but no, another Silver Gilt. Perhaps this was the straw that broke the camel’s back; Sheila announces her retirement from the commercial world of clematis.
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On the International scene of amateur clematis growers, Erich Pranno of Estonia obtained seed from the Ukrainian Nikitsky Botanic Gardens which gave birth to a seedling in 1982 that became C. ‘Kaiu’, named after his home village. Sadly Erich passed away in March 2008 but this vigorous and hardy cultivar, with delightful white tinged with mauve bells, will remain a fitting memorial.
One of the stalwarts of the ‘Northern Group’ and organiser/helper at the Harrogate, Burton Agnes and Helmsley events, Robin Fountain, died on 12th January 2008, age 71. In later years dogged by bad health, he was an inspiration to all who met him and will be sorely missed.
2009
Chairman, David Victor; Mike Brown, Vice Chair. The Chairman’s address at the AGM again highlighted the difficulty of getting new Committee members to help run the Society. Latterly, this is a recurring theme.
Regional Groups are now formed in the Midlands, Wessex and Northern areas. The first Festival of Clematis is held in September at Sunbury Walled Garden.
651 fully paid up members and the renewal year brought back to 1st January.
The Trials Ground produced three ‘Commended’ certificates; C ‘Kaaru’, an open pollinated seedling of ‘Hagley Hybrid’ entered by the Kivistik Family of Estonia, a C. koreana × C. turkestanica cross called C. ‘Stephanie’ and a C. crispa × C. viticella cross, called C. ‘Buddy’, both by Moira and Steve Gilsennan.
1st-2nd August saw a Clematis weekend at RHS Rosemoor organised by Charlie Pridham. Featured were the Plant heritage viticella, viorna, herbaceous and montana collections with plants for sale, talks and practical demonstrations.
Ken Baker, a stalwart of the Wessex Group, passed away in June 2009, aged 86. The month afterwards Brother Stefan Franczak, a Jesuit priest of Poland, died aged 91. He had a small garden in Warsaw which was full of clematis climbing all over the border fences and he collected the seeds and selected likely candidates for growing on. From
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these small beginnings we were eventually blessed with over sixty named varieties. He formed a working relationship with Jim Fisk of Westleton, Suffolk who introduced many to the general public, the first being C. ‘Pope John Paul II’ in 1982. The other well known cultivars included 'Błękitny Anioł' (BLUE ANGEL), ‘Kardynal Wyszyński’, ‘Warszawska Nike’, ‘Polish Spirit’, ‘Westerplatte’, ‘Emilia Plater’ and many others. On 4th March 2009 the Polish President, Lech Kaczynski, awarded Brother Stefan the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta in recognition of his outstanding achievements in horticulture. His other love was Hemerocallis.
Another interesting article in the Journal on germination of seed in vermiculite and detailed information on germination times, using the closed plastic bag method.
The Third Supplement to the International Clematis Register and Checklist is published.
2010
Denise MacDonald, Chairman. Vice Chair, Charne Griffiths. Membership is 640 and the membership fee rises to £20 single and £25 for Family status.
Three cultivars received ‘Commended’ certificates after three years trial. C. ‘Poldice’, a viticella type raised by Charlie Pridham in 2003, C. ‘Fukozono’ an herbaceous type raised by Tetsuya Hirota of Japan and C. ‘Zojapur’ JACKMANII PURPUREA, an herbaceous non-clinging shrub raised by Wim Snoeijer at Jan van Zoest BV, Boskoop, The Netherlands.
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In August a small party of BCS members made the trip to the clematis festival at the De Boschhoeve Nursery and Garden, Boschhoeve 3, 6874 NB, Wolfheze, The Netherlands, and took the Sales Table. This is an annual event and the BCS has been represented there for a number of years. Numerous growers sell their wares and clematis are about half the cost of those in garden centres in the UK. It is a beautiful area and well worth a visit. The Arnhem Museum nearby stirs the emotions as there are graphic pictures and exhibits on the ill-fated airborne drop during WW2, which occurred in the same location as the Nursery.
The Society exhibited at Ardingly and was awarded a Gold Award; at Malvern the stand was judged 3rd. Tatton Park was given a Silver award. Harrogate this year was a nonstarter, there being no volunteers to run it. Visits were organised to Northumberland and Norfolk with indoor meetings at Malvern and Hilliers in Hampshire. The Midland, Northern and Wessex groups organised local events and the East Anglia Group was gaining momentum. A change of management at Helmsley garden was being monitored.
2011
Denise MacDonald, Chairman. Bernard Allen, Vice Chair. Linda Crowther, Membership Secretary. Mike Brown’s last year doing the Seed Exchange. Membership stands at 547 fully paid up members. Charles Hills, Treasurer.
The Trials Ground has produced two more cultivars with ‘Commended’ certificates. C. ‘Zoeastri’ EAST RIVER from the stable of Wim Snoeijer of Jan van Zoest BV and C ‘Minister’ raised by U & A Kivistik (the family Kivistik) of Estonia in 1982. ‘Minister’ is one of the very few early large flowed cultivars to get an award since trials started.
The Society had stands at the Malvern Spring Show, Tatton Park and also at the Sunbury Clematis Festival, where Marcus Dancer and Charlie Pridham sold plants. Plants donated by Jan van Zoest via Wim Snoeijer were also sold to bolster BCS funds.
At the AGM, Margaret Morris is awarded a certificate of Honorary Membership by Denise MacDonald, for her massive contribution to the Society.
Another very interesting Journal article on germination of the Viorna Group that normally typically takes twelve months or more to germinate naturally. The explained method uses seed soaked over several days, then the outer coat is removed and the inner viable seed placed in damp kitchen roll and enclosed in a zip plastic bag. Once germination starts they are sown on to the top compost in a pot into which they finally root before making top-growth.
On 4th July Maurice Foster received the Victoria Medal of Honour, the highest honour the RHS can bestow on its members. Only sixty-three members can hold the honour at any one time (one for each year of the reign of that monarch).
The embroidery fashioned by Ben Clifton some years ago was unfortunately misplaced and it was never found. After Ben’s death (2006) his extensive horticultural library was sold off and the money donated by his family towards another embroidered work to commemorate Ben and his wife Barbara This finally came to fruition and it was handed over to the Society at their meeting at Brinsbury Campus, near Pulborough, on 17th September 2011.
Bengt Sundström died suddenly, aged 68, in Södertälje, Sweden. He was instrumental in publishing his father-in-law’s (Dr Magnus Johnson) definitive book on clematis, Släktet Klematis (The Genus Clematis).
BCS Midlands Group, July Meeting: Meadow Farm
Josie Hulbert UK jjhulbert1@aol.com
TThirty-one members and seven visitors came to the meeting. Once we were all organised and assembled, garden owners Rob and Diane Cole gave us a wideranging talk, covering all aspects of how they had come to acquire Meadow Farm and how, over the years, they had turned it into a ‘garden for all seasons’
When we arrived the thermometer was reading 28°C and, by the time we were ready to leave, Diane told us she had just checked the temperature on the patio and it was 33°C – phew!
‘Hagley Hybrid’ and ‘Rouge Cardinal’
Meadow Farm Garden had been mooted as a worthy venue by several people over recent years. It certainly lived up to our expectations: the plantings were truly spectacular, in all kinds of beds and borders, providing a rich blaze of diverse colours and forms. How on earth Rob and Diane manage to keep it all up to this standard of excellence, without additional help, is amazing – particularly since they also run and manage a separate Nursery (only open
The
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to garden visitors, not the general public); we noted that everything there was in pristine shape, too.
The garden had a multitude of interesting areas with varied planting styles and plant combinations, nevertheless; the ‘Pangbourne Pink’ whole gave an impression of peaceful harmony and balance. A lily-filled pond, delicately carved into the landscape between growing areas, and complete with delightful dancing damsel flies, provided a precious natural habitat for many insects and other creatures; lots of benches and seats had been placed so that guests could sit and admire the views – arches bedecked with roses, large mixed flower beds, shrubs and trees, all masterfully confined within just one single acre of ground.
‘Warszawska Nike’
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Along the perimeter of the garden and nursery ran an incredibly rich, lovely wildflower meadow, where many kinds of butterfly could be seen, flitting here and there, among the abundant blooms.
Knowing we were a clematis loving group, Rob and Diane made a quick count up of their plants and were surprised to find they had, yes, 153 clematis. Some were duplicates, of course, but, nevertheless, still a very impressive number. The first clematis I spotted was Clematis viorna, immediately followed by Clematis × diversifolia
No More Wars of the Roses: BCS Northern Region Great Garden Days Out, 2006-2013
Sue Reade UK sue.reade@uwclub.net
SShortly after I joined the Society, an appeal was put out for members to form Regional Groups, and as far as I was aware, there wasn't one in the north, so I thought I'd step forward. My principal aim was to find and meet up with other BCS members, so that I could learn from them how better to cultivate my plants.
I began by sending letters to all members in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, Northumberland, Cumbria and Durham, inviting people to reply if they wanted to come together for events in the north of England. The momentum was soon established.
I hope the following details encourage further northern or other BCS members to come and join us instead of missing out on our trips. To give you a flavour of what we do, the kind of places we go, and the things we all enjoy, here are some of the highlights of our numerous and varied perambulations, since the Group was formed.
2006
Caddick’s Clematis Nursery Our first ever Meeting took place on 25th June, 2006. Ron Kirkman, former Chairman of the Society, contacted me and suggested a relaxed informal call to meet the new owner of Caddick’s Clematis Nursery (near Warrington) to have coffee, look round the nursery and buy clematis, and, of course, to hear their plans for the future. This didn't work out as envisaged but Harry Caddick saved the day, giving us a talk about how he himself had managed and run the nursery. Harry sprinkled in some interesting titbits, funny anecdotes and pearls of wisdom. One that stuck in my mind involved how long it takes to make cuttings, but how quickly they can be lost, when you make spurious assumptions about the day’s weather. Harry had spent a full couple of days carefully preparing a very large batch of important cuttings and, when
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they were finished, he left them out on the open greenhouse bench, for the time being, because it was ‘an overcast day’. He then went off to see someone, for a couple of hours. As the day wore on, the weather got warmer, then hot, then hotter still, so much so, that by the time he got back, only five or six hours later, it was to find several hundred valuable cuttings completely frazzled and cooked, virtually every one of them killed. Never make assumptions about the weather!
We also visited Arley Hall & Gardens – the gardens were magnificent, as always, and we had a chance to buy some superb plants from Steve Gilsenan. How we miss Moira and Steve, now they have retired.
Our second visit was to the Hawthornes Nursery, near Preston, to view Richard Hodson's National Collection of Viticellas. His garden was festooned with clematis, growing just everywhere; on and over climbing roses, on herbaceous plants, on obelisks and yes, even on trellises. Richard is such an enthusiast; you couldn't help but be thrilled, sharing his garden with him for the afternoon.
We then trekked across Lancashire to Gill Bullough's house, located on the shores of the Turton & Entwistle Reservoir – a magnificent setting amid the West Pennine Moors. Gill's garden was very exciting, featuring many clematis, climbing and rambling everywhere. The lovely meandering paths through the surrounding countryside have since become a favourite walking area for me. (I'm delighted to mention that my daughter has recently moved to this locality, so we can now go there regularly for walks.)
2007 Lake District Event In one of the replies to my earlier letter, the suggestion was made to put together a National BCS weekend event, in the Lake District. This was quite a challenge to arrange but, fortunately, Ann and Richard Taylor came to my rescue, with suggestions for three superb gardens. We began at High Cleabarrow in Windermere, meeting BCS members Kath and Richard Brown; their garden certainly reflected a great love of clematis. The Montanas, in full bloom, were easy to identify – ‘Mayleen’ and Clematis montana var. ‘Tetrarose’. However, most spectacular of all, I think, was a small gazebo, in the rose garden, which was absolutely smothered with the rose pink blossoms of ‘Warwickshire Rose’, resembling a gigantic
pink umbrella. Other clematis, with fat, juicy buds, were growing through shrubs, over obelisks and up trees. In spite of the rain, we all thoroughly enjoyed our High Cleabarrow morning visit.
After lunch we headed for Holehird Gardens. Featured in many prestigious garden magazines, the Lakeland Horticultural Society's seventeen acres, set amidst the superb Lakeland scenery above Windermere, is truly a ‘garden for all seasons’. These gardens are reputed to be among the finest in England and are unique in being maintained entirely by volunteers, supported only by charitable donations. You couldn't wish to meet a more knowledgeable bunch of people, many of whom were retired from full time work. The herbaceous borders were bursting with interesting plants, including some clematis. From here, the verdant Lakeland views were just, well, quite breathtaking.
Our final visit was to Gresgarth Hall, the home of garden designer Arabella Lennox-Boyd and family, who moved here in 1978. It is a riverside garden with terraces, herbaceous borders, a kitchen garden and a bog garden; within
this area Arabella has, for nigh on thirty years, been developing her own remarkable collection of shrubs and trees. The Estate, of course, employs a number of gardeners
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and the head gardener proved very approachable, for information. The gardens are open to the public one Sunday in every month, from April to October. They are jawdroppingly beautiful (as one might expect a garden
designer’s garden to be) – herbaceous borders, woodland walks, a walled kitchen garden, majestic trees and, everywhere, clematis growing through trees and shrubs, up and over pergolas and through obelisks. It would really be a treat to visit these gardens month by month, to see all the multifarious plants advance through their respective individual cycles, as the season unfolds.
Garry Gaunt at Helmsley
Throughout this time period, Helmsley Walled Gardens was an excellent place to view a large range of clematis and we duly called in, being impressed with the many plants occupying the walls and scrabbling up and over the various obelisks. There were also two ‘must see’ collections to admire;
firstly, an exciting assemblage of plants in celebration of the work of the late, great Vince Denny (with Sylvia Denny, of course), and secondly, plants raised by the Swedish giant of Clematis, Magnus Johnson of Släktet Klematis (The Genus Clematis) fame.
The outstanding Denny collection included ‘Betty Risdon’, ‘Blue Eclipse’ ‘Broughton Bride’, ‘Denny’s Double’, ‘Helen Cropper’, ‘Laura Denny’, ‘Broughton Star’, ‘Samantha Denny’, ‘Sandra Denny’, ‘Sylvia Denny’, ‘Vanessa’ and, of course, ‘Vince Denny’. Among the Magnus Johnson plants were ‘Cyanea’ (now renamed ‘Blue Tapers’), ‘Violet Purple’, C. chiisanensis ‘Love Child’, ‘Albina Plena’, ‘Columella’, ‘Propertius’, ‘Ballerina in Blue’, ‘Georg’, ‘Tage Lundell’, ‘Rīga’, ‘Carmencita’ and the utterly charming plant, ‘Mrs T Lundell’.
After a superb barbecue we all made preparations to visit Burton Agnes, with its extensive clematis collection, the following day, where Ron and Kath were manning a stand for the BCS.
Chatting with various people gave me more insight into what clematis people in the north were involved with. Thus, one snowy day in 2007, I went to meet our current BCS Journal editor, Brian Collingwood, in his greenhouse. The set-up he had there was 'to dream of'. The greenhouse was a 50’ x 25’ lean-to, hired from the garden centre at which he worked, at that time. He gave me some tips about growing from seed, which is the method he principally uses to raise new plants.
I persuaded him to show a bunch of northerners how he does it, and our group eventually met there, on the morning of 19th May. At this time, Brian had 447 new plants in the house, plus many young seedlings. This was quite impressive by any standards and Brian's illustrated talk was inspiring. The event was made even better as Sylvia Denny and her daughter attended – it was a thrill to meet them; by coincidence, just
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at that time, Brian had a batch of seedlings which he had raised from crossings involving one of Vince Denny’s hybrids, ‘Helen Cropper’. By chance, Bengt Sundström happened to be over in the UK at the time, and he joined us, staying also for our afternoon trip to Bents Garden Centre, a few miles up the road. We then had a guided tour round John Bent's private garden – he has a number of clematis growing up through shrubs, trees and on obelisks. We have returned to Bents Garden Centre since then, our first ‘taster’, and seen a lot more, so I have added further details about this, in a later paragraph.
Snowdrop Walk in Rode Hall Gardens Late in February, a group of winter-hardy Northerners met for a meander (and a breath of very fresh air) to see the many different varieties of Snowdrops (Galanthus) at Rode Hall. The weather was kind to us and as well as the snowdrops we also saw lots of Helleborus cultivars and some Camellia in full flower, as well as some beautiful Daphne bholua, with their wonderful fragrance. As we made our way into the café for tea we walked past many hanging baskets, suspended aloft in the courtyard; from where we were walking, below their level, we could see up into the crowded faces of the numerous snowdrops. It was agreed by all and sundry that this had been a good idea for an early season visit! Next year again, perhaps! Some of us never made the tea room, instead taking tea and chatting with the Lady of the Manor while sitting on bales of hay in the barn.
Taylor’s Clematis Nursery We were greatly indebted to Chris and Suzy Cocks, who laid on an interesting talk with an excellent slide show – well worth braving the snow and icy conditions forecast for the day. Chris’s talk covered many aspects of clematis, detailing the planting, pruning and culture needs of the different groups, through the whole season, whilst fielding a battery of questions from attendees. He then introduced us to some of the new Raymond Evison ‘Patio Collection’, namely ANGELIQUE (‘Evipo017’), CEZANNE (‘Evipo023’), PARISIENNE (‘Evipo019’) and VERSAILLES (‘Evipo025’), which attracted a great deal of interest. He also showed us the only clematis with golden coloured foliage, C. alpina ‘Stolwijk Gold’.
All the plants were in prime superb condition and we were soon tempted into filling our baskets. The apple pie was very good too.
Open Garden in Cheadle Ron & Kath Kirkman and Sue & John Reade visited an Open Garden in Cheadle. There we saw a variety of plants including 'Prince Charles', scrambling through the lovely old rose 'Great Maiden's Blush'. We followed this with a visit to Ian Burnett's garden where we saw his many clematis, almost equal in number with his hostas. He seemed to have the slug problem under control.
Bents Garden Centre
2008
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Ian had organized a venue for our only indoor event, the previous year, where Ron gave his talk on 'Clematis Throughout the Year’ and Steve and Moira Gilsenan gave a demonstration of taking cuttings. I always think of Moira's phrase 'put the cuttings to soak in Rose Clear 3 and have a cup of tea'. I've had some success with cuttings following their methods.
Heather Russell’s garden Our main outing for 2008 was an ambitious visit to north eastern England; the first stop was Morpeth, to see Heather Russell’s garden. This garden has two acres under cultivation and is set within one of the most beautiful rural parts of Northumberland. The style is modern, artistic and there are many unusual plants. Not your standard cottage garden, this plot has to be one of the very best in Northumberland and it’s no wonder that Heather's gardening style and enthusiasm are legendary. I would urge you to look at her website, at www.gardencottagebolam.com to get a full picture of this inspirational garden.
Heather is a Hardy Plants Society member and the interesting choice of perennials, trees, shrubs and other climbers, laid out to her marvelous designs, provoked huge sighs of admiration and envy, from us all. Most, but not all, of her clematis, belong to the Viticella Group, chosen with the harder climate in mind, in particular, the wind problem. Many, many plants adorn the walls; yet more grow over shrubs, trees and obelisks. There was no separate fruit and veg garden, as such: instead, these were being grown alongside or even among the flowers, giving a most original, appealing effect.
It was initially with some sense of loss that we left the garden to head off to Herterton House, at Hartington. Here, there were no clematis at all, however, it was nevertheless a very interesting place to see; it was created by Frank and
Marjorie Lawley in a design and style entirely appropriate for an authentic 16th Century farmhouse. There were five distinct areas within the four separate parts of the whole: a formal topiary ‘green’ garden, a physic garden (plants used in medicine, clothing and for food), a large flower and nursery garden and a fancy garden. The latter has a parterre (a parterre is a formal garden constructed on a level surface, consisting of planting beds arranged to form a pleasing, usually symmetrical pattern, with gravel paths laid between) and a fine two storey gazebo, housing a small exhibition of the garden planting plans and photographs recording various stages of its construction and subsequent evolution.
