From Good Friday, every Friday, Sunday and Bank Holiday until the end of August; every Friday in September and also every Thursday in June, July and August, from 12 noon to 5pm.
Welcome to my 12th (and final) edition of The Clematis. As usual, I would like to thank everyone, home and abroad, who has contributed to this year’s edition. Every input is greatly appreciated, and to all my authors. We once again have a broad spread of interesting subject matter touching upon many facets of the world of . Many of the best contributions are penned by everyday gardeners or unsung BCS members – no formal expertise is required for writing an article If you have something you’d like to say about clematis, please let us know and we will gladly include as much as possible in these pages So, to all who read this 2018 edition, whether your particular appreciation is in the culture, breeding, propagation, history or even the more technical aspects of Clematis, I am sure you will find something of interest and enjoyment in this issue. huge thanks go
Clematis
This year I would especially like to thank Ton Hannink (Netherlands), who has provided a series of six outstanding articles covering almost every species in subsection Floridae, as well as an overview detailing his observations and thoughts on the Florida Group as a whole. This unprecedented contribution is gratefully acknowledged and the BCS would like to thank Ton immensely for sharing his unique insight and knowledge of our favourite genus with us. I know everyone will join me in saying a huge ‘thank you’ to Ton.
We have some very exciting news for 2018/19. BCS is funding important research into the Viorna Group in the USA, under the auspices of the eminent US botanist Dr Dwayne Estes, and two of his research students. A full report is included on page 95, with further details to follow. This work will almost certainly result in the naming of several new Viorna Group species and we are thrilled that BCS will be at the forefront.
After twelve years of editing our Journal I feel the time has now come to hand over the reins. I was greatly honoured to be asked to edit The Clematis back in 2007 and cannot fathom how the last twelve years have gone by so quickly However, as they say, all things must pass; I want to thank, from the bottom of my heart, all those wonderful people who have assisted my work by contributing items so generously, over the years.
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 2018, and beyond.
Brian Collingwood
Articles for TheClematis2019:please send to Lizzie Gibbison, by post or email: clematis@talk21.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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National Events: Annette Stevens (jointly with Lizzie Gibbison), 8 Farm Walk, Ash Green, Guildford, Surrey GU12 6HX
Well, what a summer we have had! I hope that all your precious plants have survived – I was lucky, I mulched heavily in early spring, which really did help Nevertheless, flowers were definitely smaller this year and did not last as long.
Looking back over the year, as I write this in September – we had an excellent turnout on the 21st April for the 2018 BCS AGM at Pershore College: I thank both speakers, Wim Snoeijer and Roy Nunn for their entertaining and interesting talks. Wim gave a talk entitled ‘Let’s Talk Clematis’, with the afternoon slot filled by Roy Nunn with ‘The Return of the Indian Pipe’. As always, it was lovely to see familiar faces. Sadly, however, we also had in mind several members who are no longer with us – they will all be greatly missed indeed.
I thank all the Committee members who have supported me through the year and all our loyal, hardworking volunteers, especially all our Regional Group leaders who do such a fantastic amount of invaluable work for the Society.
We have had no shows this year apart from Wisley, which went well, but we will be back attending all the shows again in 2019.
I would like to give a big ‘thank you’ to Wim Snoeijer for all his input into the BCS over the years and for his exertions in always bringing over lots of lovely clematis plants. At the end of this year he will no longer be a BCS member – everyone wishes him well in everything he goes on to do.
Now I am going to be a bit stern! I know that a lot of our members are of an age where driving (and just getting around) is not easy, however there must be members out there in their spritely middle age that could help us in the many jobs that need doing all the time e.g. Committee/volunteers. We must not sit back and become complacent, otherwise the Society will, in a very short space of time, fold through lack of helpers. I am looking towards a bright future for the BCS – with your help.
I look forward to seeing you all at the 2019 AGM, with enthusiasm in your hearts.
TTREASURER’S ANNUAL REPORT: RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2017
he society’s funds were reduced from £39,907 to £38,058. Volunteers continue to undertake the majority of day-to-day administration of Society affairs, which would be expensive to provide if the BCS had to pay for external provision of these services.
. Receipts
The finances of BCS still remain strong and the committee continues to monitor costs. Gift aid tax claims for 2017 and 2018 have been made since the year ended. BCS is faced with challenging changes and increased reporting requirements in our affairs, in line with our status as a charity and the Society maintains specific reserves for such purposes These summarised accounts do not contain sufficient information to allow for a full understanding of the financial affairs of the Society. The accounts have been reviewed by the independent examiners and copies of the Trustees’ Annual Report, Independent Examiner's report and Full Accounts can be obtained from: Peter Hargreaves, Grafton Cottage, Bar Lane, Barton Under Needwood, Burton-Upon-Trent, Staffordshire, DE13 8AL peter.hargreaves@smithcooper.co.uk
Honorary Treasurer Peter Hargreaves
British Clematis Society 28th Annual General Meeting
Held at 12.15pm on Saturday 21st April 2018 at Pershore College, Worcestershire.
Present: Liz Gibbison in the Chair and 66 members of the Society.
Minutes of the Meeting
1. Liz Gibbison welcomed everyone to the 28th AGM of the British Clematis Society.
2. Apologies for absence: The Hon Secretary reported that apologies had been received from 16 members including 8 proxy votes.
3. Minutes of the meeting held 22nd April 2017: These were approved as a correct record of the meeting (proposed: Charne Griffiths; seconded: Everett Leeds and passed nem con). The minutes were then signed by the Chair.
4. Matters arising from the minutes: there were no matters arising from the minutes.
5. Roundup of the year
The Chair presented a short report on the activities during 2017-18 (full text appended at the end of these minutes). In 2017 we attended 2 RHS shows (Malvern and Tatton). In 2018 we do not have the personnel to attend these big shows but plan to have stands at smaller events. The committee has worked hard to contain costs; this includes sending out 1 printed issue of the Newsletter with 2 others by email only. However, all national indoor meetings will be free to members with guests paying £10. An excellent issue of the Journal was published towards the end of the year. We have updated our membership database and are working to ensure we meet the requirements of the new General Data Protection Regulation that comes into force in May 2018.
The planned autumn meeting in September 2017 was cancelled due to a very low number booking. We are working to make the meeting on September 29th near Cambridge a great success. Our Regional Groups have had a mixed year with the East Anglia and Southern groups ceasing due to lack of support. The committee will be looking at ways to support our groups. The committee has decided not to go with the proposed change to a COIF so we will remain with our current constitution. During the year several members have passed away and they will be missed. Lizzie closed by thanking everyone including all the committee for their support for the AGM and throughout the past year.
The Hon Secretary spoke about GDPR: the committee feel that we have a
legitimate interest in holding personal information about members (name, address, telephone number and email address when given) to communicate in the form of letters, Newsletters and Journal, by telephone and emails. No membership details are shared with anyone who does not need to know this information and never with anyone outside the BCS. All membership information is stored securely by our membership secretary and is not accessible on-line. We propose to ask for a confirmation of consent from members later in the year. Currently we are working on some new policies: covering privacy, retention of documents and financial papers and how we store personal data and communicate with members both nationally and via local groups.
Roy Nunn expressed concern about the Newsletter being sent as an attachment as this was causing him problems due to virus protection software. He asked for the email Newsletter to be put into the email rather than attached.
6. Financial report: Peter Hargreaves, Hon Treasurer, presented his report and the annual accounts. During the year the BCS sustained a deficit of £1,849; this was due to a significant increase in spending on the displays at shows that had been budgeted for. The cost of the Newsletter has been reduced. Gift Aid of just over £900 is still to be claimed. Currently the Society has net assets of £38,058. The Bursary, Admin and Research funds have been combined into a single Research and Bursary Fund totalling £23,000 with the balance in the General Fund (£15,058). The value of sales stock has been written down and old stock is being disposed of. We are consolidating our banking accounts to make administration simpler; this will affect some members who pay by standing order.
A query was raised about the continuing significant costs of the Newsletter. The financial report and accounts were formally accepted by the meeting (proposed by Mike Brown, seconded by Glenis Dyer) and signed off by the Chair (a full copy for each member was attached in the Minute book).