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Plants could be purchased in the old fashioned way – by digging them up from the nursery beds, on demand, then wrapping them in newspaper secured by rubber bands and, finally, into a plastic bag. Where would we gardeners be, without the ubiquitous plastic bag?
We all met up again on Sunday morning, at the unspoiled traditional Northumbrian village of Whalton, to experience Whalton Manor, where our hopes of finding Clematis were rewarded. The Manor dates from the 17th Century but was substantially altered by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1908, while he was working on the castle at Holy Island. In designing the walled gardens and the architectural features, Lutyens had the assistance of no less than Gertrude Jekyll! The house stands in three acres, bursting with inspirational planting and magnificent architectural pieces, such as the Lutyens-designed summer house, a game larder, pergolas and the vast stone paved courtyard and steps. The owner and gardener, Penny Norton, gives guided tours, sharing insights into her wonderfully imaginative planting schemes.
2009
I tried to plan a visit for every month from April to September, but this task proved Herculean and too complex to manage, this time around. The first, in April, was to be to Wentworth Castle; however, enough members just couldn’t make it on this particular occasion, so I postponed the visit to a future date. Seconds after I had done so I received a phone call from a member, wanting to come!
Will McLewin's nursery Our next outing was to Will McLewin's Nursery at Romiley, Stockport, specialists in tree peonies and hellebores. You couldn't help being impressed by these beautiful plants. On the day of our visit we were aware that people had travelled from as far away as Cambridge, just to see them in flower!
A small group met at Renishaw Hall, near Sheffield. We were impressed with the large number of clematis (mostly Viticellas) that we encountered; they were just at the point of bursting into flower. Every plant did have at least one open flower but, alas, there were no labels whatever! However, the head gardener at the Hall later saw the pictures that we took, when they were published in the BCS Newsletter, and he sent me an email identifying all the plants we had seen in the gardens, on that Renishaw day.
‘Ville de Lyon’ and ‘Sylvia
Bluebell Cottage Gardens and Nursery Bluebell Cottage Gardens and Nursery, a rural gem and one of Cheshire's best kept secrets, tucked away down a quiet country lane. Owned and managed by former BBC Gardener of the Year, Sue Beesley, Bluebell Cottage Gardens, nursery, wildflower meadows and bluebell woods offers a perfect day out for keen gardeners, wildlife enthusiasts, or anyone in need of a break from the whirlwind of modern life. While not being over-endowed with our favourite genus, Sue did have some herbaceous clematis in the borders and, inspired by this, I much later bought a Clematis recta 'Purpurea'. I'm pleased to say this plant has now been transferred into my garden and it’s looking good.
Our next venture was to the imposing splendour of Nunnington Hall, combined with our first visit to Wytherstone Gardens at Pockley, near Helmsley in Yorkshire. Nunnington provided us with the opportunity to see a number of clematis, even though the head gardener was not overly familiar with the genus and needed some guidance in respect of the identification of the plants growing there, and their culture.
After a pleasant lunch break, we headed to Wytherstone, where BCS stalwart Garry Gaunt showed us round. Clematis are a favourite of the owner, Lady Clarissa Collin, and I had been introduced to her by Gary on a previous visit. (This was at the time when the situation at Helmsley was beginning to become a little uncertain.) The nets around the tennis court are a ready made trellis, for many plants! Clematis were to be seen all around the garden, growing on obelisks, over shrubs and even finding their way up the sides of the house. Lady Clarissa was preparing places to receive the aforementioned Denny and Johnson collections, which were due to be relocated to Wytherstone, from Helmsley.
Ron Kirkman led the group which went to Bodnant during August and this was followed in September by a venture to Temple Newsom Park and Gardens in Leeds, to view the collections of asters. They also have a National Collection of delphiniums, which were going over by then - but clearly they had just recently been a magnificent sight. It seems to me that Leeds has many more municipal gardens of note than we have, in Manchester. Or is this because we tend to overlook what is on our own doorstep?
Denny’ at Renishaw
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2010
On 13th February, twenty-six members of the Northern Group assembled at Ness Botanic Gardens for a guided Snowdrop Walk. I’d been on this walk the previous year, and was very impressed with the guide, who really knows his stuff, and is very easy to listen to. You might think a snowdrop is a snowdrop, but, of course, it isn’t quite like that – Ness has around sixty different species and cultivars, with various configurations of leaves, markings, size, clumping properties, early or later flowering, variations in shape and shade of flower and all with slightly different culture requirements.
Our next visit was by invitation, to Little Hill Farm, in deepest Cheshire. For a present, Ian Munro gave Caroline a year’s membership of the Society and she has become a very active member. She was keen for us to help identify some of her plants –
they'd all been bought years before and had simply been labeled ‘clematis blue’ or ‘clematis pink from Woolworths’ etc. We toured round her extensive garden, seeing many different cultivars, including 'Omoshiro', which I found very attractive, and which I hope one day to own. That list is getting very long! Caroline produced a veritable feast for lunch, which, along with her garden and the sunshine, made the day very special indeed.
In August, we once again visited Wollerton Old Hall & Gardens. Our previous visit had been during a late September, when many of the clematis were past their best. This time, the gardens looked just superb; the event was made all the more special as Harry Caddick recognized that many of the plants had been bought from his nursery, and he was greatly thrilled to see how well they were all doing in such a fabulous garden setting as Woolerton.
Harry and Denise Caddick at Wollerton
John Jenkins (the owner) had invited Harry to visit the garden before, but, while running the nursery full time, he hadn’t quite managed it – however, this occasion more than made up for it. We then moved on to Hodnet Hall, which was an altogether different setting.
Outside the café, we relaxed round a big table and listened to Harry's fascinating tales of life as a lockmaster, on the Manchester Ship Canal, and how he got started with Clematis. The autumn trees of Ness gave us a delightful morning; Andy Lambie was our guide. The colours and fragrances, particularly of the Cercidiphyllum japonicum (common name Weeping Katsura Tree) make this season very attractive, at Ness. The Katsura, whose branches weep and meet the ground all around, has lovely, large, lush green heart shaped foliage, which in autumn undergoes a striking and beautiful gradual visual transformation
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through the nuances of the spectrum of vibrant oranges, reds and purple hues. As if this were not enough, it at the same time pours out the most heavenly toffee or candy-floss bouquet, flooding the surrounding air.
2011
Having seen the evidence of Harry Caddick's plantsmanship in the gardens of his customers, I persuaded Harry to let us look round his own garden. He asked me to come and review it, prior to the visit and I was bowled over at the sight of his plants. Needless to say, this proved to be very popular and in due course thirty-seven people descended on the house. We had no trouble at all identifying the correct property – a huge spread of Clematis montana var. grandiflora completely covered the front brickwork.
Harry loves the large flowered varieties best and we were treated to a marvellous display of these, including ‘Harry's Double Blue'. (Harry had bred this plant some twelve years earlier, but at the time mulled that there were perhaps already too many blues on the market, so he kept it for himself.) He has now realised what a good cultivar it is, growing to only 5ft but having double, semi-double and single flowers, all at the same time, and over a long flowering season.
The afternoon was spent looking behind the scenes at Bents Garden Centre & Nursery, Warrington Rd, Glazebury near Warrington – where people, rather than machines, are employed for potting clematis and other plants on, as they are quicker and
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better at it. We were shown Bents’ huge display of Raymond Evison's plants. John Bent told me that they employ three people to look after their clematis, because they need lots of care and attention. That's something we all know about! Of course, some nurseries don't share this philosophy and the resulting displays are not so tempting, to say the least. John lives next door to the garden centre and opens his garden in the spring – he has a wonderful collection of snowdrops. He also has a number of clematis, which had been brought back from the nursery, as ‘dead’, and which he had managed to nurse back to life and good health. Others were ‘lost their labels’ plants, so he was keen for any help in naming them.
Our second day of the year out was to Breezy Knees Gardens and Nursery, near York, followed by Stillingfleet Garden and Nursery. Breezy Knees covers fourteen acres, with lots of herbaceous borders, a rock garden, a cottage-style garden, a pond and shade garden and a conifer and grass garden. Their mantra is ‘gardening is all about the plants, not hard landscaping’. Along the path leading to the garden, all the trellis and fencing structures were completely smothered with clematis. I was particularly struck by ‘Betty Corning’ and ‘Minuet’, along with many others, including ‘Étoile Violette’, ‘Purpurea Plena Elegans’, 'Błękitny Anioł' (BLUE ANGEL), ‘Venosa Violacea’ and the ever beautiful ‘Madame Julia Correvon’. Everything seemed to be flowering several weeks early, this year, on account of the very warm spring weather.
Vanessa Cook, a friendly and helpful person, owner of Stillingfleet, confessed to not having so many clematis; however, we did find several, including a ‘Perle d'Azur’, in front of which we had a group photo taken. There were several Integrifolias amongst the herbaceous borders and a Clematis × durandii in the courtyard. At the front of the house we found an ‘Alba Luxurians’, with flowers of a size no one had ever seen before.
Two Gardens in the Village of Burton Our last outing of the year, the 7th August, was to the Wirral, where we visited two gardens in the village of Burton. The first was Lynwood, where plantswoman Pauline Wright has spent thirtyfive years designing a spectacular ¾ acre plot. The gardens gaze over stunning vistas of beautiful rolling countryside, extending from the Dee estuary to the Welsh hills. From the
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sunken sandstone pond to the woodland area, divided by clematis-clad trellis, this garden of varied herbaceous borders delighted us with both its colour and with the wonderful diversity of planting. Pauline knows all of her clematis intimately, and we had fun trying to name them. She was thrilled to meet the Harry Caddick – most of her plants had come from his nursery and Harry was very happy to see them all looking so good.
The second destination was Briarfield. Some years earlier, Liz Carter had taken over some nearby land as a play area for her children; as the years passed and the children grew up, Liz gradually extended and developed the gardens This is now a two acre garden of great diversity and interest. Harry came into his own, identifying the many unknown clematis and advising on the best care for the plants and making suggestions as to how to coax the best from others. I had originally visited this garden the previous spring and Liz had shown me a number of the New Zealand evergreen clematis, among them ‘Pixie’ and Clematis × cartmanii ‘Joe’, which had survived the ravages of the previous very hard winter.
2012
The best winter garden, for miles around, is at Dunham Massey. Thousands of bulbs, planted with a plethora of winter flowering shrubs, together make it a real treat through every month of the early part of the year. We met in March when the many dwarf iris, narcissi and trilliums were all resplendent.
A major day out, as we visited the north east of England again, beginning with Millgate House Garden, in Richmond. It was an intimate experience – many clematis making their presence felt, climbing over shrubs and other plants. Like the rest of us, they had suffered from strong winds in the previous week and some new shoots were looking a little sad – but there was a fair amount of shelter there, too, though, as this beautiful garden is surrounded by walls.
We repaired to Judith and John's (Smith) house where, as well as their hospitality, we enjoyed their garden. A couple of Macropetalas caught my eye: one was Clematis macropetala ‘Lagoon ’ and the other was a seedling raised by Judith, which she had used to provide cut flowers for the table, and which looked very attractive indeed
On to Thornton Hall, a National Trust property. The couple who occupy the Hall must spend their entire lives gardening! There were two large planted areas, as well as the entrance garden, where plants were displayed for sale. We immediately saw a
A plant we had never seen before – ‘Giant Star’ magnificent Clematis montana var. grandiflora, which was a taster of what was to come. There were many newly planted clematis also, which bodes very well for further visits in the future. The herbaceous borders were a riot of colour and the island beds, just a treat to behold. In the second of the large planted areas we came across ‘Giant Star’ (Montana Group), which none of us had ever seen before. The plant was a stupendous mass of white tepals with pink smudges – very exciting indeed
On our next excursion we visited two gardens in Cheshire. We started with a wonderful plot at Bunbury; many exciting, rare exotic plants, and a number of clematis needing names. This seems to be our regular rôle when we visit gardens in the Yellow Book; people are always keen to get correct plant identifications and hear information and advice about correct clematis culture In many cases, in even the best gardens, well established plants are found, but the labels have been lost over the years, so owners are sometimes a bit in the dark about the identity.
In one spot in this garden there was a group of three clematis, planted very closely together, growing up a wall in confined space, but looking extremely lush, healthy and flowering really well! How on earth can they manage to do so well, like that, when all three plants’ combined root masses are pressed together into the same small space and buried under stocky stone slabs?
Not far from Bunbury is Caroline Munro's Little Hill Farm and, as Caroline knew we were traversing the area, she had once again invited us for lunch. Because the weather had been so poor, she most kindly decided to cook us all a hot meal. The chicken tarragon was my favourite, and, as an added bonus, we were able to check on how her garden was progressing. Two years had passed since our last visit; in the meantime she had created another large bed, in which many clematis were just getting established.
Our second garden of the day was only a brief amble away; it could be seen that most of this particular garden was created by making thoughtful use of sloping ground. There was a good number of clematis, dotted here and there, one of which was a specimen of
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the cultivar which had first captured Ron Kirkman’s clematis imagination, many years ago. It was a ‘Jackmanii Superba’ – Ron first started his collection by transplanting to his home the ‘Jackmanii Superba’ that had been growing in his mother's garden, shortly after she had sadly passed away.
In August we visited Erddig – an early 18th Century house, with formal water channels, avenues, a walled garden and a late-18th Century park, by William Emes. This trip came about as a result of a suggestion by Eira Meadowcroft (who, incidentally, often doubles as our photographer). I was amazed at the number of clematis, clothing the garden walls; but there was yet a final surprise awaiting us, in the guise of the obelisks in the flower beds. Each structure was covered with an abundance of large clematis blooms, creating pillars of dense purple. One of our members returned to the garden at a later date, to check on the name of the plants – that ‘Jackmanii Superba’, again!
2013
That brings us more or less up to date. So far this year we have revisited Rode Hall for the snowdrops, visited a (new to us) garden in Crab Lane, Burscough, Lancashire, visited The White House, Husthwaite, North Yorkshire, and revisited Wytherstone.
As I write, we have a guided tour of Harlow Carr to look forward to, and then follows a long anticipated visit to a garden in Otley, the legacy of Frieda Brown
At Breezy Knees Gardens and Nursery, near York
Along the way, through our Northern Group meetings, I have met many new people who, without exception, have become great friends. It has been a privilege and a pleasure to arrange some great places for us all to meet, each year. Everyone has taught me so much.
‘
Ben’s Beauty’
Watercolour by Everett Leeds
Finn Røsholm Norway
One clematis that has impressed me more than most during the last few years is ‘Fond Memories’, which we have had in our garden, here in Oslo, since the spring of 2007.
As fate would have it, I happened to be at the 2004 Chelsea Flower Show, when Jon and Ruth Gooch, of Thorncroft Clematis, Norfolk, introduced it as a new cultivar
As soon as I saw it I thought it was a fantastic plant, and it remained, vivid, in my mind, from that very first sighting However, when I chatted with various people I was told that ‘I could forget about it in Norway’, because it would not be able to cope with such a very cold northerly climate’
Well, it was altogether a tempting plant and, a couple of years later, when I came across ‘Fond Memories’ for sale in a plant market near Richmond (where I was visiting my daughter and her family), I couldn’t resist it. I bought it there and then and took it back home to Norway.
This turned out to be an excellent idea –since 2007 I have had successive fantastic flowerings, with no problems about the cold. Even though, during the period since I bought it, we have had some really harsh winters, with a lot of snow, it has grown and flowered really well. I should add that during this time we have had some really severe cold spells – even for Norway – with temperatures down to lower than -30°C! Yet the plant survives and has put on a fantastic show every year.
The flowers have been very beautiful indeed, summer after summer, and many gardening friends have commented about the sheer numbers, their impressive size and the outstanding colouring. As the plant has matured, the flowers have shown a general tendency to becoming even larger. We are, of course, very pleased and satisfied about this and hope to have ‘Fond Memories’ in our garden for many, many years to come.
“It’s a ‘Must Have’!”
Tony and Margaret Casbon UK anthony.casbon@yahoo.co.uk
fter being told by a certain gent in the BCS that Clematisrehderianawas a ‘MUST HAVE’… Margaret and I dutifully complied! [Ed.WhydoIgeta slightlyguiltyfeelingasIreadthat?] We planted it in the roughest part of our garden – the soil being almost non-existent – clay and builder’s rubble being the main constituents. It made astonishing growth and the flowers, although very late, were utterly marvellous and just kept on coming, until the frosts.
It soon became apparent, however, (Ruth Gooch agrees) that it’s the most terrible thug! Within two or three years we decided that, sadly, it had to go. I went to a lot of trouble in removing it, in its entirety, and duly forgot all about it.
Having health problems (we are knocking on a bit, now!) it was a struggle to keep the garden as ‘looked after’ as we would have liked, this summer. To our great surprise, on peering out, later that season, there had grown – at the completely opposite end to where we had previously grown it and already encompassing three large shrubs – I am sure you will have guessed by now, in full magnificent bloom: Clematis rehderiana.
It is now here to stay. Yes, it is in a dark and dank patch of the garden but it is obviously very happy to be with us and truly thriving in the spot where it is growing. So, for foul soil and a gloomy aspect – C. rehderiana must be your choice!
y appreciation of Clematis rehderiana began on 14th March 1998, when I purchased a plant in a two litre pot at (Harry) Caddick’s Clematis, at Thelwall. (I immediately digress, but, as it happens, on the same day, I also bought from Harry, ‘Błękitny Anioł’ (BLUE ANGEL) – another wonderful clematis. I planted BLUE ANGEL alongside the well established root mass of my GOLDEN TIARA (‘Kugotia’) [so they could get to know each other], next to my established ‘Madame Édouard André’. For many years they thrived happily together, intermingling, in and out of the climbing roses which weaved their way through my large trellis – a delightful trinity! The combination of vibrant colours looked just superb, especially on radiant summer days with a sky blue background.)
I had gone to the nursery ‘just to browse’ – but I had, in truth, been on the trail of some of the Connatae for a while, so you can imagine my delight when my eye caught the label. ‘Wow, look at that’, was my instant reaction and within milliseconds my hand was swooping down to grasp a fine-looking specimen and whisk it away.
I never go into a nursery with a basket or bag – I try to resist buying plants. I’ve always got far too many already, so, deliberately, I don’t pick up a basket or a trolley. Usually, though, within about five minutes or so, I am walking up and down between rows of plants, carrying four or five (or six…) pots, alternately picking them up and placing them down again, every so many steps, as I wander round. It must be a common sight for a nursery owner, I guess, seeing people walking about carrying and putting down numbers of pots, then lifting them all up again before putting them back down, ten paces further on. I always imagine they are thinking ‘Why doesn’t he just go and get a basket or a trolley?’
That was the thing about Harry’s nursery – you couldn’t just ‘go and browse’. It was almost inevitable that you’d come across something irresistible. There were so many fantastic looking plants! It was very, very difficult to resist picking plants up to have a closer look – they were all so fine, strong and healthy – and just waiting to be bought by a passing clematis addict. Before you even arrived at the entrance gate you knew there was going to be a massive range of plants to drool over. You finally park the car and
walk over to the first polytunnel. I suppose many clematis fans think the same way. Automatically you are tempted to acquire plants which are new to you. You arrive home and unload a heap of plants from the boot, plonking them down somewhere near the house. Any that are in plastic carrier bags promptly fall over and some of the soil comes
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out of the pots and ends up at the bottom of the bags. The neighbours have long since got used to seeing this sort of thing and just seem vaguely amused. You can never put your finger on quite why, though; they just seem to smile and wave; ‘Hi there, nice day, today. Been out? See you bought a few more plants, then...’