7. Membership reports: Ken Black, Membership Secretary, presented a written report (full copy attached in the minute book). Currently there are 340 paid up members plus 63 members whose annual subscription is outstanding despite 2 reminders. We gained 18 new members during the year (4 at Malvern and 8 at Tatton). A membership renewal notice will be included in the 2018 Journal. In July 2017 we purchased a membership database; developing and setting up the database has been quite challenging. We have received support in this from one of our members, Chris Wilkinson. The new database is now starting to provide us with more detailed information about our members. Ken was thanked for his work during the year. There was a short discussion about the contents of the Newsletter; it was agreed it needed to give information about what is going on, share members’ expertise about propagating and growing clematis and contain some photographs of clematis.
8. Election of Honorary Officers and Trustees: The following were elected by a show of hands:
Chair of the Society: Lizzie Gibbison. Proposed: Julian Noble; seconded: Mike Brown.
Vice-chair: no nominations received so post stays vacant.
Honorary Secretary: Julian Noble. Proposed: Lizzie Gibbison; seconded: Jack Gittoes.
Honorary Treasurer: Peter Hargreaves. Proposed: Carol Leeds; seconded: Alison Booth
Membership Secretary: Ken Black. Proposed: Liz Welch; seconded: Paul Dunstan
Committee members: The following members of the committee were elected in 2017 for a 3-year term so remain in post: Sue Reade; Annette Stevens; Alison Booth and Glenn Rowbottom. Vicky Matthews has stepped down from the committee after serving for many years; the meeting formally thanked her for her work for the Society. No other nominations to serve on the committee had been received.
9. Appointment of Independent Examiner: Peter Hargreaves proposed the continuing appointment of Smith Cooper as our Independent Examiner. This was approved by the meeting.
10. Any other business:
Proposed research grant: a proposal has been received to support a research expedition in 2019 (subject to permissions) by a team from Finland to Madagascar to investigate the DNA of clematis on the island. The expedition is supported by several organisations including Kew; a request for a grant £8,000 is supported by the committee. The BCS will receive reports, a talk and credit in any publications. This planned use of some of the research funds was fully supported by the meeting. National Autumn Meeting: at Scotsdales Garden Centre near Cambridge, Saturday 29th September (speakers: Phil Cribb and Ruth and Jonathan Gooch) Volunteers: required at the Sunbury Walled Garden; dates to be announced The 2019 AGM will be held in April 2019 at a date and venue to be arranged.
11. Close of meeting: The Chair thanked everyone for attending and closed the meeting at 13:20.
The meeting ended with a warm round of applause.
Spring Meeting and Annual General Meeting on Saturday 21st April 2018, at Pershore College
B. Collingwood UK bcollingwood@ntlworld.com
The Frank Parkinson Hall filled rapidly as the clock ticked towards 11am. Here we were again, at this excellent venue, part of Pershore College in Worcestershire, for our Spring Meeting and the BCS Annual General Meeting.
The programme for the day followed the established routine – a speaker for each session, morning and afternoon, with the AGM business sandwiched in between.
The morning speaker session featured Wim Snoeijer, with a talk entitled ‘Let’s Talk Clematis’, with the afternoon slot filled by Roy Nunn with ‘The Return of the Indian Pipe’.
Wim opened his talk with some comments about moving into his new Farm property before pausing to remind us that Jan Fopma will be ninety years of age this year. Mr Jan
Fopma, very well known in the clematis world, former owner of the J. van Zoest Nursery, introduced several new Clematis, the best known to me being ‘Annemieke’. In 1998 I had raised about thirty seedlings of that plant, most of which I grew on, both in large pots and in the open garden, for a good few years. Some of the new seedlings
developed into super floriferous plants with many of them flowering in the first full year. I selected about a dozen of the best-flowering ones, and those plants were eventually sent to various clematis friends up and down the country. I know that at least some of them are still alive today, twenty years on, still flourishing and producing wonderful summer displays. ‘Annemieke’ thereby became a special plant for me, at that time.
Wim touched on the relationship between clematis and various insects, mentioning butterflies and the Heracleifolia Group plants in particular; then onto some good images of clematis in combination with various roses.
We were given some fresh insight into the clematis cut flower trade; we were all amazed to learn that the plants are nurtured on nurseries in faraway Tanzania, grown only for selling as cut flowers. They are bulk transported rapidly to Europe, where the week-old stems are immediately prepared for sale and placed on the market just a day or two later. Wim mentioned several specific cultivars especially selected to be used in this trade. He also touched on exporting to Japan, highlighting the taste differences between east and west in regard to types and styles of blooms.
We were shown slides of the new, recently designed larger plant labels which permit customers to see the flowers of any given clematis much more clearly, an important way of enhancing the marketing effort.
← Wim spent some time explaining the correct nomenclature for the Atragene AMBER, ('WIT141205'), bred by Marco & Bianca de Wit of Boskoop in Holland. This plant was named 2016 RHS Chelsea Plant of the Year, with its nodding heads of a unique yellow/cream colouring, flowering from early to mid-summer with a second flush in September. The morning session was rounded off with a light-hearted ‘clematis quiz’; Wim ran through several slides and followed this by asking some general questions – members were set the task of identifying the plants and answering the questions. The stint was finally closed with a clematis Q & A session, to much applause from the audience.
The AGM was sandwiched between the morning and afternoon sessions
Following a brief break for tea and coffee refreshments, the BCS AGM followed.
The meeting was opened by Lizzie and the Committee, and before too long the important Society matters were under discussion. This year’s AGM had a lot of ground to cover but the various points were dealt with briskly and efficiently and put to the vote where relevant to do so.
Roy Nunn opens his talk
The Society business having been dealt with within an hour, we were soon making our way out of the Hall for an enjoyable lunch break – fortunately, just as we rose from our seats, the rain suddenly ceased, and the grey clouds scudded away.
Roy Nunn took the stage for the afternoon session. He launched into slides and commentary about his recent visits to the USA, where he has travelled quite extensively. Roy recalled the nurseries, plants and people he and Angela had met. He has certainly visited some important well-known clematis-connected haunts over the years. One particularly interesting place that Roy mentioned was The Rogerson Clematis Collection which is located at Luscher Farm in Oregon. There is a full article by Roy in this year’s Journal (page 68) covering his 2017 trip to Silver Star Vinery in Washington State. The Vinery is run by Debbie Fisher, taking its name from the nearby Silver Star mountains. Roy showed us many slides covering a huge range of clematis and gardens. One particularly nice cultivar stuck in my mind, a plant that is unfortunately not freely available in the UK, Clematis ‘Solina’. Some fantastic slides of various C. cirrhosa-derived plants followed, along with many cultivars from other Groups – too many to name individually – as well as a new, very attractive unnamed large-flowered hybrid.
Something that caught Roy’s eye
The meeting drew to a close and it was time to say ‘au revoir’ once again, but not before fresh tea, coffee and biscuits were served for those who wished to stay a while longer and chat about clematis with BCS friends.
Another BCS AGM day had come and gone! I walked to my car and said my goodbyes as a familiar scene unfolded – many people cramming pots and plants into the front, rear and boots of their cars, with plants on canes poking out of car windows.
Everett Receives Accolade from
the I.Cl.S.
Ken and Fiona Woolfenden UK
Yesterday we visited Everett and Carol Leeds to present Everett with his Golden Clematis Award; he was delighted with it and wishes to thank everyone in the Society for it. This award, which recognizes outstanding contribution to the study/culture of Clematis and distinguished service to the Society, is nominated and ratified by Society members; the citation is reproduced below. Everett was also one of the authors of The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Clematis. The photo shows Everett receiving his Golden Clematis Award from the I.Cl.S. Secretary, Fiona Woolfenden. In the middle of the photo you can just make out a few flowers of Clematis 'Everett'.
Everett Leeds
Nominated by Richard Huff, USA, seconded by Mahala Huff, USA.
Citation
‘Everett is an excellent ambassador for the International Clematis Society. When Mahala and I attended our first I.Cl.S. Conference in Portland, Oregon in 2002, Everett immediately became acquainted with us and followed up with supplying us with many Clematis slides and other materials that we could use in our presentations for Master Gardeners, garden clubs and people wanting to know about the wonderful clematis vine. Everett is a known liaison with the British Clematis Society. Clematis is a passion for him. He is a positive person in promoting clematis for others.’
See the I.Cl.S. report on page 160 for further details.
A Salute to Plantsmanship and Artistry
Richard Munday UK rmmunday@yahoo.com
Ihave attended the Chelsea Flower Show over the last several years. Being a clematis enthusiast, as soon as I’ve had a quick look around the outside gardens I immediately gravitate towards the Grand Marquee, which houses all the floral exhibits by the many independent nurseries.
This year the clematis displays by Thorncroft and Raymond Evison were superb –always an opportunity to see the large-flowered hybrids, especially, grown to perfection.
CHARMAINE
NUBIA (C. ‘Evipo079’)
(Similarly, I loved Taylors Clematis 2016 display, where they had created a stunning ‘wall’ of largeflowered hybrids.) Just think about the difficulties for a moment – for that one week in May the plants have all got to be at their very best, irrespective of when they normally flower; and on top of that they have to be displayed in an artistic fashion that appeals to the general public (and the judges).
Thorncroft had teamed up with a firm of agricultural contractors who had produced some lovely ironwork, including a delightful arbour, to showcase their plants. On the Raymond Evison stand the theme was ‘the seashore’, with boats full of clematis next to the shore and curvy netting representing waves, covered in clematis and separated by boardwalks so visitors could examine the flowers at close quarters.
Two of the most eyecatching varieties were reds; on the Evison stand a boatload of Clematis NUBIA (C. ‘Evipo079’), a stunning plant, and on the Thorncroft stand a quite wonderful archway of Clematis CHARMAINE (C. ‘Evipo022’), a new double red. Being right
AMETHYST BEAUTY (C. ‘Evipo043’)
up close to the plants enables one to appreciate the subtlety of colour of some of the cultivars. Two new ones – pink SARAH ELIZABETH (C. ‘Evipo098’) and pale blue-white TRANQUILITE (C. ‘Evipo111’) without a doubt also have this quality. AMETHYST BEAUTY (C. ‘Evipo043’) certainly lives up to its name, especially when viewed close-up.
Raymond Evison has bred lots of new varieties, many of which were on show. Thorncroft had a delightful mix of old favourites and newer cultivars, making for a super display. We clematis enthusiasts are incredibly fortunate to have so many specialist nurseries producing such a fabulous range of different types and selections of clematis.
Glenis Dyer UK glenisdyer@gmail.com
What a year of extremes this has been, especially for us in the Midlands. At the time of writing (mid-July) we have had NO RAIN AT ALL for over two months. Just trying to keep some plants alive (newly-planted treasures, and all shallow-rooted plants like rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias) has been taking up two hours of my time each day. Luckily, we have a ‘dripper system’ for pots and plants close to the house, which has been an absolute god-send; if you haven’t got one I heartily recommend installing a system like this as I really could not have coped with watering otherwise, in the 30°+ temperatures we have ‘enjoyed’ this year.
And then there are the weeds which have run rampant this season, starting during the very wet and quite cold winter when gardening was out of the question. Luckily, for wellestablished clematis with ‘bootlace’ roots, or the tough tap roots of C. heracleifolia types, this abundant winter rainfall has encouraged strong vigorous growth, and a couple of plants (‘Blue Eyes’ was one) which had not appeared for a year or two put in a surprising reappearance.
However, the unremitting wet spelled doom to a few of the fibrous-rooted alpina/macropetala/koreana types. C. montana var. wilsonii is ALWAYS reliable (being on a north-facing fence, and planted twenty-plus years ago, must help), while C. urophylla ‘Winter Beauty’ and C forsteri have been particularly magnificent this year.
Now, of course, whatever water I have time to give to even the tough late-flowering cultivars is simply a drop in the ocean, so a plant’s response can often be to just give up on one or two stems allowing them to die (like saying ‘too many mouths to feed’) –
‘Pamiat Serdtsa’ and ‘Entel’ (above) were two cultivars that did just this. I am finding
C. montanavar. wilsoniiis ALWAYS reliable
Above, ‘Betty Corning’ and ‘Jenny Caddick’ Below, × diversifolia‘Heather
Herschell’ and ‘Betty Corning’
Above, AVANT-GARDE (‘Evipo033’) Below, ‘Aotearoa’
that using hostas, brunneras and similar ground cover at the base of a clematis will help to shade its roots and retain whatever moisture I have time to direct to ground level. (I NEVER water the clematis foliage if I can avoid it).
‘Winter Beauty’
My plant of ‘TRM’ (× triternata ‘Rubromarginata’) (below) was totally magnificent this year, and ‘Blue Eclipse’ proved why it is such a popular and reliable cultivar. ‘Maria Cornelia’, in my view, is a far
better plant than the older white viticellas, and JOHN HOWELLS (‘Zojohnhowells’), ‘Minuet’ and ‘Etoile Violette’ are currently strutting their stuff, seemingly impervious to the lack of water. Other good doers are QUEEN MOTHER (‘Zoqum’) (whose flowers always remind me of the hats she used to wear), and definitely PRINCESS KATE (‘Zoprika’).
‘Prince Charles’, too, goes on and on and is another banker, as is FOREVER FRIENDS (‘Zofofri’). ‘Romantika’, ‘Viola’ and ‘Emilia Plater’ never disappoint and perhaps this weather underlines why ‘Emilia Plater’ is so popular in Europe with its continental climate; she has been absolutely sublime. ‘Maria Cornelia’
‘Hågelby Pink’ twines its way elegantly up her support (Taxus baccata ‘Standishii’) and ‘Aotearoa’ can be relied upon as always (available as liners now from Morrisons!)
‘White Magic’ will make advances to any plant within reach, while AVANT-GARDE (‘Evipo033’) is again liberally decorating a large crab apple. My × diversifolia ‘Hendersonii’, ‘Alionushka’, × diversifolia ‘Heather Herschell’ and ‘Vanessa’ vie for space on the new fence, and my two plants of ‘Pink Ice’ have been splendid – the flowers last and last.
QUEEN MOTHER
Surprisingly, I seem to have lost a 20-yearold ‘Comtesse de Bouchaud’ (at least she is easy to replace, though), and ‘Arabella’ has only produced one stem this year, compared to her normal 6-8 (the weather?, slugs/snails? – another little mystery).
The Viornae, however, are as robust as ever, although they do get a drink on a regular basis being particular favourites of mine (see Dwayne Estes’ superb article on page 80 of this Journal; I find another identification pointer is the seedheads and their tails. Most tails are silvery, but I have one that is distinctly golden, and at least two, both different colours, that have no tails at all, just a spiky ball of achenes – hope that’s the correct term for the business end of the seed!) Some of my plants have shiny, smooth sepals, and some have slightly furry outers. Some are self-coloured interiors as well as exteriors,
some have cream interiors, and some have a distinctly green rim to the interior. Some plants have plump, ‘dumpy’ flowers, while others have longer, elegant tapered flowers.
‘Etoile Violette’
Some reflex slightly (C. crispa completely ‘touches its shoulders’) while others stay with their lips tightly pursed. Virtually all of these plants I have grown from seed, either from BCS or IClS, and one or two have simply popped up as ‘self-sets’, and after reading Dwayne’s article it seems likely that quite a few of my Viornae are travelling under pseudonyms or incognito! But whatever their name, I love them all.
Last thoughts: in this year’s drought conditions, generally speaking, some clematis blossoms are definitely not as large as normal, nor quite as intensely coloured as they usually are.
FOREVER FRIENDS and ‘Fascination’
Am I alone in thinking this, or has anybody else found that size definitely matters when rainfall is a little on the sparse side?
Some Coping Strategies for Extremes of Weather
Sue Reade UK sue.reade@uwclub.net
The Northern Group managed just one outing this year. We had hoped to visit Richard Hodson’s Clematis Nursery and garden at Hesketh Bank, but unfortunately the weather had taken its toll on his plot. I looked around for an alternative and the head gardener at Dunham Massey kindly volunteered to give us a guided tour. She also organised a room for us to discuss how to cope with extreme weather, such as that experienced this year. I thought it would be a good idea to spend some time discussing general ways to keep our gardens and plants in good shape.