In full flower: fantastic sight and wonderful fragrance
When, in a nursery, you select an individual from a batch of species plants, you can never be sure just exactly what you will get, of course. It’s like picking a baby at random in a maternity ward – a lottery (except in this case you always win something). If the plant is in flower and you know the species, or know it from photos; that’s one level. But on another plane there is the individual variation, for example, in the degree of fragrance or some other character. You may buy one with a weak or one with a stronger fragrance. You can’t really tell anything about the particular clone you’ve bought, until the plant grows up a little, to some maturity level, at least. Unless very pampered, plants can take a good few years – three or four, really, at least, to reach their true potential and in some instances this can include the development of fragrance. In the nursery, you can only select a healthy looking one and go with it – you adopt it on the spot and see how it turns out, in due course. You need several years’ flowerings to understand the plant properly. The years come and go, each season bringing a different mix of rain, sun, wind and over the years you begin to accumulate insight into how this particular species plant performs, in terms of foliage, flowers and fragrance, under differing seasonal conditions. You eventually come to know the plant very well and, soon, you find you can recognise at a glance just how healthy the plant is, how near it is to flowering, and so forth.
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All my own pictures of this plant are pre-digital. I was going to go through lots of packets of prints, to select some for scanning, when I remembered that Ton Hannink knows this plant well, also, and grows a fine specimen. So I have to thank Ton very much for the photos herewith, as they are of his plant, in his garden. Judging from the photos, it certainly looks to be a magnificent, floriferous and rampant specimen!
I don’t know why Clematis rehderiana is not more popular. I suspect it is because relatively few gardeners have actually ever been exposed to it – I’ve only ever seen a few seedlings for sale (usually at BCS meetings) and it is not found at the average garden centre. If you ever, ever, get a chance to get hold of one, don’t miss the opportunity –the fragrance can be something very special. Back to that, though, in a moment or two.
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My exciting new plant had to settle for a rather uninspiring bit of garden space – a small patch of long-exhausted ground under an old laurel, near my back door. I gave it some blood, fish and bone and over a few wet weeks it got its feet down and seemed happy. In the garden it delights you twice over. The leaves are large and toothed, but are, nevertheless, very attractive – they are deployed in exactly the right density to gather all the available incidental light, each leaf and leaflet orientating itself into that interlocking
jigsaw which achieves maximum absorption of radiation, over the whole plant. So, a continuous swathe of sumptuous mid-green leaves, lovely on the eye, creeps onto, up and over any other shrubs in the vicinity and the plant quite quickly advances to the left and to the right, the stem tips elongating apace, on and on, sometimes covering five or six metres or more with the most lovely velvet green blanket. In my garden C. rehderiana covered a huge climbing hydrangea, doing it no harm at all. Gusts of wind blow playful ripples over the foliage, like rapidly executed miniature mexican waves; very pretty. At a given moment, a silent internal trigger fires and suddenly the flowers begin to form – and rapidly! Cluster after cluster of flowers (axillary panicles) appear. Noticeably, most of the stems of the clusters adopt a similar angle to the ground, imparting a subtly organised pattern to the spectacle of the blossom. Soon, opening becomes imminent! The plant stands ready, pausing momentarily while it gathers its breath, then, boom – the numerous flowers all begin to peel open at the same time, with glorious effect! Yes, it is true that many of the species clematis produce smaller individual flowers – but this is made up for, ten times over, by their sheer profusion. The effect is tantalizing and
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thrilling! Clematis rehderiana is just such a species. The whole plant is soon smothered from head to toe, dripping in blossoms here, there and everywhere, over a spread of five, six or seven metres or more, starting from fairly near to the base of the plant. No wonder the fragrance is so intense! One single plant in flower is enough to deliver this impression: as regards bouquet, the mind boggles at what a dozen plants, all growing together, might be like!
In general, any group of species clematis plants raised from a batch of seed produces a population in which the individuals are mostly similar but sometimes show slight variations. If you raise a number of batches of various species seeds you will sometimes notice differences among the seedlings; often this is as early as the stage where they are just changing from young seedlings into juvenile plants. It may just be the colouration of the foliage, the degree of branching, etc, but you do also get particularly floriferous plants, or, on the other hand, plants from which you can’t ever seem to coax too many flowers at all. Gauging the degree of such variations is borne of experience, because you only get to know them when you decide to grow them. Setting several batches of seed each season, over a period of years, endows a more intimate and in-depth understanding. So, you can never be sure of exactly what you will get, when you buy a new plant. Of all the seedlings that I could have picked up, there at Harry’s, that day – and there were quite a few – I was lucky and bought one which was not just sweet-scented, but which was actually super-fragrant! In the following years the ambiance created by this plant was enchanting. Standing at my back door, it was like a wave that washed right over you, filling your nostrils and then impinging directly on your inner senses. Many, many times, in the warm early evenings, I would wander out and linger, to inhale this intoxicating perfume. The effect was so powerful that the neighbours were enthralled. Their barbeque guests would knock on my door and ask ‘what plant was producing that scent?’, and ‘can we have a cutting, please?’ On some occasions it was the pièce de résistance of their summer barbeque evenings – their table placed as close as they could get to the plant, so they could sit, chat and bask in this air.
The plant went on and on like this, season after glorious season. Unlike annual meteor showers, every single year was marvellous, but the very best combinations –warm evenings with the slightest of air movement – made for the most glorious estival nightfalls. The bouquet was always powerful, yet the fragrance ever sweet, delightful and gentle –you never tired of savouring it, nor grew sated.
I should like to add the species definition entry from the International Clematis Checklist and Register, by Vicki Matthews, as I think this gives a particularly good summary of the plant:
C.rehderianaCraib (After Alfred Rehder) AM 1936, AGM 1993.
Flowers cylindric to bell-shaped, 0.8-1cm across, nodding, in erect axillary inflorescences, scented of cowslip or philadelphus. Buds hairy. Sepals 4(-5), pale yellow or pale green, 1-2 x 0.5-0.8cm, narrowly elliptic to obovate, united towards the base, tip recurved, ribbed and downy outside, tip rolled back. Stamens around 1cm long, more or less equalling the sepals, filaments with somewhat widened hairless base or hairy for entire
length; anthers at first greenish yellow, later gold or pale yellow. Achenes 3-4mm, ovoid to almost globose, silky soft-hairy. Deciduous woody climber with ribbed stems to 8m, hairy when young, later sparser, purple-tinged. Leaves pinnate with 5-9 leaflets; leaflets simple although often 3-5-lobed, irregularly toothed, hairy above, densely silky hairy beneath and prominently veined. Flowers July-October on current year’s growth. W. China including Xizang (Tibet).
After several years the base of the plant had become fairly woody and the many new shoots would arise from and around the persistent wood. At first, a beautiful light green, they gradually mature into the darker, mature brown stems. Once rapid growth sets in, the plant becomes steadily more impressive and foliage is produced in volume; after reaching the top of the host it would then begin to make its way sideways, along the top of the fence (and any other plants in the way) in both directions. After travelling determinedly out, about three to four metres on either side, growth slows down, as the plant musters its resources and readies itself for the huge flowering to come.
One vital point to bear in mind about plants like this: a specimen may perform stupendously and be a superb plant for many, many years and you even begin to regard it as a permanent fixture of the garden, to enjoy at a certain point in every gardening year. Then it dies off for some reason! Lesson? Take cuttings every year or two! Make absolutely sure you always have a couple of rooted plants in the ground, or in pots. My plant simply failed to reappear in the spring of 2009. I was shocked! It had shown no signs of any problems the year before! Over ten years, I must have given away thirty-odd cuttings and never kept one for myself! I decided to give it another year to reappear, as they sometimes do, but the following spring was another ‘no show’ so I reluctantly
Important breeding work by Ton Hannink – Clematisalternatacan be crossed with Clematisrehderianato produce viable progeny with intermediate flower form pulled out the old stumps (they were all very dead) prior to rejuvenating the soil and contemplating a replacement. Eventually I replanted the spot with a combination of a Clematis koreana-derived seedling (from some germinations a few years earlier) and Clematis ‘Princess Diana’ . The koreana is superb in spring, decked from head to toe with large masses of hanging purple blooms and ‘Princess Diana’ later uses its vines as a framework to climb through and over, before starting her own display. But they are not really a replacement for my lost Clematis rehderiana! I must sow some seed in the near future, or, hopefully come across some seedlings again, at a BCS meeting in due course!
As coincidence would have it, I was in the pub with Harry, just the other evening, having a pint and chatting, as usual, about clematis; during our natter he began telling me about a cache of Clematis rehderiana seeds he’d acquired, many years ago and from which he had raised (and sold in the nursery) a very large number of seedlings. It was from this batch of seedlings that, nearly fifteen years earlier, I had bought my plant that day.
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Light C. fusca?
Richard Hodson UK richardhaw@talktalk.net
EExactly ten years ago in the Winter Issue of The Clematis 2003, there appeared an article by Mike Brown, regarding an unusual seedling found growing at the home of Gill Brown, at Valentine Cottage. Gill had raised the plant from seed which had come from C fusca and Mike described the flowers as being almost identical to Clematis fusca but of reddish brown to reddish purple colour; on longer flower stems than normal fusca. All the other traits of the plant were like those of C integrifolia: noneclinging, compact habit, free flowering and with C. integrifolia-like seedheads. The plan at the time was to register and name it for a much loved relative, ‘Lansdown Brown’.
The following year I was allocated some of this plant’s seeds, from the BCS Seed Exchange; they were duly sown into pots on 8th December 2004.
Germination was erratic but eventually I had several seedlings. They were potted on and the next thing was just to hope for the best.
The first two seedlings eventually flowered and were nothing too exciting. The first produced dark brown, furry flowers, rather on the larger
The original C.integrifolia× C.fuscacross, provisionally named ‘Lansdown Brown’. Picture scanned from TheClematis2003
Maturing flower of the third seedling year later. I remember thinking how ‘bald’ the flowers looked, and, as this was unusual, I decided to keep it. Now it has flowered a few times, I know it better. As the flowers mature they turn lighter, gradually, becoming almost white; the plant is floriferous and not only makes many flowers, but does so over a long period. Furthermore, it strikes readily from cuttings It is now mid-July – the plant is a mass of seeds. To complete the circle, I shall send some
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side, compared with C. fusca. The second plant produced pretty bluegrey flowers; however this plant later proved to have a very weak constitution and soon faded away. The third seedling flowered about a
flowers of seedling number 3 to the BCS Seed Exchange, later this year.
Flowers of the second seedling Young flower of the third seedling
Mature
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Clematis triloba Thunb.
Aidan Armitage UK aidanarmitage@btinternet.com
CClematis triloba, (syn. Clematis thumbergii Steud), is not, unfortunately, a clematis you will find in your local garden centre. It is a rather unusual but very attractive species; in its natural habitat of Cape Province (South Africa) it grows freely, in open forests and bushy places.
I was very fortunate to acquire my plant, in 2010, as a cast-off from the BCS clematis trials. I don’t know how it fared in the trials but when it arrived, as a huge root ball, I immediately planted it up into a very large container, outside. By June, it had started to produce very thick, sturdy stems and in August I noticed cymes of lateral flower buds forming; the flowers opened around mid September.
The blooms really are something special. The four white tepals recurve completely, displaying a prominent boss of creamyyellow, deliciously scented stamens. Not only are the flowers attractive, but the foliage is, too – the leaves are large, with sharp teeth and an attractive purple mottling.
C. triloba grows to about 5ft (1.6m) in a container but in its natural habitat growth can reach approximately 10ft (3.2m).
It seems to have cleverly adapted its flowering cycle –from April to June in South Africa, but August to October in England. By my estimation it is reasonably hardy – last winter I inadvertently left the pot outside and the top growth died off, in temperatures of -7°C I thought the whole plant had been killed but by the following June, a dense cluster of thick stems had pushed up through the surface of the container’s soil. With a fork, I divided the root mass into several parts, each with shoots and roots; I now have several more healthy plants. From
From the InternationalClematisRegister:Clematis triloba
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my experiences to date, it seems to cope quite well with mild winters, as long as it is planted deeply enough, but, to be on the safe side, I would give it similar treatment to C. cirrhosa, planting it in a sheltered position.
C. triloba has remained relatively unknown but deserves to be made commercially available, so that it can be seen more often in our gardens.
Flowers 2.5-4cm across, nodding or semi-nodding, scented, in clusters of 3-12. Buds ovoid, densely adpressed-hairy, sepals 4, white, 1.2-1.8 × 0.4-1cm, broadly lanceolate, usually long-pointed, spreading to recurved, hairy on both surfaces but denser outside. Stamens 1-1.5cm; filaments hairy in lower part; anthers yellow. Achenes hairy.
Deciduous climber with ribbed stems to 3m, new growth hairy. Leaves 1-2-pinnate, or sometimes 2-ternate; primary divisions usually 7, leaflets often 2-3 lobed, toothed,
downy. Flowering April-July (-September) (October-December in N. hemisphere). South Africa. Synonyms: C. orientalis subsp. thunbergii (Steud.) Kuntze; C. thunbergii Steud.
Some
Notes on Clematis alternata
Brian Collingwood UK bcollingwood@ntlworld.com
CC
lematis alternata is a beautiful and exciting plant. The vines become cloaked in drapes of sumptuous mid-green leaves, with crafted toothed margins; as they accumulate, the plant becomes more and more fascinating on the eye. The tiny round flower buds, at first yellowish and hairy, suddenly appear – the main stem from the node (the peduncle) branches into three substems (the pedicels), each bearing a single flower bud. Occasionally, single flowers are produced but where the usual trio is present, bracts are found just above the junction of the peduncle and the pedicels; bracteoles (smaller bracts) are borne on each of the slender pedicels, above the flower. The buds steadily expand and transform into fleshy, pendent, ovoid bodies, whose whole surface becomes more and more suffused with the most thrilling shade of deep red. Magnus Johnson aptly gives the colour as ‘Oxblood’.
The flower stems gradually elongate as the buds continue to enlarge; soon they come to hang, like ruby coloured plumb-bobs suspended on long strings, dripping and dangling onto and between the leaves. The mature flowers must surely rank as being among the most beautiful and outstanding petits bijoux in the clematis diadem.
The ultimate fascination of this species, though, is of a more botanic nature – the leaves are not produced in pairs, opposite each other, as in all other known clematis, but singly, in alternate fashion: they arise along the stems one by one and this continues throughout, into maturity – hence the species name ‘alternata’. Despite this difference in habit, the plant of course does as good a job of clothing itself in foliage as any other similar type of clematis.
This is the only known clematis having this form in maturity. Sometimes, the occasional set of opposite leaves arises at a node, here or there but such occurrence is rare. Clematis alternata has been classified by botanists as the sole known member so far of a distinct sub group in the genus –Archiclematis –'Archi' meaning 'ancestral'.
Some other clematis species do produce alternate
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foliage at the seedling stage, and also when still very young, however, in all other cases, alternate foliage always eventually gives way to opposite, as development proceeds and the juvenile stages are left behind; from then on, opposite foliage is always produced.
This may have implications and ramifications in respect of the evolution of the group and the ancestry of the current known species. Clematis alternata is clearly morphologically fairly closely related to some of the Connata Group species (Clematis connata, Clematis rehderiana etc) and others (and will interbreed with them); for these reasons it is thought that this group and C. alternata MAY have shared a relatively recent common ancestor. In evolutionary terms ‘relatively recent’ means 'over the course of many millions of years'. In such a period of time, there would have been an unfathomable sequence of cumulative morphological changes, culminating in the species form that we know today. As stated, some other, closely related species do have this type of foliage when juvenile, so perhaps this points to a possible evolutionary link, which as yet remains to be completely elucidated. Some botanists think that C. alternata may be giving a glimpse of a more ‘ancestral’ clematis flower form, for these related groups.
Here is Magnus’ full description of the plant, from Släktet Klematis (The Genus Clematis):
Clematisalternata
Liane in cultivation to 2-3m. Stems round, ribbed, thin, ramified. Lateral stems 11.2mm in diameter, with soft white hairs often curved backwards. Leaves alternate, simple, 3-5 lobed, almost membranous, edges entire to crenate, cordate, cuspidate, 710cm long, 5-8cm wide, silky hairy on both sides, most on the nerves beneath. Petioles 5-7cm long, with long, outwards directed hairiness. Inflorescence axillary, usually 1-3 flowered, 5-8cm long, pendent. Flowers cylindric, about 2.5cm long, Oxblood red (HCC00823/3). In cultivation often with a hanging drop of nectar. Tepals erect, oblong, acute or cuspidate, with tips strongly recurved, ca 25mm long and 5-10mm wide, on both sides more or less downy with yellow hairs. Flower buds at first globular, yellow, later ovate and red. Peduncles to 6cm long to the ramification. Pedicels 1-2cm long below the bracteoles, 2.5-4cm long above, thin, hairy. Bracts at the ramification of
Buds developing
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Flower - development and opening
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the dichasium awl-like or 23 lobed, small. Bracteoles 2-7mm long, awl-like to 2-3 lobed. Stamens about 20mm long. Filaments about 18mm long, widened at the base and lower part lanigerous with long white hairs. Lower part Oxblood red (HCC00823/3) further up pale green. Anthers narrow, linear, about 3mm long. Pollen white. Connective green (147D), not protruding. Pistils: Ovaries hairy. Style about 18mm long, pale green somewhat brownish towards the top, hairy with upwards directed hairs 510mm long, continuously diminishing in size towards the stigma. Stigma club shaped, upper curved part about 3mm long. Seedheads beautifully
shaped like a widened shaving brush. Achenes not seen. Flowering time summer. Geographic distribution: Central Nepal and Tibet. Habitat in woodland with Pinus wallichiana, Picea smithiana etc and hillsides covered with Incarvillea argata. Considering the foregoing in the context of the evolution of the Clematis group from its origination in proximity to the Anemone tribe, around 10-25 million years ago....we will have to wait until more facts are known. One thing – surely it
is unlikely that only one species with alternating foliage has survived? Could there be others out there, as yet still anonymous, in the wild? Perhaps in the expanses bordering Nepal, just awaiting discovery.
If you want to read more about this, consult Magnus Johnson Släktet Klematis (Genus Clematis pp.139-142) for an interesting rudimentary summary. Hopefully, ongoing DNA and other studies will help clarify the picture further, in due course. In the meantime, if you want to delve deeper into this aspect and see some fascinating maps of current postulated Clematis family evolutionary relations, see Systematic Botany,
Phylogenetic Analyses of Clematis (Ranunculaceae) based on Sequences of Nuclear Ribosomal ITS and Three Plastid Regions. Also, don’t fail to read the thoroughly interesting Frederick B. Essig texts on clematis seedling morphology – the full internet links are given below.
Even today, with our modern techniques, we are still only in the early stages of understanding the evolutionary origins and ensuing lineage of the Clematis family tree.
Further reading
Magnus Johnson Släktet Klematis (The Genus Clematis), Plantskola AB, Södertälje, 2001
American Society of Plant Taxonomists Lei Xie, Jun Wen and Liang-Qian Li
Phylogenetic Analyses of Clematis (Ranunculaceae) based on Sequences of Nuclear Ribosomal ITS and Three Plastid Regions DOI10.1600/036364411X604921907.
Web
Essig, F. Seedling Morphology http://shell.cas.usf.edu/~essig/Clematis%20Seedlings.pdf in Clematis (Ranunculaceae) and its Taxonomic Implications
Visiting a Protected Habitat of Wild C. patens in Oouda, Japan
Mariko Nakanishi Japan
IIvisited the protected habitat of some populations of wild C. patens species, in Haibara, Uda City in Nara Prefecture, on May 19th, 2013. I had wanted to visit this particular habitat for a long time, so I was really excited when the opportunity came about, even though it would take two and a half hours by train, each way, from Gifu city where I live, to Nara Prefecture.
Nara Prefecture is part of the Kansai, or Kinki, region of Japan and is located in the middle of the Kii Peninsula on the western half of Honshu. Nara is landlocked and is mostly covered by mountains and forests, leaving only a small habitable area of 851 km², in fact, the smallest inhabitable land area of any of the forty-seven Prefectures of Japan.