Dunham is divided into the Winter Garden, which is in the woodland area, and the Herbaceous and Shrubbery garden, beyond the stream. In amongst this area is a Rose Garden which houses a large number of Viticella clematis which were all looking in great order. I was informed that a good mulch and trickle hoses had saved the day for them. We continued our discussion on such matters after the visit, when we all once again went back for tea and cakes at Heather Turner’s house.
I noticed in this Year’s Journal Glenis Dyer’s article entitled ‘Some Like it Hot’, in which Glenis talks about the effects of heat on various clematis. She recommends the use of a ‘dripper system’ for plants in pots and those close to the house. I heartily agree with this! Our recent frequent holidays in the summer months caused me a lot of anxiety even though our neighbours had very kindly promised they would do the watering for us while we were away. I had been looking to find such a system which would cope with about twenty plants in the front garden and a similar number in the back, my outside tap being conveniently located on the side of the house. On a past visit to Harry Caddick’s
Northern Group at Dunham with head gardener Emily Chandler (Image R. Kirkman) garden Harry (of Caddick’s Clematis fame) had explained his own watering system to me and said where he had bought it. However, nothing that I had seen in garden centres todate would have been able to cope with my front and back situation. So, LBS Worldwide Ltd of Colne, in Lancashire, arranged a phone call from their irrigation people and, after testing the water pressure by timing the filling of a bucket, they recommended a system which I could use with a timer. One of my helpful neighbours helped me put it together – last year we were in Singapore and Bali for two weeks for my son’s wedding and I’ve been so thankful for it again, this year, especially when the water shortage prompted United Utilities to ask us not to use hose pipes!
In recent weeks there have been a number of articles in the garden sections of newspapers and gardening magazines offering advice on the watering front on account of the hot summer; but we have also had extremes of weather of other kinds. First, there was the very wet spring which curtailed a lot of early season gardening, following that came the glacial ‘Beast from the East’, which caused some plant losses. The freezing cold wind frazzled anything with leaves on and the intense wind chill factor meant we needed to protect some of the most vulnerable plants. If we get another period like it, I shall definitely be covering some of my plants with fleece to try to keep the worst frost off Wind – Harry Caddick mentioned that he plants clematis through shrubs and trees because they fare better that way when subjected to strong winds – the vines don’t get blown all over, they can only move in tandem with the branches and foliage of the shrub or tree they are clinging to, affording the clematis good protection from the worst of it.
In one newspaper a number of well-known garden experts were asked for their best tips on dealing with a water crisis. The main points raised were as follows: if possible choose plants which can naturally cope with dryer conditions. Obviously, many clematis are quite thirsty plants, so this tip is basically only applicable to those cultivars which
don’t actually need so much water in the first instance. I think we all want to avoid having to repeatedly irrigate established plants, but of course newly planted specimens and those in pots will always need to be watered a least once a day during hot days Some judicious pruning may help here, as a smaller plant will demand less water. Covering with shade netting definitely helps to shelter plants from fierce heat. Finally, and perhaps the best and most important tip – the more you mulch in the winter or early spring, then generally the less your plants will need watering in the summer. A thick mulch conserves moisture in the soil.
For pots, the choice of compost is a prime factor because peat-based composts resist watering from above, once they’ve dried out. A thorough soaking of the pot may become necessary but of course this could become a very big job if you have a decent number of pots, or if you have established, mature plants in larger containers.
The ‘best time of day for watering’ also provokes lively discussion. It is often said that one pint at six in the morning is worth six pints at 1pm! I recall from my RHS college days a lecturer told me to always water in the mornings, as watering in the evening encourages slugs and snails. Others say watering in the evening is best, as the plants take up moisture in the cool of the night without losing any to evaporation and are then as ready as possible for whatever the next day throws at them. It’s a matter of personal judgment here, depending on which particular plants you have and how you’ve seen them react in the past.
I would be a killjoy to most people if I said that I hope we don’t have another very hot summer again next year – but in my book some days of rain are welcome too!
Moving House with my Clematis
Richard Munday UK rmmunday@yahoo.com
We have moved from our house and garden of thirty years. We moved in January, when the clematis are dormant, so we were able to take a few with us. When we very first moved into the house there was a plant of ‘Ernest Markham’, a nice red, which was sharing a small piece of wall with a wisteria. That plant survived for about twenty-five years but eventually gave up the unequal struggle with the wisteria. Two cultivars survived the full thirty years –‘Jackmanii’ and ‘Perle d’Azur’, both of whom faithfully appeared every summer. ‘Etoile Violette’ has been bullet-proof, giving a good display every year without any attention, other than cutting back to a foot high in February. The biggest flowers I grew were on the early large-flowered hybrid cultivar ‘Fireworks’ – some of them were nine inches across.
I had amassed around fifty to sixty clematis so could only take a small proportion of them with me. It was possible to move those in pots and some of the more recently planted ones which had not yet fully established themselves. I decided to try and keep some of the more unusual varieties, but that was not always easy. I had a nice plant of ‘Vostok’ but couldn’t get the spade into the ground anywhere near it, it seemed rock hard. I had another plant in a pot next to a rhododendron, as a host to climb into. When moving it I discovered that rhododendron roots had grown up through the hole in the base of the pot almost to the top, semidestroying the clematis. Note to myself –always move the pots around, to stop that happening! I had planted many of the early large-flowered hybrids deep, to avoid clematis wilt, so couldn’t really move any of those.
The following may seem obvious but when you receive clematis plants from the nursery they are nice and light – the postage would be horrendous if they weren’t. But to dig up a plant with a reasonable rootball means a now-heavy mass, and large pots are very weighty in themselves, so moving any plants can become quite back-breaking. Fortunately, Josie Hulbert, the leader of our Midlands Group of the Society kindly volunteered to take some plants, accompanied by her strong husband Cavan, including my plant of the very nice ← OOH LA LA (‘Evipo041’) which has always
flowered well, a large pot with ‘Guernsey Cream’ in and my plant of the Viticella ‘Richard’s Picotee’, which Richard Hodson had given me on a visit to his garden and nursery.
I have moved temporarily into a rented bungalow; this has a garden but for obvious reasons I can’t grow anything in the soil, only in pots. The garden has quite a few largish shrubs I could grow things into, plus a bit of netting on fences. I’ve enjoyed some quite beautiful flowers from my pots and tubs. BLUE ANGEL (C ‘Błękitny Anioł’) has been in a large tub for years and this thrived on the netting on the fence. Putting pots under shrubs is quite a sensible way of growing clematis as they can be quite close to the main stem of a shrub which keeps the roots shaded and prevents them drying out, especially if you equip the pots with a saucer to sit in. I’ve had two or three together, in a large plastic tray.
The sumptuous ‘Fond Memories’ did well in the soil in my previous garden and flowered equally well climbing through a camellia from a pot. It does seem very hardy and laughed in the face of the ‘Beast from the East’ .
‘Richard’s Picotee’
Two Viticellas I had in the ground at my old house never flowered but in a pot ‘Maria Cornelia’, with dainty semi-nodding white flowers, and ASTRA NOVA (‘Zo09085’), with semidouble violet flowers, suddenly graced their shrubs with blooms. I had some Viticella seedlings in pots and they surprised me by producing their nodding harebell-like flowers amongst the leaves of the shrub. All the clematis climbing into shrubs can be just cut back to a few inches when we move to a permanent house and the shrubs won’t be harmed.
Clematis can be predictably unpredictable. I dug up and took with me a plant of the early large-flowered hybrid ‘Ruby Wedding NLP2’ – which I thought was dead – and shoved it into a pot, just in case it wasn’t. It must like life in a pot, as it suddenly sparked back into being and flowered! I think nearly every pot plant that I moved bloomed reasonably well and I only lost a couple of the plants that came with me.
So, I look forward to a new garden at some point and the challenge of growing new varieties, and some of my old favourites.