Unlike virtually every other protected habitat of wild C. patens that I had been to, this particular milieu was located in a very public district. There was even a prepared walking path, leading directly into the habitat; the whole area was presented as one of the tourist attractions of the city. This was a big surprise to me; normally C. patens is found in quite remote places that hardly anyone has ready access to.
Information sign at the habitat area
I was very interested to find out how C. patens had been protected in such an easily reached district, so I went to the local tourist office information desk and asked how to get to the locale. To my surprise, I was even given a handbook about the plants and their habitat! Pasted here and there around the room were various images of ‘C. patens of Oouda’, painted or sketched by local Oouda High School students. How often do we find a plant as a tourist attraction? I have certainly never seen or heard of this with any Clematis species, before, in Japan.
I at once noticed the presence of significant numbers of various commercial clematis cultivars; some were planted in the gardens of the nearby residential areas which border the natural wild C. patens area, and, in fact, some were also planted within the protected habitat area itself. Considering the high probability of cross pollination, I was amazed at how this could be allowed and why the Ministry of Culture Affairs did not regularly check what was happening, to prevent this kind of situation from arising, in a supposed national scheme ‘designated as protected’ area. As with any other distinct line, this particular C. patens population would have a unique genetic structure (genotype), exclusive to its specific location. Such distinct C. patens populations bear traits which have evolved only within their own distinct individual population. Plants are of course relatively geographically fixed over long periods of time, so they repeatedly interbreed, over millions of years, with their nearest neighbours; their genetic make-up becomes homogenous, yet exclusive to that specific population in its own location. I was quite astounded to see other clematis plants growing near here, without any control.
Glimpsing the flowers in the canopy
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C. patens, we know, as a species, cross-pollinates very easily and this quickly results in hybrids between itself and other compatible plants
C.patensof Oouda
It is therefore extremely important not to allow other C. patens or commercial cultivars close by, in order to preserve the wild C. patens genetic pattern at that exact location. Plants evolve to adapt to their own unique environment. If ‘foreign’ DNA is introduced, it may affect the plant’s ability to best exploit the specific growing environment, thereby altering, in the longer term, the course of the evolution of that population. This could even potentially threaten the ‘extinction’ of that strain.
C.patensKanasashi
The commercial clematis planted near the protected habitat were large in number and looked to me as though they had been growing there for quite a long time. Obviously, by now there must have been considerable mixing of genetics in that area, and potentially, it could
C.patensOkayama even mean that the C. patens in Oouda may no longer be the same plants as their ancestors. It is enormously difficult to protect the wild habitats of endangered species situated so close to places of general human residence.
C.patensShinshiro
This year, I also visited some other natural habitats of C. patens; these, though, were well isolated and protected, which somewhat restored my faith. I would like to report further on these other variants of this unique species, in my next report.
Clematis ‘Ribble Red’ – A
Potted History
Richard Hodson UK richardhaw@talktalk.net
‘ONLY PLANT BREEDERS AND GENEALOGISTS REGARD A STEP BACKWARDS AS PROGRESS’
BBack in 1999, Everett Leeds, past Chairman of the British Clematis Society, crossed Clematis ‘Buckland Beauty’ with Clematis texensis. One of the resultant seedlings was given to Glenis Dyer, who nurtured the plant through to maturity and flowering; in due course Glenis named the plant Clematis ‘Everett’, and registered it; the official record was published in the Second Supplement of the International Clematis Register and Checklist (2006).
Clematis ‘Everett’ produces modest sized red urns, with a pale interior, and has creamy-white filaments bearing pale yellow anthers. The plant can attain around 2m in the season and it flowers from July onwards.
‘Buckland Beauty’ was raised by Everett in 1997 – the exact parentage was uncertain, however, it was believed that the plant was a cross between Clematis texensis and Clematis pitcheri. ‘Buckland Beauty’ reaches approximately 3m in a season and the thickish sepals of the nodding urns are pinkish to pink-mauve, with a green-yellow interior. The anthers are yellowish, borne on hirsute creamy filaments.
In due course, seed from 'Everett' became available via the BCS Seed Exchange.
‘Ribble Red’
BCS member Harry Grounds, who lives in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, is a seed raiser, plantsman and clematis grower of considerable expertise; he has spent twenty-odd years raising his own seedlings, since even before the time he joined the BCS, in around
1994. Harry, an aircraft engineer by trade, has grown many clematis from within the Viorna Group, over the years, not to mention a whole lot of other plants, including rare species, from several other sections of the clematis family. Amongst many others, just at present he is growing C. pogonandra and C. otophora
Harry saw his first Clematis texensis on one of the many occasions that he visited Vince and Sylvia Denny at their nearby home-nursery, back in the ‘90s. Knowing Vince and Sylvia over a good number of years, he naturally saw C. texensis plants quite often, and got to know the species very well. Vince, of course, encouraged him toward seed raising, along with others, and he has been growing new plants ever since. Harry spent years as a friend of Steve and Moira Gilsenan, too, talking clematis, swapping plants and of course exchanging various seeds. He has grown a lot of rare plants from seed imported from specialist suppliers such as Gardens North (Canada – Kristl Walek) and similar; Harry is also a member of the North American Rock Garden Society (NARGS) and has raised many of their Seed Exchange selections as well, over the years.
Harry spotted the ‘Everett’ seed in the BCS Seed Exchange and immediately arranged to have some sent, setting it in 2008. (Harry’s seed germination mix, while we're on the subject - John Innes Seed & Cutting Compost with a small amount of grit added. As well as the traditional pot method, Harry has also used the newer ‘baggie’ method for some germinations (using moist Vermiculite to start the seeds in). Also, just recently, he’s evolved a further particular blend of ‘Perlite and John Innes’ mix, which gives him good results and suits his current methods and requirements.)
Several seeds germinated in April 2009 and flowers first appeared in 2010; Harry was pretty pleased with the results and, after chatting on the phone with him about it several times, he brought the plant over to Hesketh Bank, so that I could take a closer look. I remember thinking and saying how lovely it was, at the time, and I was completely delighted when Harry, with his typical generosity, said I could have the plant.
Although in that first year there were only a few flowers, as the plant developed, over the next couple of years, so the number of flowers increased, and dramatically! The adult ‘Ribble Red’ produces a veritable abundance of fantastic blooms which catch your eye even from a distance, and, close up, in full flood, it is a very exciting and thrilling plant to
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encounter. We registered the plant as ‘Ribble Red’ in 2012, the Ribble being the Lancashire river close to where both Harry and I live. I should add, incidentally, that Harry sowed further seeds of ‘Everett’ the following year. These too have produced seedlings, but we ‘Ribble Red’ are still waiting with anticipation for the first flowers, at this point in time.
From the International Clematis Registerand Checklist: ‘Ribble Red’ Viorna Group:
Parentage: ‘Everett’ (seed parent) open-pollinated. Grown by Harry Grounds (2009), Named by Harry Grounds (2012), Registrant: Richard Hodson (2012) Flowers urnshaped, 2-2.5cm across, upward- or outward-facing, borne singly. Sepals 4; pinkish red outside and in, with whitish margins towards tip, accentuated by dense white down, and inside of flower filled with dense yellow down; 3-4 × 1-1.5cm, ovate, thick and fleshy, fused at base, touching above point at which they split, long-pointed with tips recurved. Filaments cream; anthers yellow. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber, with herbaceous stems 2-3m long. Leaves pinnate with terminal tendril, dark green, with entire margins. Flowering: July-Oct. on current year’s growth.
The original stock was raised from seed received via the BCS seed exchange. The Ribble is a Lancashire river which flows near where both the raiser and registrant live.
II’d like to introduce you to one of my favourite clematis, one that I grew from wild collected seed, gathered in Tibet. It really is an outstanding specimen that more than does justice to the nickname ‘Orange Peel’ clematis.
The story begins in 2008, when I was sent some clematis seed which had been gathered from wild plants, in Tibet, by Yu Liangliang. It was collected in the Sela mountain area, Linzhi district, South East Xizang (Tibet). After successfully germinating a number of these seeds I ended up with several seedlings, which I eventually planted out into my garden (July 2009); one of the seedlings soon began to outshine its siblings. The plant did not flower at all in 2009 but by August 2010 it had grown to about 4m (12’) metres in height, showing off its lovely purple stems and very attractive slender grey-green linear leaves, as it scrambled happily through a Viburnum rhytidophyllum. As
September arrived, the plant became studded with a profusion of plump, globose, lime green flower buds, which gradually transformed themselves into the most lovely clear lemon yellow, finally opening, by October, into huge, tantalizing hanging lutein lanterns. What sets this seedling apart from other Clematis tibetana subsp. vernayi plants is the extraordinary 4mm (1/5th”) thickness of its fleshy sepals, which are much chunkier than any other ‘Orange Peel’ clematis I have ever seen. The flowers would not look out of place alongside pumpkin lanterns, at Halloween!
The peduncles are very long – up to 150mm (6”), each one supporting a colossal, open campanulate flower, around 4.5cm (1.8”) across. The numerous alluring stamens boast striking purple filaments, the anthers seductively overlaid with the most appealing pale yellow tinge. As the flowers mature, the sepals slowly metamorphose through the yellow to orange spectrum, finally
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stabilising at orangey-red. Once sepal-fall has taken place, the styles massively and rapidly elongate, as the seeds form, converting the whole into a huge, wispy, silvery seedhead.
The plant has gradually settled into a SeptemberOctober flowering cycle; this allows adequate time for mature, viable seeds to be harvested. Although this is a late flowering clematis, it really is a fabulous plant. All being well, I am hoping to register it as a named cultivar: Clematis tibetana subsp. vernayi ‘Sela’, after the mountainous area which is its home.
I should add that although the siblings produced charming yellow lantern shaped flowers, they were smaller, and unremarkable, by comparison.
From the InternationalClematisRegister:Clematis tibetana subsp. vernayi
Deciduous climber or scrambler with stems 3-6m, green when young, often becoming flushed with red-purple. Leaves blue-green or sometime grey-green, thick and rather leathery, pinnate with 5-7(-9) leaflets. Leaflets narrowly lanceolate, elliptic or ovate, entire or toothed, often with 1-3 short lobes toward the base, rarely more or less palmately
lobed. Flowers open bell-shaped, often slightly scented. Sepals 4, dull or lemon yellow, ageing to ochre, sometimes purple-brown, 1.5-3.5 × 0.8-1.7cm, ovate to oblong, shortly pointed, very thick and leathery. Anthers deep purple, 2.4-4mm. N and W Nepal, W China including Xizang (Tibet). Synonyms C. chrysantha var. brevipes, C. tibetana var. lineariloba, C. tibetana var. vernayi, C. vernayi.
IIn 2009 I had the good fortune to receive, from Ton Hannink in Holland, a lovely specimen of this little known clematis; Ton had acquired it directly from contacts in China.
An interesting feature of this clematis are that the stems, leaves and flowers are all coated with a velvety down of minute, golden yellow hairs. The nodding, bell shaped greenish-gold flowers are produced in clusters, usually 6 or 7 per group, each with four tepals approximately 20-30mm in length. The leaves have a dry, papery texture; when they eventually die back they persist in hanging on the plant and look a bit scruffy – so they are best removed.
Clematis leschenaultiana is a native of S. E. China, parts of S. E. Asia, the Philippines and Indonesia. It is not fully hardy in the UK and needs to be kept in a heated greenhouse over winter, if you want to see the flowers; if temperatures fall too low it goes into dormancy. My plant flowered in both 2010 and 2011, however in 2012 I did not heat the greenhouse, and the plant looked as if it had died off. As far on as July it was still devoid of signs of life, but, before I
consigned it to the compost heap, I decided to check the root ball and when I unearthed it I discovered that there was still some life there. I repotted it into a very gritty, free draining compost mix – this seems to have worked as, after a while, a new shoot appeared and this has been growing steadily.
In a container the plant will make about 9ft (3m) of growth; in its native habitat it can reach 26ft (8 m) or more. This clematis seems quite fussy about its soil requirements and grows best in a very dry medium during both summer and winter.
A very unusual but attractive clematis that would be ideal for a conservatory.
From the InternationalClematisRegister:Clematis leschenaultiana DC.
Flowers bell-shaped, nodding, borne in a panicle with 1-7 flowers. Buds at first ovoid, becoming slightly oblong. Sepals 4, greyish white, pale yellow or green-yellow to light or dark brown, (1.5-)2-3 × 0.5-1cm, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, straight or somewhat outturned, pointed, tip recurved, margin curved upwards, outside densely downy, usually brownish to yellow, inside densely downy towards tip, becoming hairless towards base. Filaments hairy. Achenes spindle-shaped, 3-6mm long, hairy; styles 3-7cm. Evergreen climber with ribbed stems2-6(-15)m, new growth yellow- or tawny-downy. Leaves ternate; leaflets entire or 2-3 lobed, downy. Flowers often January-March, but can flower at any time of year depending on where it is growing. SE &S China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines. Synonyms: C. acuminata subs. Leschenaultiana (DC.) Kuntze.
Clematis vinacea, a new Viorna Group species, endemic to
a
small area of the Southern Appalachians
Aaron Floden
USA afloden@utk.edu
lematis vinacea has only recently been recognised, but it has a long history of collections, some specimens of which date back more than sixty years, reinforcing the notion that, frequently, undescribed species languish in cabinets in herbaria until enough specimens (data) have accumulated. This clematis was almost always treated as C. viorna, through numerous annotations, and always based on material flowering and collected during the summer. A few specimens were collected in late May and these usually noted the odd habit of the plant in situ; erect and rather shrub-like. Nonetheless, the identifications were still assigned to C. viorna. A single collection from neighbouring Georgia was annotated as C. crispa, this collection also having been made in the May of the year.
Curiously, I first came across this species among these very herbarium specimens and noted the decidedly narrower leaflets that provided a gestalt suggesting these were a cohesive group of similar populations, but nothing truly distinct. Each year, when Clematis species began flowering in the garden, along with my yearly summer encounters with C. viorna in the wild, I went back to these specimens, in the hope of noting some
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distinctive morphology. This annual ritual of herbarium perusal did not reveal to me any convincing distinctiveness. So, it languished on the backburner until 2009, when I made a day trip to its habitat in the southeastern corner of Tennessee, along the western edge of the Unaka Mountains (Appalachians).
I managed to locate an abundance of the plant along the Ocoee River, on steep talus slopes (talus = piles of rock that accumulate at the base of a cliff, chute, or slope. Talus slopes result from talus accumulation). Specimens were made and compared to the material in the herbarium, but, still, I could not find characters or a character that served to consistently distinguish it from C. viorna, other than the lighter colour of the sepals.
Clematisvinaceaalong the Ocoee River in Polk County, Tennessee (with Monardasp. nov. above), May 2009. Note the terminal flower without bracts on the peduncle.
Despite this, there was always a tendency towards a higher density of fine pubescence on the vegetative and floral parts, but this still was not unique; this trait is revealed in some more western populations of C. viorna.
One day, 1st April 2011, to be exact, a colleague sent images of this plant in full flower – at first I thought it a joke – the images showed a range of reddish-coloured flowers, but only a single one per plant, borne terminally. I wrote off the early flowering to a mild winter combined with an early spring, but the presence of the terminal flowers on these plants convinced me that it was fully distinct from C. viorna. Re-examining the specimens in the herbarium revealed my inattentiveness, which had led me to overlook something so obvious and simple. Each branch was terminated by a single flower, borne
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on a bractless peduncle. This character suggests that it is probably more closely related to C. crispa. The early flowering would fit with that, as I have made collections of C. crispa in early March. Soon after, I began a two year stint of performing occasional fieldwork in the area, resulting in numerous collections and enabling me to observe the seasonal variation and growth habit. Living accessions facilitated comparisons with most of the other North American Viornae.
On 26th March 2012, I made a short trip to observe the early spring flora of the habitat in which Clematis vinacea grows, without any expectation of seeing these in flower so early, even though the winter had been another mild one. Despite the earlier exploration time, all the populations I visited were in full flower, on distinctly erect, narrow-leaved plants. Later that same season, fires burned through many populations along the Ocoee River Gorge, but the plants’ response, with subsequent midsummer rains, was an abundant flowering in August.
While the relationship to C. crispa is hypothetical and based on morphology and plant habit, the two are in fact fully distinct from one another. Clematis vinacea has reddish sepals that lack the expanded crispate margins, and these are also silky pubescent. Other morphological differences are seen in the plumose, versus glabrous, achene tails. Furthermore, C. vinacea occurs on dry upland habitats, rather than low swampy woods.
C.vinacea, showing the variation in sepal colour seen in most of the larger populations of the plant. Later season flowers tend to be paler, on the same individuals that are darker in the spring – likely due to anthocyanin production in cooler spring temperatures
Confusion with Clematis viorna is puzzling; but even I, after failing to notice, for so long, just what actually differentiated C. vinacea from C. viorna, was astounded by how simple the morphological distinction between the two species is: the peduncles of C.
vinacea are terminal and lack bracts, whereas the peduncles of C. viorna are axillary and have distinct foliose bracts, near the middle of each peduncle and pedicel.
Thus far its cultivation seems as simple as any other eastern North American species of the Viorna complex – shaded roots, with the vine in nearly full sun. Overview & close-up of C. vinacea,August 2012, after fire had swept through its habitat in June. Most other plants were killed, but the clematis responded as if it were spring again.
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In the garden, one benefit of this species is its long flowering season. It has the same remontant flowering as is observed in C. crispa. In the wild, it flowers from late March, when I collected the ‘type’ material, into the middle of September, by which time seed from the earlier flowers is fully ripe. This behavior does seem dependent upon the availability of moisture throughout the growing season, as the summer of 2012 (prior to the late June rains) led to a single early flowering, whereupon all plants encountered were single stemmed, single-flowered, erect plants.
The ability to tolerate near xeric conditions, as well as average garden conditions, where it responds by nearly continual flowering through the growing season, provides extensive possibilities for hybridisation with other clematis.
TENN Herbarium,
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, U.S.A.
TThere is nothing more magical than finding yourself in Fairyland – when you are grown up! It first happened to me way back in 1980 (just after we had moved home) as I drove along the banks of the River Tay in North Fife. There, on the side of the road, stood a small stone cottage, entirely pink, swathed from the roof to the ground in the pink flowers of Clematis montana var. rubens. It was exactly like something out of a child's nursery book. I stopped immediately and just gazed at it in wonderment. The red roof tiles, the chimney, windows and the front door were visible, but everything else was solid pink. The surrounding garden was a ‘Mrs Tiggy-Winkle arrangement’ of blue scabious, pinks, white marguerite daisies, yellow welsh poppies and a variety of cottage garden plants, growing wherever they fancied, in a glorious array of tumbling perfection. I remember just standing there, with my mouth open, in wide-eyed astonishment. If Mrs T-W [who lived at Catbells] herself had popped out, iron in hand, I would not have been remotely surprised. I knocked at the door, and, almost on cue, a little grey haired lady, wearing a flowery pinny, appeared. She could not have been more friendly, and, having explained why I was standing on her doorstep with my mouth still open, she very kindly gave me three well grown cuttings, in separate pots, and it was only a matter of months before our own front porch was also swathed in pink flowers, from gutters to ground. Hence began my love of all things Montana. Clematismontanavar. rubens
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In my ignorance back then, I just assumed that Montanas were basically rubens or ‘Alba’, with the odd few, such as 'Marjorie’ and wilsonii, thrown in as added extras. I quickly propagated from my recently established rubens and sent its friends and relations hurtling up every available tree, shed and fence in and around our three acres of newly created garden.
Clematis‘Freda’
The thing I truly love about the Montana Group is their sheer wantonness and the way that they scramble everywhere, with such gay abandon and with no regard for propriety; also, the speed with which they do it is particularly pleasing, for someone like myself, who tends to want everything yesterday!