Aslightly different form of layering? You may recall that we touched on this topic in last year’s Journal. On Austrian TV (which we receive here in Sweden by satellite) we often watch gardening presenter Karl Ploberger’s presentations on the morning show Guten Morgen. He’s the Austrian gardening anchorman for the channel and regularly produces short videos on specific topics in connection with Clematis
Karl’s point in a recent programme was on how and why he produces bushier clematis in pots, as a counter against clematis wilt. He advises to mix good compost with gritty material and then the root and the more flexible young lower stems of the plant are wound around in the pot to get as much stem material as possible onto the horizontal, before covering with medium. Karl then tops the surface of the medium with something to keep the root cool – gravel or similar. Once the plant is settled and growing, new growths will be produced from the buried horizontal nodes, making for a much bushier potted clematis plant.
Then, if any stems should happen to suffer wilt, the affected parts can simply be removed by cutting them away, without disturbing the other parts of the plant.
A Garden Tour
Marie-France Holt Canada mfhbug@gmail.com
Aquestion that is debated by gardeners is ‘Why do we garden?’ There are many responses, different for each person. My simple answer would be ‘because we love beauty’. The plants that I find beautiful may not be yours at all, but I crave them nearby. I like this response given back in 2014 by Jason Kay: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/mar/21/garden-city-why
A different question, I propose, is ‘Why do we offer garden tours and why do people attend them?’
BLUE PIROUETTE (‘Zobluepi’)
There are some easy answers to this question, but also some deeper ones. For me, I accepted to share my garden because I was asked to do so by people I enjoy.
‘Pagoda’
Also, it is fun (and very exhausting) to prepare a garden to look its best for one or two special days. Perhaps there is an element of ‘I could do something like this, only differently!’ involved? Other answers are more complex: perhaps a bit of pride, a need for positive feedback after all one’s efforts?
Variegated Comfrey with Monarda and Agapanthus
Podophyllum versipelle 'Spotty Dotty'
Many people travel to see famous gardens, such as Versailles, Monet’s Garden, Ryōan-ji Garden in Kyoto, Keukenhof Gardens in the Netherlands, Butchart Gardens in Canada, and more! Yet many of those same people love to view private gardens as well. My gardening friends include private gardens in our travel experiences as often as possible. Another question is ‘Why do we take and share garden photographs?’ Personally, I enjoy taking garden photographs but sometimes find it frustrating. I am not as good at it as I would like to be. The technology changes often and my vision changes as I age. Sometimes I resent seeing the world through a lens and simply want to remember people and places. It is complicated. I think that all these questions are related to yet another question, namely ‘Who do we garden for?’ Some of us garden to tidy up our property, perhaps a first home of our own. This combines gardening for ourselves as well as improving things
Quilts on display
for the neighbours. Some people concentrate on sustainable vegetable gardening. Others enjoy teaching their children, school children or retirees, even prisoners, to learn garden skills. Some of us just love plants, bright colours or subtle ones. Some like them all and especially a bargain! Over time, many people find a particular plant addictive. They become expert about roses, or dahlias, hostas or apples or squash - or they may delight in various obscure finds.
For my part, I have lately become interested in shade gardening in the Pacific Northwest. I garden for me. If others enjoy what I do, so much the better. And this
Astilbewith Astrantia
Clematis‘Romantika’ grows through a rhododendron leads to why I have offered garden tours. At first I shared my garden as a way of supporting community causes through ticket sales. I think of myself as a fairly private person, but I do love to see how others respond to plants. I guess that is the ‘former teacher’ in me. Now I am fairly comfortable having garden tours for garden clubs. Once again, money from ticket sales goes to good causes. But I also love sharing my delight in
Gilleniastipulata
the unusual: Podophyllum, Diphylleia grayi (skeleton flower), Syneilesis palmata or fern-like Pteridophyllum racemosum. There were six wonderful quilts on display at our garden this summer. When it rained, I protected them! (see the pictures on pages 39 and 40 of this article.)
Last June our garden was one of about a dozen on display in our area on Quadra Island, a short ferry ride from Vancouver Island in British Columbia. It was a two-day event. About 200 people attended each day. The first day was beautiful and sunny. The second day it poured, but that didn’t seem to dampen spirits at all. People were full of wonderful questions. I love answering questions if I can, and I am not afraid to say I don’t remember a name or I simply don’t know.
My favourite bench!
I’ll share a few visitor questions.
“’Why have I never seen these plants before?’ (Now that you’ve seen them, you will find them!)
‘What do you feed your hostas?’ (Nothing really, just water them. It has been a good spring for them.)
‘That’s a Clematis? I thought they had bigger flowers! Those look like tiny bells. ’ (There are a great many kinds!)
‘How do you get clematis to grow on stumps and shrubs? I thought they needed trellises or obelisks. ' (If they are climbers they will take off, either climbing anything
Clematis‘Juuli’ with delphiniums
A young gardener at work
nearby or even grow horizontally over a rock or around a bird bath, given a bit of guidance.)
’What is that plant back there with the funny leaves?’ (A Podophyllum ‘Spotty Dotty’)
Clematis ‘Tentel’
‘What are those blue flowers called?’ (Some were delphiniums, others were meconopsis )
‘Where did that bench come from? I’d like one too. Maybe I could even make that one!’ (A friend made it from local wood.)
‘What is that amazing tree?’ (Kousa dogwood) This led to an explanation of the various stages of interest as the seasons progress.
‘Is that a disporum?’ ( Yes, a variegated one.)
‘Where do you find your plants?’ (nurseries, friends, strangers, mail order…or else I found them here). ‘What are those star-shaped flowers?’ (Gillenia)
StyraxjaponicusJapanese Snowbell tree
A Clematisgift with no name
Fortunately, people are very uncritical when they see a few weeds in gardens. Some are even comforted to see weeds in other people’s backyards as well as in their own. People share great information and experiences. Their comments are delightful and kind. Many understand what you are trying to achieve. For example, visitors observed that I try to incorporate the native plants of the area with my nursery-bought trees, vines, bulbs and perennials. That is such a pleasure. They understand that each gardener creates a mood that works for him or her or for an entire family. Creating a mood that works for you is the task of both the experienced gardener and those who are just getting started on their first gardening journey. A garden tour is not only about plants, but getting hints about
Clematis‘Maria Cornelia’ with Clematis‘Odoriba’
soil, fencing, gates, seating, pruning and more. Tours even offer ideas on editing and simplifying a garden. It is not the work we think of, but the joy of it all. Sharing the beauty and joy (and sorrows too!) is all a part of the garden tour experience. It can be a way of finding meaningful friends of all ages too.
Sharing photos is another way of enjoying one’s garden experiences, especially these days with many garden forums on the web. I find that over the years, my garden photos have created a kind of garden journal, a history of my gardens over the years, as well as a history of this old lady gardener herself. Like a long-distance runner, gardeners are sometimes competitive and lonely. The support of an audience can be deeply satisfying. Below are photos of some of the plants which were particularly enjoyed and commented on by the garden visitors last June.
Clematis‘Brunette’
A combination of grasses and Hellebores
A mystery mix that happened because tags were lost while moving
Pink Phlomis
Kousa dogwood
Hosta‘Krossa Regal’ Clematis‘Pink Pride’
Clematis×durandii
Clematis‘Pink Mink’ with Thalictrumsplendide
Clematis‘RUBY’ (Alpina Group) Flowering
Throughout the Year
Valerie Le May Neville-Parry UK val@lmnp.co.uk
Does your ‘Ruby’ know when to flower? My lovely plant of that name has flowers all year round. Now, in September it is in almost full flow with hundreds of buds about to open.
Typically, she’s planted in the wrong place. I had no idea what a strong, large plant she would be – you live and learn as they say. I plan to move her next month when I have a strong young man to do the job. I hope she will soon establish herself in a more suitable site.
Everett Leeds
The ‘xJB’ Plants
Richard Hodson UK richardhodson321@gmail.com
Clematis ‘Joan Baker’ (right) was raised by Bill Baker from Tidmarsh, near Pangbourne, in the early 1980s. This was a chance open pollinated seedling from ‘Etoile Rose’ , the pollen parent possibly being an unnamed Clematis campaniflora hybrid which was growing nearby.
My understanding is that the early propagation of Joan Baker was done almost exclusively by layering, as it proved very difficult to root cuttings of the plant.
The flower colour is much darker than ‘Etoile Rose’ – more violet-purple, but what a tremendously floriferous plant, over a long period in the summer! Importantly, it produced copious quantities of seeds which in due course were sent to the BCS seed exchange, to be made available for members to grow. I eagerly snapped up many of those seeds during the years 2000 to 2006.
Lots of hybrids resulted from these seeds and several were registered – a number of these plants are still available today. Some, including ‘Carol Leeds’ (above) raised by Everett Leeds and ‘Jolly Jake’ (next page), raised by Brian Collingwood, now form part of my National Collection of Clematis viticella, here at Hesketh Bank.
I have several other seedlings in the garden here, simply labelled xJB3, xJB4, xJB5, xJB11, and the fantastic xJB2xKT, which was given to me as a very young plant by the National Viorna Collection holder, Keith Treadaway, of Tenby in Pembrokeshire.
None of the above plants are easy to propagate. However, as is often the case where plants are concerned, patience and persistence engender reward; I’m pleased to say that I have managed to layer and/or divide all of them, over the years, so I have a backup copy of each. I would hate to lose any of them.
‘Jolly Jake’ xJB2xKT
xJB11
xJB4
xJB4 xJB11
An Antipodean Oddity
Harry Grounds UK hgrounds@hotmail.co.uk
Iremember scrolling through photos of C. aristata for one reason or another late last year. A few of the photos which caught my eye showed striking yellow-green veined leaves; this species is extremely variable and is found mainly on the edge of the eastern rain forest of Australia. When I clicked on one of the photos, the title was ARISTATA ASHMOUNT (not listed as yet in the International Clematis Register) and the name ‘Mark Bulk’ was appended to one of the photos. Rein and Mark Bulk have a specialist plant nursery in the Netherlands so, after enquiring about the plant, I purchased it late last year. I also asked how they had obtained the plant? Mark explained that they had procured it from noted plantsman Jan Ravensberg in Ireland, whose address happens to be ‘Ashmount House’ in County Clare.
My plant survived the cold winter in my greenhouse but did not look very well – a lot of dead leaves – so in spring I removed the decrepit leaves and cut the plant back to about eighteen inches. With hindsight, I think this may have been a bad idea, as most of the new growth immediately reverted to the normal green leaf, just clusters of the yellow-veined leaves remaining.
A while later I came across a photo (on a social media website) taken by Pat Murray on the 12th December 2017; the notes stated that Plants of Tasmania, a nursery which specialises in the flora of Tasmania) were propagating the plant.
I conversed with John Gibson, at the nursery, who confirmed that he had indeed taken cuttings of the plant: he was of the opinion that the cause of the yellow veining was a virus. He added that the cuttings’ new growth had malformed yellow veined leaves and, more recently, that the cuttings were struggling. He also told me about two plants he had seen growing in the wild, in Tasmania; one site was very wet, the other was damp and prone to fog. I had seen a photo (from 2012) of a large wild plant on another social media site. Maybe the yellow veining takes time to come to dominance in the plant, or maybe it’s the particular growing conditions? I guess I will just have to wait and see what happens with my own plant, so all I can say for the moment is ‘watch this space’ .
Thanks to Mark Bulk for his help; also, to Pat Murray for use of the above photo, and special thanks to John Gibson.
Seeking native Clematis sibirica in Norway and Finland
Werner Stastny Sweden werner-stastny@tele2.se
Werner Stastny recounts two expeditions to Norway and Finland in June 2005 and June 2006 respectively, in search of the native Atragene, Clematis sibirica
The merry band included Timo Löfgren (Finland), Anita Pålman (Sweden), Bengt and Karin Sundström (Sweden), Werner Stastny (Sweden), Anita Sandström (Sweden), Mr & Mrs Veijo Mietinen (Finland), Rolf Sandström (Sweden) and Ulf Svensson (Sweden).
With regard to the Norwegian expedition Werner wishes to acknowledge the contribution of (on left) Hans-Rüdi Horn (Switzerland) who passed away recently, aged 98 years. HansRüdi was very familiar with C. sibirica in Norway and over the course of twenty years made many trips to the Gudbrand Valley to track down the secret locations of C. sibirica. His expert knowledge was instrumental in planning our trips and we were very lucky to have his guidance. With him is the Norwegian clematis expert Finn Røsholm. Until this expedition Finn, as is the case for many other Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish clematarians, had never before seen C. sibirica in the wild, due to the inaccessibility of the terrain and the particular specialist location knowledge required.
This location will now be protected by greater forestry maintenance.
In this jungle-like vegetation the Clematis sibirica were crawling all over, displaying thousands of white flowers.
Climbing a steep hill to get to the right location.
The second expedition
All photos by Werner Stastny and Bengt Sundström
Clematis
integrifolia
at Silver StarVinery
Roy Nunn UK roy_angela_nunn@btinternet.com
This year we once again had an invitation from Debbie Fischer, the owner, to the Silver Star Vinery to give two talks at her open weekend in the middle of July. The Vinery is located in the forested area of Washington State and gets its name from the nearby Silver Star mountains. It is close to the east fork of the Lewis River, a tributary of the mighty Columbia River. The nearest large town is Battle Ground, at about fifteen miles, with the adjacent town of Yacolt (in UK this would be classed as a small village) about seven miles away. This area is not commonly visited by tourists from outside the USA – as we found out when asked by the friendly immigration official, whilst checking passports at Portland Airport. He enquired where we were staying; in reply to stating our destination, he said ‘Yacolt – nobody goes there’ .
The R and T Garden, featuring many C. integrifoliaplants as ground cover
The nursery consists of a clearing in a long since defunct Christmas tree nursery, where some of the surrounding white pines have been allowed to grow to their full potential. Just before our last visit in 2016 several of the large trees adjacent to their house had to be cut down, which resulted in a revamp of the extensive display garden. Incidentally, this garden is one of the best clematis display gardens that I have had the pleasure of visiting.
mid
In 2016 I helped with the planting of an area now known as the R and T garden (Roy and Tara) designed to show off the potential of clematis as ground cover, mainly consisting of seed grown Clematis integrifolia. Light blue fading to white at the tips of the sepals
Of course, C. ‘Arabella’ had to be part of the planting scheme. Since this planting, obelisks and structures have been added to bound the area, with vine-type clematis plus a few strategically placed shrubs to add interest to the planting.
A white and
blue seedling with C. ‘Arabella’
Since 2016 two other areas have been added which include further seed grown C. integrifolia-types to the front of these beds. Most of these plants were obtained by digging up self-set seedlings that appeared in graveled areas adjacent to established plants, growing them on to flowering size and saving those plants that were showing potential. Inevitably, when relying on bees to carry out pollination for you, they introduce pollen from climbing clematis, resulting in vigorous individuals growing to over 6 feet (left). A few of these have been planted next to suitably sized shrubs or, in one case, being tied to a cast steel bedhead. It was obvious that these plants thrive really well in the increasingly hot summers that the Pacific North West seems to be enduring of late, with temperatures reaching 38°C. on both recent visits. The soil is a well-drained sandy loam which, according to the presence of lots of clear blue Hydrangeas, would possibly indicate a
Two newly planted areas with many C. integrifoliain the foreground
One of the pink seedlings rescued from the gravel paving fronting the new area tendency to be acidic. The soil is enriched with the addition of a dressing of well-rotted Llama dung and is irrigated on a regular basis from local springs and artesian well water. Interesting colour, also rescued from the gravel. I thought I should not leave the nursery without showing two of my favorite clematis, both unfortunately not easily obtainable in the UK. Firstly, a plant I have admired
Aboveandright,Clematis‘Solina’ on several visits as it always seems to look great no matter where it is planted. This plant is Clematis SAPHYRA INDIGO (C. ‘Cleminov 51’).
The other plant was seen for the first time in 2016 when it had only been recently planted and was trying to compete on an arbour in the shade of an apple tree. This year it had obviously won and was covering the arbour in purple/red flowers, resembling a fuller flowered C. ‘Emilia Plater’. The plant – that should be more widely available – is Clematis ‘Solina’. British Nurseries please get this plant in your catalogues. The International Clematis Society is in the process of planning a visit to the Pacific North West of USA possibly in June 2019. Silver Star Vinery is one of the Nurseries that has been invited to participate.