Clematis quickly became a general addiction and I collected all sorts, wherever I went. I had put a weeping pear (Pyrus salicifolia 'Pendula') in the middle of the lawn and, hidden in the centre, I planted three Clematis ‘Xerxes’. This worked a treat; the huge, navy blue flowers of the Clematis hanging from the pale grey leaves and the stems of the pear, looking like ravishing blue butterflies, flitting all over it.
It was not until we moved, in 1993, to my husband's family home, Wemyss Castle, situated on the edge of the Firth of Forth, that my Montana obsession really took hold. I had begun to restore the six acre walled garden, which had fallen into total disrepair and was by now nothing more than a walled field housing three geese, a few redcurrant bushes and a great deal of couch grass. I started my new venture in a completely clueless fashion, driving up and down on a small tractor with a whirligig-type machine on the back, making a huge herbaceous border along one wall (which looked pretty ridiculous at
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the outset!) and thus began the restoration of the six acre walled garden. The rest, as ‘they’ say, is now history.
Not long after I began this project I went to Gardening Scotland, where I met the BCS; manning the stand was none other than the good Everett and Carol Leeds. After a lengthy and inspiring conversation with both, I persuaded them to come away for the evening, to visit the Wemyss Gardens which, at this stage, although looking a great deal better than before, were still very much in their infancy. It was at this point, having immediately spotted my obvious passion for Montanas, that both Everett and Carol suggested that I might eventually try for the National Montana Collection. Thus, my ego was stroked and my enthusiasm was instantly fired up, yet again.
I set about obtaining a great many more varieties from hitherto unknown sources. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Everett and Carol for their tremendous help and encouragement – to say nothing of their immense knowledge – and not least for an introduction to Val Le May Neville-Parry, who has passed mountains of information to me and has subsequently become a dear friend. Other hugely helpful and informative growers have been Ruth and Jon Gooch (from Thorncroft Nursery in Norfolk) and Chris Cocks (from Taylor’s Clematis near Doncaster) to name but two. I have been lucky enough to help out on the Thorncroft stand at Chelsea for the last five years – always challenging, but hugely good fun.
Clematis‘Van Gogh’
Suffice to say that I now have 150 plants of named Montanas within the garden and about 350 Montanas growing both inside and outside the walled garden at Wemyss Although I have kept accurate records of all my collection, I have in recent years come to feel that I do not actually want the National Collection status, in the future. I know that I do not possess the required botanical knowledge, nor indeed the inclination to comply with all the layers of bureaucracy, including such things as the tight control of data, which are nowadays seemingly imperative in keeping up ‘National Collection’ rank; I’m way too flaky and chaotic to aspire to such heights. I
‘East Malling’
‘Giant Star’
‘Crinkle’
‘Mayleen’
‘Elten’
‘Warwickshire Rose’
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prefer to muddle along, in my overgrown Montana wilderness, without being ‘tied to it’ on a National Collection level. I hope this does not sound selfish!
I love all my Montanas unfailingly, but perhaps claim a few favourites, such as ‘Primrose Star’, ‘Jenny’ (Keay), ‘Van Gogh’, ‘Cadmy’ (MORNING YELLOW), ‘Broughton Star’ and ‘Freda’, to name but a few! Perhaps, secretly, I love them all the same, but for different reasons!
I have arranged the plants in sequential order, as I have collected them, along two separate Exhibition Walls. A very smart engraved wooden label, painstakingly made by my dear husband, Michael, hangs beneath each plant. However, I would be the first to acknowledge that they are really far too close together, which makes the individual varieties perhaps hard, if sometimes not impossible, to identify, without going back to the stems. On the other hand, space is obviously at a premium as the Collection grows (I am now half way along Exhibition Wall 2) and the profusion of flowers intermingled together as they gallop along, up and over the walls, far outweighs, to my mind anyway, strict formality of ‘presentation’.
Apart from the two Exhibition walls, I also have Montanas growing in a great many other locations – being blessed, as we are, by walls not only all around the perimeter of the garden, but also several others; they divide the whole garden into sections, providing yet more space on which to let the beauties rip!
Clematismontanavar. rubens‘Pink Perfection’
3
I am continuing with my search for new varieties and if anyone has an inside line to any particular ‘favourite’ sources, I would be more than grateful to hear from you.
My Montana addiction shows no sign of waning, and, as some of you may know, we held a five day Wemyss Montana Clematis Festival this year (in aid of the Maggie Centre) between late May and early June. Several Clematarians, far more knowledgeable than I could ever claim to be, kindly came to my aid and were unstintingly helpful and generous with their time and knowledge. The whole event was great fun and a huge success.
Montana Group Clematis Festival, Wemyss Castle, Fife: Wednesday 29th May - Sunday 2nd June 2013
Charlotte Wemyss charlotte@wemyss-em.com
W Well! I am delighted to report that our first ever Montana Clematis Festival, held at Wemyss Castle (and indeed the first ever held in Scotland) was a rip-roaring success! This was down to many factors, not least that the Clematis performed to their very best ability and hurled themselves over walls, up trees, around shrubs and wherever else they fancied, with their usual glorious gay abandon and total disregard for formality – and ALL were looking completely amazing. My (possible) favourite, ‘Primrose Star’, in full bloom, even managed to throw her pale yellow carpet to cover the Lonicera, just in time for the Event. So, full marks to all the clemmies, who most certainly did not let us down, nor fail to surprise our visitors; they were completely enchanted, particularly as a great many of them had no idea what to expect.
We were also blessed with the weather, throughout the entire Festival – with spectacular bright blue skies and warm sunshine, from start to finish. More than 1,500 visitors came, which, for Scotland, is nothing short of ‘amazing’, particularly as we are not in the natural tourist footfall.
Thanks
My sincere thanks go to Jon and Ruth Gooch, Val Le May Neville-Parry and Philip and Alice Morter, who all came to stay; they helped enormously with the plant stalls, cuttings demos, guided tours and anything else that was required. We had great fun and a considerable amount of partying went on in the evenings! Everett and Carole Leeds were most sadly missed – the festival just happened to coincide with Everett’s hospital stay. This was a great pity since everyone was very much looking forward to hearing the talk he had so kindly agreed to give – Clematis Throughout the Year. I had especially wanted to thank him for his helpful and enthusiastic assistance in my getting the collection started, in the first instance. I am pleased to be able to do this, however, through these pages. At the time reserved for the talk we drew the raffle, for a yellow Magnolia ‘Elizabeth’ (M. acuminata × M. denudata), which raised over £1,320 – an excellent result.
I should also very much like to thank George Dryburgh, Mike McFarlane, Mariusz Kopek and Jim Henderson, who all worked tirelessly, with much overtime (since January) to get the gardens in shape in time for the Event; last, but by no means least, I must thank my husband Michael, who put oil on the waters, weeks before the Event took off, as I became ever more manic. He made wonderful wooden signs for each Clematis displayed on the Exhibition Walls, laminated notices, bashed in poles with signs attached and generally calmed my nerves, again and again! He was always there, as my rock, from start to finish.
Carole Fitzgerald is to be congratulated on her Café, which she set up as a separate entity – the West Wemyss Walk Inn (kindly donating to the Maggie Centre 10% of her takings) which was situated in the poly tunnel and served as a buzzing all-day refreshment area. She decorated it beautifully, with pink bunting, hanging bottles and glass jars on string, holding Clematis blooms and sprays of many other beautiful flowers.
Riot of Montanas
Team Wemyss: L→R Kate Regan, Jon Gooch, Michael Wemyss, Johnny Diamond, Cecelia Drury, Charlotte Wemyss, Enid the dog, Val Le May Neville-Parry, Alice Morter, Philip Morter, Ruth Gooch
folk in wheelchairs, from the Hospice in Kirkcaldy, who all thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine and the café. Doggies rushed about, being important, on their leads, and every seat, chair and bench was sat upon by folk just enjoying being here! It made all the hard work over the previous months seem so appreciated and we were glad that so many people came and really enjoyed it, for all the right reasons. There was very much a carnival atmosphere throughout, and though we were rushed off our feet at the plant stall at certain times, everyone was kind, patient and polite.
Charlotte Wemyss
A great many clematis plants were sold throughout the five days, so I can rest assured that the ‘Montana Clematis disease’ is still rife and highly infectious!
All was topped-off with white table cloths covered with pink cakes, strawberry meringues, filled rolls and many other deliciousnesses – all very effective and rather chic!
‘Primrose Star’
Final thoughts
On reflection, the thing I enjoyed most was the general joyful attitude and cheerful atmosphere pervading the garden, during all five days. People were smiling and holding hands, young and old alike. We were also delighted to be able to welcome so many
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Clematis Festival at Wemyss Castle: May/June 2013
Valerie Le May Neville-Parry UK val@lmnp.co.uk www.clematismontana.co.uk
ould you like some help?’ Charlotte had e-mailed to tell me of her intention to hold a (Montana) Clematis Festival at her fabulous castle home, which stands at sea level on the north bank at the mouth of the Firth of Forth.
Chris and I had visited Charlotte and Michael in March 2009. She excitedly showed me her newly planted Montanas – within a few feet of each other and of the massive, south facing wall surrounding the six acre walled garden. I hesitated just a bit too long before saying I thought they might be rather too close to each other and the wall. I was concerned that her hard work might be in vain.
Four years later, my flight to Edinburgh had been delayed a couple of hours because of an extra suitcase on the inward flight. Ruth and Jon (Gooch) had, however, arrived from Norfolk, in the early afternoon and been to see the display. But it was almost dark, and dinner time, when I reached the castle, so there was no opportunity to see the garden that evening.
Next morning was the first of five days of Festival work. Glorious weather throughout – warm and calm. I entered the massive gateway into the walled garden, then stood in amazement, mouth wide open. How could the Montanas, planted only four years previously, have matured into the magnificent curtain of colour covering the entire
wall? I was spellbound by the perfection of the display. Ruth and Jon were already busy, preparing plants for sale. I was instructed to ‘go and explore the garden before starting work’, selling plants, demonstrating how to take cuttings and walking visitors round the garden, talking about the various cultivars and varieties.
Charlotte, Queen of Montana
What an amazing collection. As well as those on the recently planted Exhibition Wall there were hundreds of mature Montana plants throughout the garden, on both outer and inner walls. Fabulous condition, beautifully displayed – peak flowering time. Over the following five days of virtually perfect weather, I managed to admire, inspect and identify most of the clematis. Oh, what a pity Charlotte has decided not to go for a National Collection of the group. The setting and management are perfect. Several that I am unable to grow here, possibly because of my poor, stony soil, are rampant on the rich, moist, castle soil. And Charlotte is so passionate and expert at growing clematis.
‘Team Montana’
Side entrance to walled garden Don’t grow too near a tree
‘Picton’s Variety’?
‘Picton’s Variety’?
Val, Ruth, Alice, at final breakfast Princess Alice of Montana
This is an unofficial National Collection. In all probability, the best display of this group you will ever see. The castle grounds are open by appointment. If you are visiting Edinburgh, Fife or live in the north of the British Isles, do go and have a look next May/June. It’s well worth a visit – I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
Fantastic jumble of Montana cultivars on the exhibition wall
Montana Flowering 2013 Report
Vale Le May Neville-Parry UK val@lmnp.co.uk
WWhat an extraordinary year it has been! Long freezing periods. Sodden, ferocious winds, then blazing, relentless sun with no rain for months on end! As I write, in early September, my ground is rock hard and bone, bone dry –down to at least half a metre. And no forecast of rain to come in this area. But it has meant a wonderful crop of delicious brown turkey figs and hundreds more on my two trees.
This year Montana flowering was delayed about a month, so my collection was at its very best in late May, whilst I was at Wemyss, helping at Charlotte’s wonderful Clematis Festival But the joy of seeing how good the garden looked, on my return, was worth going away for! Just now, at the beginning of September, there are five montanas displaying sprays of flowers – ‘Continuity’ (pink and white), ‘Unity’ (pink), ‘Prosperity’ (white), var. wilsonii (white) and ‘Tiny Moll’ (pink) – a real treat.
As well as being very late, flowering was variable. Many varieties and cultivars produced wonderful displays, but some have produced few or no flowers, for the first time ever, despite having good growth and healthy vines. Some have also produced very tiny flowers. Neither of my williamsii had flowers. Lots of luxuriant growth before and since May. I hope they do better next year or they will come out. In late June I fed all two hundred Montana plants with a good handful of natural potash, which I have had to water-in with rain water from my numerous butts, as we have had no rain at all since June. I hope this will encourage good flowering in 2014.
Having lost three rampant varieties, ‘Sir Eric Savill’, ‘Vera’ (to an errant strimmer, I suspect – stems cut through at ground level) and × vedrariensis ‘Hidcote’ last winter, I had three huge bare patches in the garden this spring. But I have received two plants of ‘Sir Eric Savill’ from Wim and taken cuttings from my friend, Audrey’s, ‘Sir Eric Savill’. At the end of August, my friend, Marilyn, drove Julian and me to Hidcote Manor and I was able to take cuttings from × vedrariensis ‘Hidcote’ (purchased by me from Dennis Bradshaw in 2004 and rooted cutting of same donated to the Hidcote Manor garden in 2006). I hope to have both varieties flowering in the garden once more within the next few years. I need to go in search of a replacement ‘Vera’ this autumn. It had been stunning – providing a canopy over a massive apple tree, near the bottom of the lawn, for many years.
In early August, whilst in the kitchen, I heard a thump and the house shook. It was only later that I discovered the sycamore housing ‘Crinkle’ and ‘Miss Christine’ had crashed to the ground. An exhausting afternoon followed as I struggled to release the two montanas, and to saw the sycamore into sections I could drag up the garden.
Miraculously, both clematis appear unscathed. I bought a Buckingham arch from Gap Garden Products and threw ‘Crinkle’ up one side and over the top. I hope it will find the adjacent hazel strong enough to support the top section. ‘Miss Christine’ is a larger plant with a good many old and new vines. I have tied some of the older ones in with ‘Crinkle’. Dozens of other, newly emerging stems, will go up and along a series of three poles, linked with chain. I think it will look good as well as providing a frame through which to view the valley below. Fingers crossed.
I have a very beautiful new seedling – deep pink, and scented. Tepal arrangement, size and shape are similar to ‘Warwickshire Rose’ but the current leaves are crimson – very attractive and a good contrast with the large silver seed heads. I have provisionally named it ‘Marilyn’ after a dear friend.
I was very sad indeed to hear of the death of Robin Mitchell. Robin introduced many less vigorous Montana cultivars over more than two decades. In his book, Clematis, The Montanas, (p. 131) John Howells quotes Robin as saying that their cultivars mostly (possibly all) were derived from a chance seedling taken from their previous property when they moved house in 1989. The Mitchells embarked on a breeding programme with seedlings selected pre-flowering for vegetative characteristics and culled at flowering if the flowers were not desirable. Crossings were encouraged by planting established varieties alongside. Because of the number of new plants being introduced year on year I decided not to include them in my National Collection. But I have enjoyed many of them in the last ten years – some of my best and most reliable flowerers! Beautiful pictures, taken by Dianna Jazwinski, of ‘Crinkle’ in particular, have appeared in many magazines – including The Garden, Country Living and The English Garden. A delicate looking but pretty tough plant, she drapes herself gracefully over a large bush or up a small tree. ‘Giant Star’ is a visitor favourite – especially amongst botanical artists – and recently featured on the front cover of a Danish magazine. ‘Wee Willie Winkie’ and
The
‘Doctor Penelope’ both took years to get established – the latter flowered for the first time this year – seven years after planting! But they are both beautiful plants and garden worthy, especially if you have limited space, and the time to let them develop fully!
My heracleifolia-type ‘Chris’ (proposed name) smells divine – along with several of my other Heracleifolias. It has closely-arranged ‘bunches’ of flowers – far less stem and more flowers than any of my other plants from the same Group. I am thrilled with it this year. You need a lot of space for this group of plants, and I have found that they don’t do so well in pots but fare well even in my poor soil. They are good value for money, and vary from deep violet-blue to light lavender-grey. Many have a heavenly perfume and are a lovely addition to the late summer display.
In 2004 I was sold a plant labeled ‘Picton’s Variety’. Wim subsequently identified it as C. montana var. rubens ‘Tetrarose’. Very disappointed, I have been hoping to source ‘Picton’s Variety’ ever since. Imagine my surprise when, in my local garden centre this spring – just checking their clematis (as one does) – I suddenly spotted a plant labeled ‘Picton’s Variety’. The buyer informed me she had been stocking it for a couple of years. I emailed Percy Picton’s son, Paul, attaching a scan of a leaf. He came back to me very quickly, saying that it could well be correct as the leaf stem was crooked – he had noticed that many years ago. He also said that the original plant carried a great many six tepalled flowers. He informed me that these two features marked it out from all other selections
‘Chris’ (proposed name)
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or cultivars. Unfortunately, my current plant had only one flower, which was nearly dead by the time of my emails. Paul reported that his original plant had suddenly sprouted again – he had thought it dead. He had no idea who might have supplied the cutting material to New Leaf – he certainly hadn’t. So is it the right plant?
Within a week of contacting Paul, I was at Charlotte’s glorious Wemyss Castle garden. And there, labeled ‘Tetrarose’, was a mature plant, flowering magnificently, with dozens of six tepalled flowers, and even one with seven tepals. Ruth and Jon (Gooch) had a good look, as did Duncan Donald, who came to view the display on the Sunday.
Both Jon and Duncan took pictures. I felt very excited and came home with flowers and leaves to dry. I need to ascertain if Charlotte’s is one or the other. It didn’t look identical to an adjacent plant, also labeled as ‘Tetrarose’. It seems that the difference between the two cultivars is not great.
In addition to enjoying my own and Charlotte’s garden, I have been privileged to visit Great Dixter and Hidcote Manor, this year, taking cutting material for their gardens (and bringing some back), as well as three delightful gardens on the Isle of Wight, during their Clematis weekend.
‘Chris’ (proposed name)
I am thrilled to have these opportunities and always come away
inspired and happy to have joined a Society with such a grand group of people. I have had continued practical support from Julian Noble and Keith Shortland, as well as Marcus Dancer, selling plants, when groups have visited. I have dozens of cuttings rooting behind the potting shed – I must check them this weekend.
I hope the coming winter will be kinder than the last two and look forward to seeing friends at the Autumn Indoor Meeting, and in my garden in spring 2014.
Report by Duncan Donald, International Clematis Registrar clematis@rhs.org.uk
‘Apricot Star’ Montana Group. Parentage: Selected from a batch of seedlings in Montana Group. Fls semi-double, c.5 cm across, borne several at each node. Outer sepals 4, deep pinkish apricot, c.2.5 × 2 cm, blunt, inner sepals 4, c.0.7 cm wide. Filaments white; anthers yellow. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber; new growth purplish. Lvs dark green, ternate; lflets regularly toothed. FL: Oct (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
‘Berkeley Square’ Montana Group. Parentage: Selected from a batch of seedlings in Montana Group. Fls 5-6 cm across, unscented, solitary or several together. Sepals 4, delicate pink with white longitudinal streaks, 2.5-3 × 2.7-3 cm, almost round, overlapping, blunt. Stamens 1-1.5 cm; filaments white; anthers yellow. Deciduous climber. Lvs purple, ternate; lflets toothed, white-hairy on upper side, less hairy beneath. FL: Oct (in S hemisphere) on previous and current year’s growth. The name is a play on words - the fl. looks square when viewed face-on.