ClematisSAPHYRA INDIGO (C. ‘Cleminov 51’)
‘Broughton Star’
The National Collection of Clematis montana at By the Way – Val Le May Neville-Parry
Andy McIndoe – writer, broadcaster and speaker on horticultural affairs. Designer and overseer of numerous Hilliers Chelsea Gold Medal exhibits. al Le May Neville-Parry belongs to that special breed of gardeners that share their garden with you. ‘I think of my friends as I go around the garden and tend them all’ .
VThere are trees and shrubs, other climbers, occasional exotics and abundant perennials, often self-sown. There are wilder corners where the garden blends seamlessly with the surrounding countryside. But the inhabitants that weave it all together are the elite Clematis montana Group, climbing, trailing, cascading and sparking with white and pink stars amidst delicate fern-like foliage.
Most thrive in this two thirds of an acre garden which tumbles down a south facing slope in the New Forest National Park. Occasionally, a plant is less successful, but Val’s respect and admiration for all is immense. She sees By the Way as a trial ground: ‘If it survives in my garden it should do well anywhere’, she says confidently. However, a plant is never blamed for failure: that’s put down to the growing conditions that she is able to provide.
Certainly, no one could do more to ensure a plant’s success. Gardening without the use of chemicals, the poor, dry, gravelly soil is enriched with home-made compost, two years old leaf mould and an annual application of Bone Meal. The composting facility is a masterclass. Careful use of ingredients, a strict regime of turning and insulation (using old carpets) ensures the aerobic compost is ready in just two months.
But why choose Clematis montana? Val had already joined the British Clematis Society during a visit to Hampton Court Palace Flower Show on her way to the Grand Prix with her late husband, Chris. Bewitched by the beauty of clematis and ‘a collector at heart’ she decided to go for the Montanas. Val now has two hundred Montana Group plants comprising at least fifty cultivars and the many beautiful seedlings raised at By the Way.
A few are rampant, reaching eight metres or more, but breeding has produced more compact varieties suitable for smaller gardens, or even growing in pots. The flowering season is far longer than most assume, beginning as early as March and continuing to
late June. Some, such as Val’s all-time favourite Clematis ‘Continuity’, now re-named ‘The Jewell’ (after David Jewell at Hilliers Arboretum) will continue to produce sporadic bunches of flowers through summer and into autumn. All go on to produce attractive seedheads. The compact ‘Van Gogh’ is a good example.
‘The Jewell’
The foliage of the Montanas is also a feature. ‘I love the leaves as much as the flowers’, she is keen to point out. Clematis montana var. rubens
‘Tetrarose’ may have a short flowering season, but it has exquisite foliage.
‘Freda’ has found her way over a power line; originally she draped ‘gracefully’ over a winter flowering viburnum. Clematis montana var. grandiflora transforms a laurel hedge running down one side of the garden, the shining white blooms of the clematis sit like butterflies upon the glossy leaves of the laurel. Both clematis and laurel are pruned together by late June and thrive on it. The vigorous Clematis montana var. wilsonii can be used as ground cover where space permits. It forms an undulating carpet of foliage studded with scented creamy-white flowers in early summer. These are versatile plants with so many uses in the garden. Attractive seedheads
Val is not as keen on the doubles, mainly because they prefer a richer soil. She waxes lyrical about the wonderful soil gardened by Charlotte Wemyss in Fife who perhaps should have that second collection she is keen for someone to establish. However, the double that receives approval is the lovely 'Broughton Star': dusky pink, dark leaves and fabulously floriferous. Favourites among the singles include ‘Marjorie’ –‘such a darling little plant’, and of course ‘By the Way’ ,
‘Marilyn’
a seedling, which has proved to be one of the best selected, in the garden. Blooming from the base to the tip, with soft-pink, deliciously fragrant open blooms that develop into striking seedheads, it thus remains attractive through autumn.
But what of the future? Val has worked with the nearby Sir Harold Hillier Gardens to establish a collection of Montana Group plants which could become another National Collection. Visitors are welcome to By the Way by appointment during the second half of April and throughout May. She generously shares her plants by encouraging guests to take cuttings material and telling them how to propagate these amazing climbers. I came away from my first visit feeling that I had enjoyed a lesson in real gardening and that I had seen a familiar group of plants for the very first time.
Vigorous varieties
Clematismontanavar. wilsonii Flowering a few weeks later than other varieties this is a useful plant to extend the Clematis montana season. Masses of small starry, white flowers with cream stamens and a delicious chocolate fragrance.
Clematismontanavar. rubens Strong growing and reliable, ideal for a tree or pergola with profuse, fragrant, pink flowers. Plum tinted foliage and dark young stems.
Clematismontanavar. grandiflora The hardiest and most reliable Montana with some of the largest flowers in the group. Open, pure-white blooms with primrose stamens create a stunning display over cascading stems from late spring.
←‘Marilyn’ Clematis williamsii
Vigorous with an unruly habit and large green leaves; good for large gardens. Soft, pale yellow urn shaped flowers add a different hue to the montana palette.
Mediumgrowing varieties Clematis ‘Broughton Star’ Perhaps the best doubleflowered cultivar with abundant dusky pink, veined blooms displayed
against bronze-tinted foliage. Excellent to grow through a shrub or a small tree. A plant from the late great renowned Vince Denny, of Broughton, Preston in north Lancashire. In full flower this cultivar is a glorious sight to behold and is highly recommended.
Clematis‘Giant Star’ A large flowered cultivar introduced from New Zealand. Cupshaped blooms with waved tepals of mid-pink, paler at the edges eventually open flat and upward facing.
Clematis‘Crinkle’ Another New Zealand introduction that is easy to grow and requires little maintenance. It drapes elegantly over any support, producing garlands of lightlyscented, medium, mid-pink blooms.
Clematis‘Victoria Welcome’ An elegant Montana with delicate dark-green leaves and starry white, green-eyed blooms, reflexed at the tepal edges.
Clematis‘Marilyn’ A seedling of ‘Prosperity’ named after a friend. The mauve-pink blooms open as tiny cream-eyed stars but mature to open blooms with the longest, narrow tepals in the group.
Compact varieties
Clematis‘Prosperity’ Introduced by Sheila Chapman, this compact clematis needs a sheltered sunny position. Neat foliage and masses of pure white starry flowers with sparkling primrose stamens. No pruning required.
Clematismontana‘Veitch’s Form’ Small, open blooms of square formation with rounded tepals of deep, mauve-pink with pale stamens. Best against a light background and seen at close quarters.
Clematis‘Freda’ One of the best, discovered by Freda Deacon in her Norfolk Garden; later introduced by Jim Fisk. Open, lightly fragrant mauve-pink blooms, darker at the edges, displayed against bronze-green leaves.
Clematis‘Van Gogh’ Excellent, compact variety that starts to bloom early and continues for up to six weeks; cherry-pink blooms, sometimes double at the end of the flowering period. A good choice for a large pot in a sunny, sheltered situation.
Clematis‘Miss Christine’ Easy to grow, with multiple stems it blooms from the base; excellent to grow on a pole. Pure white, green eyed blooms are heavily scented and followed by attractive seed heads.
Clematis‘Primrose Star’ Attractive cultivar from New Zealand with fully double pale lemon-yellow flowers, pink at the edge of the tepals. It needs a sunny spot and fertile soil.
Clematismontanavar. rubens‘Tetrarose’ Deep pink, cupped blooms with a spicy fragrance are produced for a relatively brief period compared to other montanas. Often marketed as ‘Picton’s Variety’ (which is similar) but with many six tepalled flowers.
Clematis‘Continuity’ This has been re-named Clematis‘The Jewell’. It is Val’s ‘alltime favourite’ producing posies of apple-blossom blooms, darker on the outside of the tepals, from late spring through to autumn. Parentage is unknown but Clematis chrysocoma is clearly in the parentage.
Clematis‘Marjorie’ Abundant semi-double flowers with creamy-white outer tepals, becoming pink; the narrow inner tepals darker. At its best in fertile soil and full sun, the flowers open later than single montanas.
Clematis‘Dianna Jazwinski’ Named by Val after the photographer, this new cultivar has abundant, neatly-cupped cream-white blooms, deep pink on the reverse of the tepals. Upright in habit and perfect on a pole. This is a seedling from the fabulous ‘Prosperity’.