‘Bright Eyes’ Montana Group. Parentage: Chance seedling; parentage unknown. Fls c.7 cm across, with slight vanilla scent, in clusters in lf-axils. Sepals 4(-5), pearly white, 3-3.3 × 2-3 cm, broadly elliptic to almost round, blunt but apiculate. Filaments white; anthers yellow. Deciduous climber. Lvs ternate; lflets ovate, margin with few irregular teeth, hairless above except for minute sparse hairs on veins, beneath with minute sparse hairs, margin sparsely hairy. FL: Oct (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
Syns: montana ‘Morning Yellow’; ‘Morning Yellow’. Fls semi-double, c.6 cm across, solitary. Outer sepals 4, primrose-yellow, c.3 × 2 cm, ovate, blunt but apiculate; inner sepals shorter and narrower. Filaments yellow; anthers white. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber, new growth brownish. Lvs ternate; lflets toothed. FL: Oct (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
‘Cadson1’ Montana Group. Parentage: ‘Magic Star’ ? × unknown. Syns: montana ‘Dusky Star’; ‘Dusky Star’. Fls double, c.6 cm across, solitary. Outer sepals 4, deep pink, c. 3 cm long, ovate, blunt; inner sepals c.2.5 cm long, narrower, pointed, tip often hooded. Filaments yellow; anthers white. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber, new growth purplish. Lvs dark green blotched with purple, ternate; lflets toothed. FL: Oct (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
‘Cadson2’ Montana Group. Parentage: ‘Sunrise’ × unknown. Syns: montana ‘Pink Starlight’; ‘Pink Starlight’ Fls semi-double, c.5 cm across, solitary. Outer sepals 4-5, pink, c.2.5 × 1.5 cm, ovate, blunt but apiculate; inner sepals c.1 cm long, narrower, pointed, hooded at tip. Filaments yellow; anthers white. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber; new growth grey-green. Lvs ternate; lflets toothed, sparsely hairy on upper surface. FL: Oct (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
The
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‘Cherry Blossom’ Montana Group. Parentage: unknown; chance seedling. Fls single, flat or flattish, 5 cm across, outward-facing, borne singly or several per node, with faint almond scent; nodes widely separated. Buds flushed purple, particularly towards base. Sepals 4, creamy white, 2.2 × 1.8 cm, oval, touching, wavy-margined. Staminodes (if present) few, c.1 cm, ovate-lanceolate, sometimes flushed purple towards tip. Filaments white; anthers pale yellow. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber with stems green when young. Lvs ternate, regularly toothed, midgreen, tiny (2.5 cm long including 1 cm stalk; 2.5 cm wide). FL: Oct-Nov (southern hemisphere) on previous year’s wood.
←‘Crinkle’ Montana Group. Parentage: ‘Freda’? × unknown. Syns: montana ‘Crinkle’ Fls c.6 cm across. Sepals 6, deep pink, c.3 × 3 cm, somewhat blunt, gappy, margin wavy and often upturned. Filaments and anthers white. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber with purplish new growth. Lvs ternate; lflets toothed. FL: Oct-Nov (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
‘Curly’ Montana Group. Parentage: unknown Fls semi-double, c.6 cm across, several together in each lf-axil. Opening buds urn-shaped. Outer sepals 4 or more, white, c.3 × 2 cm, elliptic, blunt or notched, downy outside, recurved; inner sepals white, c.2 cm long, narrowly elliptic to lanceolate. Filaments grey; anthers white. Deciduous climber. Lvs mid green, ternate; lflets irregularly toothed, both surfaces sparsely hairy, especially on veins and margin. FL: Oct-Nov (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
‘Darling’ Montana Group. Parentage: unknown. Fls 5 cm across, with slight vanilla scent, borne singly in the lf-axils. Sepals 4, mid pink, 2.5-3 × 2-2.5 cm, very broadly
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elliptic, blunt or sometimes notched, margin often slightly wavy. Filaments white; anthers pale yellow. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber, stems white-hairy, new growth brownish. Lvs dark green, ternate; lflets regularly toothed, sparsely hairy beneath, more so on veins. FL: Oct-Nov (in S hemisphere). A chance seedling found in Robin Mitchell’s nursery.
‘Debbie’s Star’ Montana Group. Parentage: unknown. Fls double, 4-5 cm across, faintly scented, borne several at each node. Outer sepals 4, mid-pink, c.1 × 2 cm, pointed, blunt or notched, inner sepals up to 10, c.0.7 cm wide, pointed. Filaments white; anthers yellow. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber; new growth brownish. Lvs deep green, ternate; lflets regularly toothed. FL: Oct (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
‘Doctor Penelope’ Montana Group. Parentage: unknown. Syns: C. montana ‘Doctor Penelope’. Fls c.5 cm across, broadly bell-shaped to flattish, borne several together in the lf-axils. Sepals 4, cream, c.2.5 × 1 cm, oblong, pointed. Filaments greenish white; anthers yellow. Deciduous climber. Lvs green when young, becoming purple at flowering time and then reverting to mid-green, in autumn with reddish tints, ternate; lflets regularly toothed. FL: Nov (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth. Found in the garden of "Dr Penelope".
‘Double Delight’ Montana Group. Parentage: unknown. Fls double, 8 cm across, borne 1-3 in lf-axils, fl.-stalks hairy. Sepals pearly white, outer sepals 4, obovate, 2.2-3.3 × 2 cm, inner sepals c.28, oblanceolate, 1.1-3 × c.1 cm, all sepals usually blunt, margin wavy. Filaments white; anthers yellow. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber. Lvs ternate, mid green; lflets regularly toothed. FL: Nov-Feb (in S Hemisphere). A seedling found in the collection of R. & L. Mitchell. It is possible that C. montana var. wilsonii may be involved in the parentage.
‘Double Star’ Montana Group. Parentage: Parentage unknown; chance seedling. Fls semi-double, flat or flattish, 6 cm across, upward- or outward-facing, with several fls borne per node, slightly but sweetly scented. Sepals up to 20, including 4 guard sepals; pink, shading to pale pink along midrib, even white towards base, and to deep pink along margins; overlapping, with guard sepals broadly elliptic, 3 × 3 cm, flattish or with slightly wavy margins, with whitish down on underside, inner sepals narrowly elliptic, 3 × 1 cm, tending to fold inwards along midrib. Filaments white; anthers yellow. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber with brownish young stems. Lvs ternate with regular or irregular teeth or small lobes, green with a reddish flush above when mature, with hairs on the margins and underside veins. FL: Oct-Nov (southern hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
‘El Pinko’ Montana Group Parentage: ‘Freda’ ? × unknown Fls c.7 cm across, solitary in lf-axils. Sepals 4, pale pink, stained with deep pink at extreme base, c.3.5 × 2 cm, ovate, blunt. Filaments yellow; anthers white. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber, new growth purplish. Lvs purplish green, ternate; lflets with toothed margin. FL: OctNov (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
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‘Flutter’ Montana Group. Parentage: unknown. Fls single or sometimes semi-double, c.6.5 cm across, solitary in lf-axils. Sepals of single fls 4, light pink, 3-3.5 × 2-2.5 cm, broadly elliptic, twisted (like the blades of a toy windmill), blunt, margin irregularly recurved; semi-double fls have a few additional inner sepals, white with purplish tip. Filaments white; anthers yellow. Deciduous climber. Lvs mid-green, ternate; lflets ovate, irregularly toothed, above minutely hairy on veins, beneath minutely hairy, especially on veins. FL: Oct (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
‘Frilly Pants’ Montana Group. Parentage: unknown. Fls 4.5-6 cm across, solitary or several together. Sepals 4, delicate pink, paler or whitish towards centre, c.2.5 × 1.7-2 cm, broadly elliptic, overlapping, blunt. Stamens c.1 cm; filaments white; anthers yellow. Deciduous climber. Lvs mid-green, ternate; lflets toothed, hairy above and on the veins beneath. FL: Oct (in Southern hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
← ‘Giant Star’ Montana Group. Parentage: Possibly montana var. rubens ‘Tetrarose’ × unknown Syns: montana ‘Giant Star’; ‘Gistar’. Fls 9-11 cm across. Sepals 4, mid-pink with white margin, c.5 × 3 cm, oblong, gappy, blunt, margin slightly wavy. Filaments white; anthers yellow. Deciduous climber to 6 m, with brownish new growth. Lvs ternate, dark green with brown patina above; lflets toothed. FL: Apr-May (Nov in S hemisphere) on current year’s growth.
‘Innocence’ Montana Group. Parentage: unknown. Fls c. 6 cm across. Sepals 4, pearly white, 3-3.5 × 2.5-3 cm, broadly elliptic to broadly obovate, blunt to notched, margin often crinkled especially towards sepal-tip, downy outside. Filaments and anthers yellow. Deciduous climber. Lvs mid green, ternate; lflets irregularly toothed, sparsely hairy beneath. FL: Oct-Nov (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth. A chance seedling found in Robin Mitchell’s nursery.
‘Joyful Star’ Montana Group. Parentage: unknown. Fls double, c.4 cm across, 3-4 at each node, vanilla-scented. Outer sepals 4, mid-pink, paler towards centre, c.2 × 1 cm,
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blunt, the median ones c.1.8 × 0.4 cm, pointed, the inner ones c.1.6 × 0.2 cm, pointed. Filaments white; anthers yellow. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber. Lvs midgreen, white-hairy on upper surface, ternate; lflets regularly toothed. FL: Oct (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
‘Little Guy’ Montana Group. Parentage: ‘Pink Minnie’ ? × unknown. Fls c.5 cm across, solitary. Sepals 4, white, c.2.5 × 1.2 cm, oblong, blunt but apiculate. Filaments yellow; anthers white. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber. Lvs pale green, with rather long stalks, ternate; lflets toothed. FL: Oct-Nov (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
‘Little Pinkie’ Montana Group. Parentage: Chance seedling, parentage unknown. Fls c.4.5 cm across, several together in each lf-axil. Opening buds cylindrical. Sepals 4, bright pink with slightly duller central part, outside paler pink, 2-2.5 × 1.2-1.5 cm, oblong, pointed. Filaments white; anthers orange-brown with whitish pollen. Deciduous climber, the new growth brownish. Lvs reddish green, ternate; lflets regularly toothed, sparsely white-hairy beneath, especially on veins and margin. FL: Oct-Nov (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth. A chance seedling found in Robin Mitchell’s nursery.
‘Lorna’s Star’ Montana Group Parentage: unknown Fls double, c.5 cm across, several together in lf-axils. Outer sepals 4, white with pink margins and spots, c.2.5 × 1.5 cm, broadly oblanceolate, usually notched, inner sepals 12-20, narrower, pointed. Staminodes c.16, white with pink margins, c.2 cm long. Filaments white; anthers white. Deciduous climber, new growth brownish. Lvs mid green, ternate; lflets regularly toothed, sparsely hairy beneath. FL: Nov (in S hemisphere). Named for Lorna Mitchell, the co-owner of Cadsonbury Plant Breeders. A chance seedling found in Robin Mitchell’s nursery.
‘Magic Star’ Montana Group Parentage: ‘Starlight’? × unknown Syns: C. montana
‘Magic Star’. Fls double, c.5 cm across, in clusters at the nodes. Sepals dusky pink, inner often with bright pink tip, c. 2.4 × 1.2 cm, pointed. Filaments white; anthers white. Fruitheads persistent. Deciduous climber with brownish new growth. Lvs ternate; lflets irregularly toothed. FL: Oct-Nov (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
‘Mellow Yellow’ Montana Group Parentage: ‘Starlight’ or ‘Sunrise’ × unknown Fls double, c.6 cm across. Sepals 15 or more, primrose-yellow (deeper yellow when young), c.3 × 1 cm, elliptic. Filaments green; anthers yellow. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber with the current year’s stems red, old stems with a brownish surface layer that peels to reveal green. Lvs ternate; lflets irregularly toothed. FL: Oct-Nov (in S hemisphere) on current year’s growth.
‘Pearl of Richmond’ Montana Group. Parentage: unknown. Fls semi-double, c.7 cm across, in clusters in lf-axils. Sepals 6-20 or more, pearly white, with a slight tendency to develop pink flecks as flower ages, outer sepals 2-2.5 × 1.3-1.5 cm, blunt, inner sepals narrower, pointed. Filaments white; anthers yellow. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber. Lvs dark green, ternate; lflets ovate, margin regularly toothed and minutely hairy, above minutely hairy especially on veins, beneath somewhat more densely hairy. FL: October (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
‘Pied Piper’ Montana Group. Parentage: unknown; chance seedling. Fls semi-double, flat or flattish, 4 cm across, upward- or outward-facing, borne singly or (more usually) with 2-3 fls per node, with faintly sweet scent. Outer sepals 4, with variable number - but few - inner sepals; centre pale creamy yellow, shading through narrow band of very pale pink to narrow, deep pink margin, broader towards tip; outer sepals oval with blunt tip, gappy, with wavy margins, 2.2 × 1.3 cm, inner ovate-lanceolate, long-pointed. Filaments white; anthers yellow. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber with stems green when young. Lvs ternate, entire, mid-green, somewhat smaller than is typical for Montana Group. FL: Oct (southern hemisphere) on previous year’s growth. Named after the similarity of the fls to the Pied Piper of Hamelin’s "gypsy coat of red and yellow" (Browning)
‘Pink Giant’ Montana Group. Parentage: chance seedling; parentage unknown (but probably involving ‘Giant Star’) Fls flat or flattish, broadly bell-shaped, 8.5 cm across, upward- or outward-facing, borne with several fls per node, strongly and sweetly scented. Sepals 4, deep pink above, paler pink and white-downy beneath, 4.5 × 3 cm, broadly elliptic, gappy, with margins in upper half (including tips) markedly and irregularly wavy, almost crenulate, tips retuse, tips and margins somewhat incurved to give sepals concave or scooped appearance. Filaments white; anthers pale yellow. Fruitheads persistent. Deciduous climber, with stems at least 2 m, white-downy when young and turning grey when mature. Lvs ternate, margins wavy, more or less regularly lobed, lobes pointed (mainly acuminate or cuspidate), reddish-brown, occasionally streaked green when young. FL: Oct.-Nov. (southern hemisphere), on previous year’s growth.
‘Pink Minnie’ Montana Group Parentage: ‘Freda’? × ‘Marjorie’ Syns: C. montana ‘Pink Minnie’. Fls single or occasionally semi-double, c.5 cm across, faintly scented, in clusters at the nodes. Sepals of single fls 4, mid-pink, outside primrose-yellow, c.2.5 × 1.1 cm, pointed, tip eventually recurved. Filaments white; anthers white. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber with brownish new growth. Lvs green tinged with brown, ternate; lflets regularly toothed. FL: Oct-Nov (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
‘Pink Rave’ Montana Group. Parentage: unknown. Fls 5-7 cm across, solitary or several together. Sepals 4, mid-pink, 2.5-3.5 × c.2 cm, obovate, blunt, margin broadly wavy. Filaments white; anthers yellow. Deciduous climber. Lvs mid-green, ternate; lflets regularly toothed, hairy on both surfaces, more so above. FL: Oct (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
‘Pink Whiskers’ Montana Group. Parentage: Chance seedling; parentage unknown. Fls flat or flattish, 8 cm across, upward- or outward-facing, borne with several fls per node, strongly and sweetly scented. Sepals 4, deep pink above on first opening, maturing to mid-pink, slightly paler pink beneath, 3.5 × 2 cm, broadly elliptic, gappy, with slightly wavy margins, tips blunt, retuse and strongly recurved. Stamens 2 cm long; filaments white; anthers pale yellow. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber, with stems at least 2 m, red-brown when mature. Lvs ternate, mid-green, margins more or less regularly lobed, petioles red-brown. FL: Nov.-Dec. (southern hemisphere), on previous year’s
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growth. So named because its stamens look like long whiskers. Fls reminiscent of montana var. wilsonii
‘Primrose Star’ Montana Group. Parentage: ‘Freda’ × ? ‘Starlight’. Syns: montana ‘Primrose Star’; ‘Star’. Fls usually double, sometimes semi-double, c.7 cm across, faintly scented, in clusters at the nodes. Sepals at first primrose-yellow, becoming almost white, c.3.4 × 1.5 cm, ovate. Filaments white; anthers white. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber, new growth brownish. Lvs ternate; lflets irregularly toothed. FL: Oct-Nov (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
‘Purple Blush’ Late Large-flowered Group Parentage: unknown; chance seedling Fls semi-double, flat or flattish, 11 cm across, upward- or outward-facing, borne singly. Sepals up to 12, pale purple, ageing to white (except where sepals overlap), 5 × 4 cm, wavy-margined, overlapping, outer sepals blunt but inner long-pointed. Filaments and anthers white. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber. Lvs small (central lflet 3 × 1.5 cm), pale green, ternate, with margins entire but wavy. FL: November onwards (southern hemisphere), on current year’s growth.
‘Purple Empress’ Late Large-flowered Group. Parentage: unknown; chance seedling. Fls flat or flattish, 12 cm across, upward- or outward-facing, borne singly or several per node, with a slight, sweet scent. Sepals 6, purple with mauve midrib, paler beneath with dark midveins, 5.5 × 4 cm, broadly elliptic, obovate, somewhat blunt, with a narrowed base, gappy. Filaments greenish white, sometimes flushed purple towards top; connectives purple; anthers white (or fls sterile). Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber with stems green when young. Lvs pinnate, with 3 [terminal lflet 3-lobed] or 5 lflets; margins entire. FL: Nov-Mar (southern hemisphere) on current year’s growth.
‘RobloM’ Montana Group Parentage: unknown; chance seedling Syns: ‘Star Burst’ Fls 11-12(-16) cm across, outward-facing, borne singly in axils, slightly scented. Buds ovate to lanceolate, 5 × 2 cm, pinkish white (N155B). Sepals 8, vivid reddish purple (74B) with pinkish white (N155B) bar, c.5.5 × 3 cm, elliptic, slightly overlapping, pointed. Filaments pinkish white (N155B), 1.2 cm, 100 per fl; anthers brilliant greenish yellow (3B), 0.8 cm; styles yellowish white (156D), 2 cm,100 per fl; stigmas yellowish white (155D). Fruitheads persistent. Deciduous (or semi-evergreen?) climber, with moderate red (180B) new growth, stems very slightly downy. Lvs ternate, leathery, deep yellowish green (141B) above when mature; lflets joined at base in some lvs, margins often crenate. FL: spring (Oct in New Zealand) through summer, on current year’s growth.
‘Rosebud’ Montana Group. Parentage: ‘Sunrise’ × unknown. Syns: montana ‘Rosebud’; ‘Robud’. Fls double, c.6 cm across, musky-scented. Outer sepals 4, mid-pink, c.3 × 2.5 cm, ovate, gappy, long-pointed. Deciduous climber with brownish new growth. Lvs ternate, dark green with a brown patina; lflets toothed. FL: Oct (in S hemisphere) on current year’s growth.
‘Shirley Star’ Montana Group Parentage: unknown Fls semi-double, 5-6.5 cm across, solitary or several at each node. Outer sepals 4, light pink, 2.5-3 × c.2 cm, oblong, blunt, margin wavy, inner sepals 4, darker pink, c.1.5 × 0.6 cm, pointed. Filaments white;
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anthers yellow. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber. Lvs mid-green, white-hairy on both surfaces, ternate; lflets regularly toothed. FL: Oct (in S Hemisphere) on previous year’s growth. Named after the suburb in which Robin and Lorna Mitchell live
‘Sirius’ Late Large-flowered Group. Parentage: unknown. Fls c.18 cm across, solitary in lf-axils. Sepals 8, light purple with a darker purple bar, 8-9 × 2.8-3 cm, elliptic, gappy, pointed. Filaments purple; anthers purple. Deciduous climber. Lvs simple or more rarely ternate, entire. FL: Nov (in S hemisphere) on current year’s growth.
‘Starlet’ Montana Group. Parentage: unknown. Fls semi-double, 3-3.5 cm across, solitary or several together. Outer sepals 4, yellow, becoming pinkish with age, 1.5-1.8 × 0.6-1.1 cm, oblong, somewhat pointed and apiculate, inner sepals c.1 cm long, narrow. Filaments and anthers white. Deciduous climber. Lvs dark green, ternate; lflets regularly toothed, both surfaces sparsely hairy. FL: Oct (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
‘Starlight’ Montana Group Parentage: ‘Elizabeth’ ? × ‘Marjorie’ Syns: montana
‘Starlight’. Fls semi-double or double, c.5 cm across, in clusters at the nodes, slightly scented. Sepals 4-20, white (155D) tinged with purple on margin and outside, outer sepals blunt, inner sepals narrower, pointed, on the outside slightly downy or not. Filaments white; anthers yellow. Fruit-heads persistent. Woody deciduous climber to 8 m, new growth purplish or reddish. Lvs green tinged with brown, ternate, strongly veined; lflets ovate, toothed and lobed, hairless above except for veins, beneath minutely and sparsely hairy. FL: Oct-Nov (in S. hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
‘Sunrise’ Montana Group Parentage: Probably ‘Starlight’ × montana var. rubens ‘Tetrarose’. Syns: montana ‘Sunrise’. Fls single, semi-double or double, bell-shaped when young, 4-6 cm across, slightly scented, in clusters at the nodes. Sepals of single fls 4(-6), deep pink [J. van Zoest Clematis Cat. 2002-03: 5 describes the sepals as pale cream-pink fading to white with pale purple spots], c.2.2 × 1.4 cm, oval, tip eventually recurved. Filaments white; anthers white. Deciduous climber with reddish or purplish new growth. Lvs ternate; lflets irregularly toothed, sparsely white-hairy beneath. FL: Oct-Nov (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
‘Supernova’ Late Large-flowered Group. Parentage: unknown; chance seedling; possibly ‘RobloM’ self-seeded. Fls double, flat or flattish, 16 cm across, upward- or outward-facing, borne singly, not scented. Sepals (5-)8; fls opening deep pink along broad midrib, shading to narrow, mid-pink margins, the margins becoming broader and paler - to very pale pink - with age; 6 × 4 cm, broadly elliptic, long-pointed, margins folding inwards in young fls, touching and wavy. Staminodes numerous, white with a central pink stripe, 3 × 1.5 cm, oval, long-pointed. Filaments and anthers white. Deciduous climber with green stems when young. Lvs ternate, entire, mid-green. FL: Oct-Nov (southern hemisphere) on current year’s growth.
‘Sweet Mystery’ Montana Group. Parentage: unknown. Fls c.9 cm across, strongly rose-scented, solitary or several together. Sepals 4, white streaked longitudinally with pink, 4-4.5 × 3-3.5 cm, broadly ovate, blunt, apiculate, margin wavy. Stamens to 2 cm;
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filaments white; anthers yellow. Deciduous climber, new growth purplish. Lvs midgreen, ternate, the young lvs white-hairy beneath. FL: Oct (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth. Named for its rose-like fragrance.
‘Sweetie’ Montana Group Parentage: unknown; chance seedling. Fls flat or flattish, 5.5 cm across, upward- or outward-facing, borne one or more from a node, with a slight, sweet vanilla scent. Sepals 4, pale pink, darker at the margins, 2.5 × 1.5 cm, broadly elliptic, gappy or slightly overlapping, blunt, with a recurved tip. Filaments white; anthers primrose. Fruitheads persistent. Deciduous climber with stems >4 m. Lvs ternate with lflets sometimes lobed or regularly toothed, mid-green to purplish, hairless. FL: Oct. (southern hemisphere), prolifically on previous year’s wood.
←‘Wee Willie Winkie’ Montana Group. Parentage: unknown. Syns: montana ‘Wee Willie Winkie’. Fls 4-4.5 cm across, solitary or several together in lf-axils. Sepals 4, mid-pink, shading to white in centre and towards base, 2-2.5 × 1.2-1.5 cm, elliptic, blunt, margin wavy, almost crinkled. Stamens c.1.5 cm; filaments and anthers white. Deciduous climber, new growth brownish. Lvs mid-green, ternate; lflets lobed or regularly toothed, hairy on upper surface when young. FL: Oct (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
‘White Crinkle’ Montana Group. Parentage: unknown. Fls single or semi-double, c.7 cm across, slightly vanilla-scented, borne several together at the nodes. Sepals 4-8, white, 3-3.5 × 2-2.5 cm, broadly elliptic, blunt, margin often twisted and recurved, inner sepals (if present) smaller and narrower. Filaments white; anthers yellow. Deciduous climber. Lvs ternate; lflets ovate to narrowly so with irregularly toothed margin, above minutely and sparsely hairy on veins, beneath sparsely hairy, margin minutely hairy. FL: Oct (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth. Named for its similarity to ‘Crinkle’, raised by Mitchell in 1995, but with white fls.
‘White Frill’ Montana Group. Parentage: Chance seedling. Fls flat or flattish, 8.5 cm across, upward- or outward-facing, several fls per node, peduncles dark red-brown shading to green beneath tip. Sepals 4, white, 4 × 3 cm, obovate, gappy, with wavy margins, tips blunt. Filaments white; anthers yellow. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber, stems at least 2 m, mid-brown when mature. Lvs ternate, purplish, with green-marbled veins when young, grey-green when mature, margins regularly lobed. FL: Oct.-Nov. (southern hemisphere), on previous year’s growth.
‘White Giant’ Montana Group. Parentage: Chance seedling; parentage unknown. Fls flat or flattish, 9 cm across, upward- or outward-facing, borne with several fls per node, sweetly scented. Sepals 4, white, 4 × 3 cm, obovate, overlapping at base, with slightly wavy margins, tips blunt. Filaments white; anthers yellow. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber, with stems at least 4 m. Lvs ternate, mid-green, margins regularly lobed. FL: Oct.-Nov. (southern hemisphere), on previous year’s growth.
‘White Rosebud’ Montana Group Parentage: unknown Fls semi-double, c.5 cm across, several at each node. Outer sepals 4, white with pale pink veins radiating from the base, c.2 × 1.2 cm, blunt, inner sepals c.8, only c.0.4 cm wide, pointed. Filaments and anthers white. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber. Lvs mid-green, white-hairy on upper surface, ternate; lflets regularly toothed, sometimes sparsely so. FL: Oct (in S hemisphere) on previous year’s growth.
‘Yellow Starlight’ Montana Group. Parentage: unknown. Fls double, c.6 cm across, several together in each lf.-axil. Outer sepals 4, pale yellow, 2.5-3.2 × 1.5-2 cm, broadly oblong, blunt or notched, margin wavy; inner sepals c.16, pale yellow, 1-1.5 cm long, oblanceolate, pointed. Filaments yellow; anthers white. Deciduous climber, the new growth green. Lvs mid green, ternate; lflets regularly toothed, sparsely hairy beneath. The name is a reference to ‘Starlight’, raised by Mitchell in 1988. A chance seedling found in Robin Mitchell’s nursery.
IIn my quest to learn more about both clematis and the business of clematis, I had often thought of visiting the well known ‘King of Clematis’ – Roseville Farms, in Apopka, Florida. In December 2012 (coinciding with a family visit to Florida) time was finally on my side, and, with permission granted, I was at last able to take a tour around Roseville
Being a devoted fan (of our genus) who will go to great lengths to meet people and have the opportunity to ask questions, I closed that first visit to Roseville with a request to come back to learn more, and to write about the Roseville story.
So that we are all on the same page, ‘liner’ is a term used to describe a very young clematis plant. Liners are usually potted up into larger containers and allowed to grow on, to become gardenready plants, in due course. In some clematis circles, though, the ‘liner plant’ is an object of vilification, being associated with frequent garden failure, and taking on a perhaps larger than reality blame for the ills that plague the clematis gardener, garden centre owner and regional clematis grower.
My immediate impressions of Roseville: the proverbial ‘run like a well-oiled machine’; superb facilities, comprising many ventilated shade tunnels, meticulously maintained and organised, all
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the plants benched, labeled and carefully set out in neat, orderly rows. Dan Webber, the Vice President of Roseville, graciously provided my initial tour. In efficient style he took me through the various stages – propagation, growing on, and vernalising. (‘Vernalise’ –Latin, from ‘vernus’, meaning ‘of the spring’. Vernalisation, in horticulture, refers to exposing plants to an extended cold period which promotes essential physiological processes that allow plants to flower each year.) His excitement about one of their latest ventures –selling clematis as cut flowers to the floral trade – was quite contagious.
Dan shared industry stats and much optimism about the great ‘product’ that Roseville produces, and summarised the science that goes into delivering a consistent product to the marketplace. The pride in his polished message was impressive (however, frankly, my own perception of the clematis sold at many retail nurseries differs from Dan’s).
Roseville’s mission is to deliver young, large-flowered clematis plants to the regional grower. Regional growers will then pot up and grow the plants on for six weeks, before delivering them in bud, or blooming, to the retail nursery. That large flowered plant, in bloom at ‘point of sale’ – for the impulse purchase – is Roseville’s goal and they accomplish it several million times each year, in the USA.
Clearly, the clockwork-like vernalising programme is at the heart of their success. It permits them to run a well-drilled, maximum efficiency production sequence, repeatable many times over the course of a single ten months growing season. (Actually, without cooling, long term survival of large-flowered clematis hybrids in this hot southern climate would not be possible.) David Raab, the owner of Roseville Farms, likens this to
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‘a bear preparing to hibernate’. First, he stores energy, in the form of fat, then he sleeps, deeply, using the nutrient reserves for metabolic energy while asleep, and, finally, he reemerges in the spring, ready to thrive again, as the new season gets underway.
Roseville’s proprietary method of vernalising is surprisingly straightforward. Plants are fertilised, pre-vernalisation, with a ‘blossom booster’ formula, stripped of foliage by hand and then ‘put to bed’ . They are checked periodically for fungal problems during hibernation (oops, I meant vernalisation!). As a basic guideline, they suggest a minimum period of 1000 hours at 4.5°C. Roseville has learned that juvenility (under one year of age) can reduce the time needed in vernalisation, which, they hypothesize, is due to the extreme tenderness of the young roots. Light is used in the initial part of the cold period, followed by darkness. ‘After all’, as David reminded me, ‘plants buried in snow, just like the bear in the dark cave, hibernate without light’ .
After some online research I raised a query with my good friend Peter Zale, a PhD student working in the Ornamental Plant Germplasm Centre within Ohio State University. Peter made me aware of the ongoing controversy regarding the function of florigen(a plant hormone thought to be involved in the initiation of flowering) in flowering plants. There are contradictory views among scientists about the specific mode of action of florigen, versus that of other factors, known and unknown, that trigger flowering in plants. Those on the florigen side of the argument hypothesize that it is produced in the leaves and acts in the meristem of buds, and the growing tips, to initiate the flowering sequence. Despite attempts since the 1930s to identify and isolate it, florigen’s exact nature, and, in fact, clear proof of its actual existence, are still awaited.
Fast-forward to March. As luck would have it, my good friend, Lyndy Broder, was able to accompany me on my second visit to Roseville. Our tour guide was the very knowledgeable General Manager, Lee Hicks. While all the time being peppered by questions from Lyndy and me, Lee took us on an extensive and detailed tour of the facility. He was quite unfazed by our enthusiasm for clematis and our obvious knowledge of the cultivars (and the breeders thereof) they are growing and trialing. Lyndy and I were like kids in a candy store!
Roseville’s expertise is explained in their history. The Firm was founded eighteen years ago; David Raab grew up in this nursery business and became a second generation nurseryman. By the time he was a teenager, his family owned twenty-four ‘White Rose’ garden centres in Canada and a 500 acre garden farm. With his father’s guidance, David became an expert grafter; ‘being a propagator is the heart and soul of the business’, his father maintained. He also challenged him to master all the other various methods of vegetative propagation, including the taking of cuttings.
Following the sale of the family business, a five year non-competition clause (applying to the Canadian market) propelled David from the cool north to the warmer promise of Florida, with the vision of creating his own business. Finally at the helm of his own company, David continued to work on perfecting his methods and began taking risks to develop a larger market, at the retail level. Not content to take a share of the market as it existed at that time, he pioneered programmes to create a larger clematis business in the mass market of ‘Big Box’ stores. One of the first projects was to develop a complete ‘point of sale’ programme where Roseville delivered a fully loaded multi-shelf
The
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cart to the big box location. Budded up plants in 4” pots, with a small trellis, and large pictures of the cultivar in bloom were a new and appealing offering for the retailer. This programme enlarged both the clematis market in the USA, and the Roseville business itself, dramatically. Estimates suggest that during this period the size of the clematis market in the USA grew fourfold, to a production total of five million liners per year.
A further initiative in this growth period was the offering of a new cultivar, on an exclusive basis, to a big box store. To facilitate this, Roseville brought on board many regional growers that would grow liners on, thereby providing a larger plant to the big box shopper. Lowe’s Garden Club Select’s introduction of C. ‘Reiman’ is one example of these various programmes, which, impressively, sold almost 200,000 plants.
Today, post recession estimates are that big box mass retailers generate 70-80% of all garden centre sales in the USA. The clematis liner market has meanwhile decreased from (est.) five million per year to four million per year, with Roseville maintaining an impressive 80% market share.
C. ‘Reiman’
Roseville currently offers between eighty and one hundred varieties of clematis, with about twenty of them being ‘more exclusive’ varieties, propagated under breeder/royalty agreements. Over the last twelve years, they have paid about one million dollars in royalties, to breeders.
As an entrepreneur and businessman, David has also sought ‘vertical’ concepts for his product and has been developing one that looks to be a winner. Roseville is now selling several hundred thousand budded or blooming clematis stems to the cut flower trade…once again creating a larger market for their product. The post-vernalised clematis, in a 4” pot, is first reduced to the two best stems; these are trained on thin metal stakes and in due course, the stems are harvested to fulfill orders from wholesale florists. The metal stakes are ingenious, allowing the vine to be continually pulled down the stake, keeping the terminal growth even, with the top of the stake at an easy-to-work height of 40”. When the budded or flowering vine is cut, it glides easily off the metal stake, so a perfect vine can be shipped.
The business side of this innovation is that by holding the plants a little longer, and extracting the cash crop of cut flowers, this allows a slightly older and larger liner to be shipped. Plants are rotated through the cut flower phase, while being grown out for the live plant market. You get the idea, when speaking to David, that innovations like this are the motivators that push Roseville forward.
Another major investment has been in the Ellegaard Göttingen Minipig method (commonly known as ‘plugs’), which David has adapted to clematis by investing in the equipment to form the plugs that cuttings are grown in. This allows them to exert complete control of the composition of the medium in the plug.
Roseville loves bringing new plants to market. Some of the successes worth noting, in addition to the aforementioned C. ‘Reiman’, are the cultivars ‘Pinky’ , ‘Shikō’, and GREFVE
ERIK RUUTH (Clematis ‘KBK02’)
While Roseville does not work exclusively with the Canadian powerhouse Pride of Place Plants, they are, together, such an important part of the North American clematis trade that Pride of Place starts patent and trademark work on a clematis only after Roseville has tested it and decided to add the cultivar to their offering.
The need to overcome problems has provided learning opportunities. A serious leaf deformity (about twelve years ago), thought to be bacterial, sent them to the University of Florida, to diagnose the problem. Roseville had already discovered that the cultivars they grow fare better with a soil pH of 5.5 to 6.5. The university diagnosed the problem as a result of pH levels being as low as 4.5, which was then corrected – excessively low pH inhibits the uptake of nitrogen. During this period of tinkering with optimal pH, they discovered that certain varieties of clematis have better bloom colour when grown in the lower range of the pH target. This benefits their live plant (and now also the cut flower product) greatly, giving consistent and better colouring in the blooms.
Also as a result of working with pH levels, Roseville has found that nutrient absorption can be optimized – a plant that takes up nutrients efficiently is a healthier plant, so, correcting and controlling the pH of the soil, as opposed to throwing excess nutrients at the plant, makes great commercial sense.
Martha and David Raab
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As with most business innovators, there have been failures as well as successes. Roseville broke new ground in trying to integrate tissue culture propagation into their protocols. Over four years, after investing in a staff of ten and a state of the art laboratory (at the cost of a million dollars) David discovered that costs per finished liner were double to triple that of plants produced from cuttings. The lab has been closed and the equipment donated to the University of Florida; for ongoing propagation purposes Roseville is now firmly back to using their practical expertise in producing liners from cuttings.
One point of note, David cites juvenility as one of the qualities that helps a plant successfully transition from nursery to garden centre and then to the home garden. Propagation by cuttings with young, freshly vernalised plant material, available in successive batches, allows them to clone plants in smaller crops, thereby removing the chance of shipping root-bound plants or plants approaching maturity, which may be harder to transition.
Sometimes however…the more things change, the more they stay the same. Roseville has added few clematis that are outside the genre of large-flowered varieties that work well with their vernalising method, and standard growing protocols. They find that the market (that is to say, the regional grower they depend on, and the retailer) are both hesitant to offer a wider selection outside of the tried and trusted large-flowered hybrids. Surprisingly, to those of us who grow a range of clematis in our gardens, ‘Nelly Moser’ and ‘Jackmanii’ continue to be the best sellers.
There was so much to learn at Roseville, I felt like a sponge soaking up new information. I hope to continue the new friendships formed as a result of my two visits, as well as keeping tabs on Roseville’s success in the market, from a business perspective.
This brings me to the final point of the Roseville story, which is the conundrum of how their enormous success in doing what they do well – consistently shipping a compact and tidy large-flowered plant – is counterpoint to the other side of the coin, namely, ‘how the plant performs after purchase’. We are all aware, often from our own experiences, that of the millions of clematis liners produced each year, most do NOT end up flourishing in gardens, in the USA. If they did, we would see far more clematis in gardens, and the perhaps undeserved reputation that clematis have, for being hard to grow, would not be as prevalent as it is.
It’s easy to speculate on the whys and wherefores of what I call the ‘kill rate’ of` gardeners, with clematis, and the unwillingness of garden centres to pot up and grow on the unsold plants, rather than selling them off for a dollar. Is it due to plants being grown with fungicide and fertilizer in the juvenile phases? Or is it that the gardener is just not advised properly, or is unwilling to grow the plant on, and follow some basic guidelines? We all have our own opinions, but most would agree that the home gardener’s clematis kill rate is high, in the USA. Bottom line – Roseville’s current mission accomplished… does not always translate to success in the garden.
Not satisfied with its impressive foothold in the liner market, Roseville has lately set its sights on another new venture, putting them closer to the ‘root of the matter’. By the time you read this article, a new, direct-to-gardener online retail business will launch. The internet address www.buyclematisdirect.com (one of many registered by Roseville some time ago) is under construction, to provide information and resources, as well as facilitate
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” pots. In addition to placing themselves in the firing line necessarily freshly vernalised. They will ship a pruned-off plant, correctly selected for the time of year and intended climate zone. While their goal is to enlarge the clematis market in the USA, in effect they will be competing on price, quality and selection with existing the direct sales of clematis in 4 for customer returns and complaints, they will for the first time be selling plants that are not
online clematis specialty retailers, many of whom buy their liners from Roseville Farms. Everyone at Roseville takes pride in their product, acknowledging that plants need to be grown on before being planted out in the garden. The Roseville Farm website gives excellent information about which chemicals to use with clematis and it fully details the regional grower and garden centre protocols, for growing the plants on, in precise terms. Yet, in the comfortable niche they have created, there is an insularity to the real issues that keep clematis from being grown more successfully in the garden.
All eyes should be watching the ‘direct sale’ launch of Roseville Farms, and seeing what innovations they might bring that might proffer positive change in gardeners’ success rates; this may be the key to enlarging the clematis market yet further. Let’s face it, all of our beloved plants were liners at one time; it’s time to unvilify the liner and give a nod of respect to Roseville Farms, the ‘King of Clematis’ in the USA. Instead of blaming the liner, let’s follow the liner and put our collective energies into promoting easier to grow varieties, and into demystifying how to grow clematis in the home garden.
Farms,
Hopefully, Roseville will innovate in this aspect as in other, more problematic areas, in the past. If they do, we’ll all be the beneficiaries, in a market that continues to flourish.
Hybridisation in Plants Derived from Clematis florida: Clematis ‘Venosa Violacea’ - Initial Observations
Gary W. Vann USA garywvann@comcast.net
Introduction
The purpose of this report is to describe my preliminary findings in selectively cross breeding Clematis‘Venosa Violacea’ with various other clematis cultivars.
Most Clematis gardeners recognize ‘Venosa Violacea’ (VV) as a vigorous hybrid which produces abundant bi-coloured violet and white flowers. This cultivar was originally developed by Victor Lemoine, in 1883, from a cross between Clematis florida species, as seed parent, with an unknown Viticella Group plant, as pollen donor. The pollen parent might have been ‘Grandiflora’, (since lost to cultivation) or ‘Kermesina’ , both of which were also bred by Lemoine at approximately the same period.
Recently, Masahi Iino (Japan) produced a very similar hybrid (named ‘Night Veil’) from Clematis florida var. sieboldiana × Clematis ‘Rubra’ . ‘Rubra’ is a Viticella Group cultivar similar to ‘Kermesina’, both of which produce slightly smaller flowers.
‘Fairydust’ (FD) is a pale lilac and white sport of ‘Venosa Violacea’, introduced by James van Laeken. In the garden, it appears identical to ‘Venosa Violacea’, except for colour.
Both ‘Venosa Violacea’ and ‘Fairydust’ are generally classified as Viticellas, but both express many Clematis florida characteristics, including larger, upward-facing flowers with dark centres. I have both cultivars, growing together in my garden; they bloom abundantly, both at about the same time in the season. Both have that special venous pattern in the sepals, which tends to render any central bar indistinct, or even obscured –an interesting characteristic.
Of the various other Clematis florida cultivars, Clematis florida var. sieboldiana is said to be sterile (although, occasionally, a viable seedhead is actually produced).
‘Venosa Violacea’ ‘Fairydust’
Cross Breeding
For breeding purposes, all seed parents were prepared in a standardised fashion, by removing the sepals and stamens (filaments and anthers) from the flowers, using small hand held scissors. To effect pollination, several stamens were removed from a single pollen donor flower, and the pollen grains were introduced to the stigmas of the prepared seed parents.
The pollinations were made using five to seven stamens, at sunrise, each day, for seven days consecutively. Prior to the actual pollination work, both seed and pollen parents’ flowers were isolated, using ventilated ‘sandwich bags’, to prevent the introduction of ‘foreign pollens’ (cross contamination) by bees. Clematis florida derived plants usually have black stigmas, contrasting nicely with the pollen, which is light yellow. As it turned out, in fact, this observation gave me a heavy measure of false confidence in having done a good job.
Initial Results
This year, after a string of successful crosses with other cultivars, I ran into a string of failures with both ‘Venosa Violacea’ and ‘Fairydust’. I made ten different selective crosses with ‘Venosa Violacea’ & 2 with ‘Fairydust’. All were failures. Of the ten ‘Venosa Violacea’ failures, three were seed parents and seven were pollen parents. Both ‘Fairydust’ failures were as seed parents. Only the results with ‘Venosa Violacea’ will be included here. See Table 1.
Table 1 - List of Crosses: Results of Initial crosses
Seed parent
Pollen parent
Result
‘Venosa Violacea’ EFH 2 Fail
‘Venosa Violacea’ EFH 2 Fail
Viticella 1 ‘Venosa Violacea’ Fail
Viticella 2 ‘Venosa Violacea’ Fail
Viticella 3 ‘Venosa Violacea’ Fail
Viticella 4 ‘Venosa Violacea’ Fail - split branch
‘Venosa Violacea’ Integrifolia 1 Fail
Integrifolia 1 ‘Venosa Violacea’ Fail
Texensis Group ‘Venosa Violacea’ Fail
Florida Group ‘Venosa Violacea’ Fail
The other plants used in the crosses were Early Large-Flowering Hybrids (EFH), several Viticellas and Integrifolias, one Clematis florida hybrid and one Texensis Group hybrid. Due to the wide range of different cultivars employed, variation in the rate of progress through the stages of seed production is expected, so it is important to check all
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plants systematically, to check how each is progressing. Normally, in fertilised seeds, the tail (the style) will become hairy and elongate, as the seed develops. In the initial crosses, I found most of the seedheads failed to progress during the first three weeks. A few seemed to progress slowly, up to a point, and then failed to mature, eventually turning brown. One progressed to a typical clematis ball-shaped seedhead, but later produced fuzzy brown tails on darkened petioles. On examination of this seedhead, it was evident that the cause of failure was damage/a split in the supporting vine.
Changes in Strategy
Aware of these poor results, I took a careful look at both the stigmas and anthers of the seed parents. A characteristic of Clematis florida species are very short, black stigmas. They are not only short, but also rather stiff and very tightly packed together, with outward curved tips.
‘Venosa Violacea’ showing urn shaped pistils and peripheral anthers
‘Venosa Violacea’ showing the anatomy of an unfertilized seedhead
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I could see that getting pollen to the right place on the stigmas might be a physical problem. On the other hand, the anthers are obviously dark while the pollen is light yellow and easy to see, in sharp contrast, clearly visible along the lateral margins of the anthers – similar to other cultivars. So, while ‘Venosa Violacea’ and ‘Fairydust’ as seed parents might be more problematic, as pollen donors they should have been just fine.
In nature
At that point I decided to spend some time looking at naturally pollinated ‘Venosa Violacea’ and ‘Fairydust’ seedheads. Of many dozens of flowers that I checked, from both plants, I found only eight seedheads with developing seeds. Of these, seven were ‘Fairydust’ and just one was a ‘Venosa Violacea’. Each seedhead held just one or two seeds, located peripherally. So, bees were successful only by brushing up against stigmas located toward the outer margins. Crawling over the tops of stigmas, as bees do routinely, seemed unproductive in terms of successful pollination.
So, in the pollination of seed parents, I decided to apply pollen peripherally, underneath each coiled stigma and downward, into the centre, hoping to get some pollen ‘inside’ . For pollen parents, I selected twice as many ‘Venosa Violacea’ anthers, removing them very near the base, hoping to conserve also the pollen at the shoulder junction of filaments and anthers – this was basically a strategy of greater numbers.
Later Results
In my second round of crosses, some of the cultivars available for the first trial were unavailable, as they were not in flower, therefore, other, similar compatible clematis were substituted. As in the first part of the project, I chose three plants to be seed parents and seven as pollen parents. Of the two failures, one was Viticella 5 × ‘Venosa Violacea’ and the other ‘Venosa Violacea’ × Integrifolia 2.
Naturally pollinated ‘Fairydust’ seedhead with two peripheral seeds
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Later crosses: Results
Seed parent
EFH 3
Pollen parent
Result
‘Venosa Violacea’ Seeds looking good at 57 days
Viticella 3 ‘Venosa Violacea’ Seeds looking good at 79 days
‘Venosa Violacea’ Viticella 3
Seeds looking good at 81 days
Viticella 2 ‘Venosa Violacea’ Seeds looking good at 40 days
Viticella 4 ‘Venosa Violacea’ Seeds looking good at 28 days
Viticella 5 ‘Venosa Violacea’ Seeds failed by 28 days
‘Venosa Violacea’ Integrifolia 2 Seeds failed by 30 days
Integrifolia 2 ‘Venosa Violacea’ Seeds looking good at 51 days
Integrifolia 1 ‘Venosa Violacea’ Seeds looking good at 30 days
‘Venosa Violacea’ Integrifolia 1 Seeds looking good at 28 days
Of the successes, ‘Venosa Violacea’ × Viticella 3 produced nine seeds, most of which were peripherally placed, however, two were placed centrally, on the seedhead.
‘Venosa Violacea’ × Viticella 3: 23 days
‘Venosa Violacea’ × Viticella 3: 55 days
EFH 3 × ‘Venosa Violacea’: 19 days
Viticella 3 × ‘Venosa Violacea’: 33 days
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Of the ‘Venosa Violacea’ pollen parents, most were successful, producing variable numbers of seeds. Both EFH 3 and Viticella 3 produced many seeds. In general, Integrifolias tended to produce limited numbers of seeds, although this is also the case among those naturally pollinated.
Integrifolia 1 x ‘Venosa
Conclusions
39 days Integrifolia
23 days
1. Under natural conditions, both ‘Venosa Violacea’ and ‘Fairydust’ seed parents have limited fertility. In approximately one hundred flowers, only eight fertile seedheads, with just one or two seeds each, were produced. ‘Fairydust’ was much more fertile than ‘Venosa Violacea’ at a ratio of 7:1. Both ‘Venosa Violacea’ and ‘Fairydust’ seedheads had a Viticella-like appearance – small in number, but large seeds.
2. ‘Venosa Violacea’ & ‘Fairydust’ pistils are urn shaped with tightly packed stigmas, curling outward at the tips.
3. Fertilisation in seed parents may be enhanced by directing pollen under the outer margins of outwardly curved stigma tips, and directly into the central stigmas.
4. ‘Venosa Violacea’ was a successful pollen parent in the data provided here.
Comments or information in respect of other gardeners’ experiences in dealing with Clematis florida derived plants would be most gratefully received.
International Registrar for cultivated plants (including clematis and lilies)
IIaccepted thirty-three applications for new clematis cultivar names in the second half of 2012 and the first half of 2013. Twenty of them were from the UK; the remainder from four other countries as follows: Poland 7, Germany 2, Canada 1 and the Netherlands 1.
The largest group came from the wholesale nursery New Leaf Plants, regularizing – I am happy to report – the names for nine plants that had already been on the market for some time. Six were Early Large-flowered Group (viz. ‘Happy Anniversary’, ‘Paradise Queen’, ‘Romance’, ‘Ruby Wedding NLP2’, ‘Wedding Day’ and ‘Windmill’). Unfortunately, two of those have a chequered history: ‘Romance’ should be cited as ‘Romance’ (New Leaf Plants) to avoid confusion with Sugimoto’s later ‘ロマンス’ [which should be transliterated as ‘Romance’ (‘ロマンス’ ) or ‘Romance’ (Sugimoto)]; and ‘Ruby Wedding NLP2’ now supersedes ‘Ruby Wedding’ (New Leaf Plants), which unacceptably re-used an epithet previously established (but never registered) by Barry Fretwell, and therefore caused potential confusion for the unwary when first introduced. In similar fashion, ‘Forget-menot NLP1’ supersedes the previously unacceptable ‘Forget-me-not’ (New Leaf Plants). New Leaf have also registered the Atragene Group cultivar ‘Ocean Pearl’ and the Late Large-flowered Group cultivar ‘Remembrance’.
Richard Hodson has registered four cultivars: three first described in The Clematis 2012 (viz. ‘Bolam Belle’, Carol Klein’ and ‘Mary Habberley’) but also ‘Ribble Red’, a Viorna Group cultivar; pinkish-red outside, yellow inside.
Marcel Floyd’s three new cultivars include two Early Large-Flowered Group –‘Charlotte’, with white sepals with strongly wavy margins; and ‘The Duchess’, with large (20 cm wide), purple flowers whose sepals have a distinctive spoon-shaped look – as well as ‘Shimmering Lanterns’, a texensis hybrid with small, purple-violet bell-flowers.
Rounding off this British section are Tom Bennett’s ‘Brian Temple’, a Heracleifolia Group cultivar, purple-flowered with a whitish bar; Everett Leeds’s ‘Buckland Pixie’, with sepals violet-blue over a white ground; Freda Blackwood’s ‘Chrissie Wright’, a
International Clematis Society, these two clematis have now been registered by Mathias Münster, who has just introduced them commercially. Ton himself has registered ‘China Surprise’, raised by him from a Heracleifolia Group seed batch, collected from the wild in China.
strongly-scented, palepink-flowered Montana Group cultivar; and Jack Gittoes’s ‘Lavender Twirl’, raised from BCS Exchange seed and first described in The Clematis 2006
Two cultivars also with a strong British connection are Ton Hannink’s Texensis Group seedling ‘Fiona Woolfenden’ (with carmine-red flowers with long-pointed, strongly recurved tips) and his pitcheri hybrid ‘Ken’: named, of course, after the current Secretary and Editor respectively for the
Seven new hybrids from Szczepan Marczyński have been registered during this period. Five are from the Atragene Group: ‘Lemon Beauty’ (single flowers, lemon-yellow to white), and four more with semidouble flowers (‘Lemon Dream’, pale lemon-yellow; ‘Pink Dream’ and ‘Pink Swing’, both pale pink to cream; and ‘Purple Dream’, red-purple to crimson outside and pale purple-pink inside). The other two are Early Large-Flowered
The Clematis 2013
Group: ‘Diamond Ball’, with pale blue, medium-sized, semidouble or double flowers; and ‘Innocent Blush’, with large, semi-double, pale- to rose-pink flowers.
Willem Straver has registered ‘Rendezvous’, with dark violet, single or semi-double, small-tomedium-sized flowers; and ‘Sanssouci’, Montana Group with purplish-pink sepals.
Finally, from Canada, comes ‘Arctic Blue’, David Flathman’s Atragene Group chance seedling, with semi-double flowers, white-downy over a blue background. He tells me he would like to find a commercial introducer: I can supply address details for him to anyone who might be interested to explore this possibility.
I should always be happy to hear from anyone who has views on any aspect of cultivar or Group registration they might wish to share.
Duncan Donald, International Registrar for cultivated plants (including clematis and lilies).
16 Midtown of Inverasdale, Poolewe, Wester Ross IV22 2LW; tel. 01445 781717 clematis@rhs.org.uk
‘Arctic Blue’
‘Forget-me-not NLP1’
‘Ribble Red’
'Arctic Blue', reverse
New BCS International Trials Grounds
Keith Shortland UK fusilier567@btinternet.com
MMembers will be aware that since our departure from RHS Wisley, last autumn, discussions, with regard to establishing a new trials area, have been ongoing. One of the proposals was to return to our previous location at the Gardens of the Rose, owned by the Royal National Rose Society (RNRS), at St Albans. Negotiations with the RNRS have been progressing and it seems likely that an agreement will be formalised soon, to allow BCS to establish trial grounds at the Gardens of the Rose. On behalf of the Society, may I take this opportunity, to thank all those members who have kindly volunteered to act as judges. I regret that some of you may now have to withdraw your offer because of travel distance from the proposed site. Nevertheless, your willingness is most appreciated. Entries are welcome from amateur and commercial growers alike – plants should be provided in 2-3 litre containers and three specimens of each cultivar is advised. Plants are scrutinised over three years, for garden worthiness. Our volunteer judges assess each plant and give a mark of up to ten points, every time they visit the site throughout the year. The scores over the three years are added together and then converted into a percentage of the total possible score. A ‘Certificate of Merit’ is awarded where 80% or over is achieved. A ‘Commended Certificate’ is awarded where 70% or over is gained. Please contact me if you would like to participate and have not already indicated your interest.
Cartoon by EverettLeeds
International Clematis Society – 2013 Report
Ken
Woolfenden, Editor and Webperson, I.Cl.S. www.clematisinternational.com
TThe International Clematis Society (I.Cl.S.) has members in 25 countries around the world. Each year the Society publishes a journal, two or three short newsletters and holds a meeting, visiting a different country from the previous few meetings.
In 2013, the I.Cl.S. returned to Germany for a three centre visit, starting and finishing in Erlabrunn, a small village close to Würzburg and including stays in the Stuttgart and Ulm regions.
Erlabrunn is the home of our former president, Klaus Körber, Director of the Orchard, Trees and Garden Department of the Bavarian State Institution for Winegrowing and Horticulture (LWG). He has created a horticultural display garden with a large section devoted to clematis, but grown in ways you will not see elsewhere, for example over and inside an old VW Beetle car. We have visited previously but the garden changes year on year so there is always something new.
Erlabrunn celebrated its 800th anniversary in 2009 and one of the activities was to plant 800 clematis – in gardens, along the sides of the narrow streets, in hanging baskets, in fact anywhere there was a small space. A morning spent walking through the village was a must.
The one week meeting included many visits to private gardens. This is always a favourite with attendees as it is something impossible to achieve on your own, in fact you would probably not even know they existed.
The meeting was also timed to coincide with the Rose and Clematis Show in the small village of Unterliezheim. This show, held every three years, is in the centre of the village, which is closed to traffic for the whole weekend. As well as many stalls selling both plants, garden ornaments and accessories, the church, cloisters and town hall are all decorated with floral displays. This year Wim Snoeijer from the Netherlands had driven down with a van full of cut clematis and the floral displays that the flower arrangers made with them were absolutely breath-taking. Using flowers, seedheads and leafy stems, they had sculpted beautiful examples of their craft.
In Germany the I.Cl.S. held a Constitutional General Meeting at which, since Ton Hannink of the Netherlands had served as President for the maximum term, a new President, Linda Beutler of the USA, was unanimously elected.
The 2014 I.Cl.S. Meeting and Conference will explore the Delaware Valley of Pennsylvania. It will be based near Philadelphia, PA, USA and held during the first week in June 2014. It is hoped to offer an optional pre-meeting visit to Georgia to see native species clematis and a post-meeting visit to Virginia.
MMy father Robin Mitchell, of Cadsonbury Plant Breeders, New Zealand, passed away last June and my mother, Lorna, now lives in a rest home
Many of my father’s clematis were chance seedlings, although in the early years he did spend time crossing his favourite plants with others, to try to produce something new. These plants were given to family members and friends to plant in their gardens; he would then visit everyone during flowering time, to see whether there was anything new or interesting. I have a fairly large garden and have several of Dad’s plants growing here. I would phone him to say that he must come and see a flower, because I thought it was beautiful – but when he came he would tell me that it resembled another plant too closely, to warrant any additional interest. I could never understand how he could tell one flower pattern from another, and how he knew, so well, those which already existed! I kept the plants I was fond of, though, and they remain in my garden still.
In his latter years Dad gave up cross pollinating and left nature to do the job, but every spring he was out in his garden, inspecting the flowers, to see if anything new had developed. His own garden was brimming with clematis, most bearing labels, so visitors could identify them – although there were a lot of plants, he personally would remember exactly which was which. Every available fence was covered; he built more and more fences, so he could plant more clematis. If he found an interesting plant, cuttings would be taken and they were grown on, at a local plant nursery, where they would have to flower for several seasons, to ensure they remained true to the original plant.
Dad remained actively involved in his clematis breeding right to the end. Though he had poor mobility for many years, he would nevertheless be out in his garden, with his walking frame, checking on his plants.
When he was no longer capable of living alone physically, Dad went to live in care, and although his mind remained very active, he just seemed to give up his will for life, and died only a week after leaving his clematis filled garden. He is survived by his wife, Lorna (my mother), who suffers from dementia and is, sadly, also now in care.
Take time to smell the Roses...
rnrs.org.uk
With over 20,000 roses old and new, colourful and wonderfully fragrant, the RNRS Gardens of the Rose showcase the stunning heritage of our flower in a most beautiful setting.
Members of the Royal National Rose Society enjoy the full family benefits on offer which include free admission to the Gardens of the Rose, free subscription of the Society’s magazine ‘The Rose’ and free rose advise from our experts.
Join the RNRS and you will receive a £10 discount on the normal £42 new membership price. Just call us today on 0845 833 4344 or email membership@rnrs.org.uk and do remember to quote reference BCS-913 for this great offer!
We look forward to welcoming you
The Royal National Rose Society, Chiswell Green, St Albans AL2 3NR
Telephone 0845 833 4344 or email membership@rnrs.org.uk
NOTES
Acknowledgements
I should like to express my thanks to the following people who have contributed to or otherwise assisted in the preparation of this Journal.
I would like to acknowledge to Karin Sundström and family my gratitude for once again permitting the use of scans and other material from The Genus Clematis: Magnus Johnson: Magnus Johnsons Plantskola AB, Södertälje, 2001, which appear throughout the text.
Thanks to our Advertisers – every advertisement is much appreciated. Thank you to Bernard Allen for slide and images processing yet again and to proofreaders Glenis, Sue, Val, Everett and Keith.
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