Clematismontanais classified as Pruning Group 1: clematis that do not require pruning. However, you should prune – to control size and stimulate new growth. This should always be done immediately after flowering; by the end of June at the latest. Any
Clematis 2018
dead wood or damaged growth can be cut out in winter or early spring to keep the plants tidy.
One in three stems of established multi-stemmed plants can be cut back each year to just above ground level. This promotes new growth from the base of the plants which hopefully results in flowers from the ground up. Feed after spring pruning with an organic fertiliser such as Fish, Blood and Bone and mulch generously with good garden compost. Water after feeding, especially if the weather is dry.
By the Way is open by appointment for individuals and groups of up to six from midApril until the end of May. Visitors are welcome to take cuttings and collect seeds when material is available. Admission charge is £6.00pp, which includes a personal tour of the garden. Every penny goes to Race Against Dementia. Cherizena Coffee sponsors the garden, and friends and Val donate and serve the light refreshments.
By the Way Lodge Drove Woodfalls
Salisbury SP5 2NH
Telephone 01725 511931
Website www.clematismontana.co.uk
Directions
7 miles west of Cadnam (& M27). B3078 & B3080; Left turn opposite Woodfalls recreation ground. Down Lodge Drove, along track, left opposite end of paddock on right hand side. Limited disabled access.
Everett Leeds
Untangling
the Viny Viornas:
A
Case
of How We've
Underestimated Biodiversity in Architecturally Complex Genera
Glossary:seefinalpageofarticle
Dwayne Estes USA
Architecturally complex plant groups can be difficult to study. Perhaps no group better exemplifies this than the ‘viny viornas’ or ‘leatherflowers’ of the genus Clematis Leatherflowers are herbaceous vines that grow up to about 9 ft in length. They generally trail over surrounding vegetation or climb shrubs. Their architectural complexity stems from various floral and vegetative characteristics.
Clematis is represented by more than 400 species globally; since the 1940s between eight and twelve species have been recognized in the eastern U.S. by taxonomists. Ralph Erickson in his treatment of the viornas recognized twelve species, whereas W. Michael Dennis recognized eight species in his PhD dissertation, which focused on the biosystematics (the statistical analysis of data obtained from genetic, biochemical, and other studies to assess the taxonomic relationships of organisms or populations, especially within an evolutionary framework) of the group.
I first became interested in Clematis in 2003 during the first year of my PhD programme at the University of Tennessee. Even though I lived in Knoxville, I regularly
Clematis 2018
traveled back to central Tennessee (420 miles round trip) to collect specimens. One late spring day I traveled from Knoxville to collect plants in the Nashville area along the
Fig. 1. The red star indicates the location of specimens of C.viornacollected in Jackson Co., TN (plants in upper right with bright reddish flowers. The blue star indicates the location of specimens of C.viornacollected in Cheatham Co., TN (plants in upper left). Both were collected along the Cumberland River and both key to C.viornain most keys. The bold green line represents an important geographic break within eastern North America. Many primarily Appalachian species do not occur west of this line and many ‘western’ species rarely occur east of this line.
Cumberland River. During this collection trip I happened to collect Clematis viorna from moist forested slopes in Jackson Co., TN in the upper Cumberland River Valley. The flowers were bright, cherry red on the outside with a cream interior and most parts of the plant were relatively smooth. The sepals were weakly corrugated along the back. The flower stalks (peduncles) were longer and the bract leaves were larger. The leaves of these plants were biternately compound. Later that same trip, and about seventy-five miles to the west, I collected another Clematis that also keyed to C. viorna but was clearly very different when examined side by side. These plants from dry rocky wooded slopes adjacent to limestone cliffs in Cheatham Co., Tennessee had pale-lavender flowers fading to cream sepal tips, sepals grooved on the back, a different leaf dissection, and
were soft-hairy on leaves, stems, and flowers. I thought to myself, how can these two collections represent the same species? See Fig. 1 and ask yourself the same question! So, after careful observation in the field and much thought on the subject, I did what any taxonomic botanist would do: I went back to the University of Tennessee Herbarium (UTH) to examine specimens and to dig into the taxonomic literature to see what previous Clematis experts (Ralph Erickson, Mike Dennis, and Jim Pringle) had to say about variation in Clematis viorna
Features that seemed so clearly distinct in the field such as flower colour, grooving of the sepals, leaf dissection, pubescence, and position of the leafy bracts on the flower stalks, all seemed to ‘break down’ upon initial inspection of all of the C. viorna specimens at UTH (see Figs 2-3). Flower colour and sepal grooves were impossible to tell because of discolouration of the flower and distortion (through flattening and shrinking) of the sepals upon drying. Leaf dissection was challenging because some collectors collected only the distal-most stem section whereas others collected from mid-stem sections, or in other cases leaves were so poorly pressed that they were sometimes folded, and their original dissection pattern was impossible to discern. Thus, leaf pubescence and bract position were the only really ‘useful’ features that could be used when examining most herbarium specimens.
Fig. 2. This specimen illustrates some of the difficulties of working with Clematisin the herbarium. This specimen is poorly pressed with overlapping leaves and stems and folded leaflets. Compare this specimen with Figure 3 below.
Some general patterns seemed to hold when I examined leaf pubescence in Clematis viorna. Most specimens could be separated into a relatively smooth ‘Appalachian’ type and a pubescent ‘Interior’ type. The ‘Appalachian’ type seemed restricted to the Appalachian Mountains, Piedmont, and Atlantic Coastal Plain from northern Georgia and east Tennessee north into southeastern Ohio and Virginia. The ‘Interior’ type seemed to be the main type west of the Appalachian Plateaus (Cumberland and Allegheny) west to the Ozarks and ranging north-south from southern Indiana to central Alabama.
What was troubling to me was how could these plants be so distinct in the field and then seem to break down in the herbarium? Using hairiness as one criterion to sort specimens, I was intrigued by populations within the Appalachian zone that were quite hairy like ‘interior’ populations.
Fig. 3. This is the same species as shown in Fig. 2 but note that the critical features needed for identification are shown, including the dissection pattern of the leaves and the general features of the flowers, their peduncles, and bracts. Collectors of Clematisare encouraged to press specimens with such characters in mind.
These isolated ‘interior’ populations stranded in Appalachia popped up in interesting places such as in east Tennessee and southwestern Virginia in the Ridge and Valley Province, near Shenandoah National Park in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, and in the Ocoee River Gorge of Tennessee's southern Blue Ridge. I only had one or two specimens of each of these outlier ‘Interior -like’ plants to examine so I chalked them up as aberrant individuals and was left scratching my noggin.
Not wanting to get entangled in a leatherflower thicket, I decided to put the problem aside for another day given that I had an actual PhD dissertation to finish oh yeah, that. Years went by and I had the occasion to study additional specimens from time to time, once during a Christmas break trip to the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, another when I pulled an all-nighter at the University of Alabama Herbarium on my way to Panama City with the family, and many other trips to eastern U.S. herbaria, including small ones like Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas and the famed Gray Herbarium at Harvard.
During my time in grad school, I added my own contributions to other aspects of Clematis taxonomy by describing a new species from the Carrizo Sands of east Texas, which I named Clematis carrizoensis in 2006. My friend and colleague, Chris Fleming and I also discovered Clematis morefieldii, a federally endangered species, new to Tennessee.
Fast-forward a few years to 2009 and I again stumbled into the Clematis problem. My good friend and colleague Theo Witsell, botanist for the Arkansas Natural Heritage Program in Little Rock (who I affectionately refer to as my ‘red-headed brother from another mother from across the Big River’), sent me some specimens to examine (which I still have on loan!). In that batch were specimens of an unusual Clematis from the Arkansas River Valley and adjacent Ouachita Mountains. These specimens resembled those of the ‘Appalachian’ type described earlier in having biternately dissected leaves,
long peduncles, and in being relatively smooth. However, they possessed a suite of additional characters which readily distinguished them, including narrowly cylindrical flowers, flowers that were light pinkish-purple fading to cream tips, and peduncle bracts that were generally lobed or divided into three leaflets (ternate). My botanical buddy and botanist extraordinaire, Aaron Floden, and I decided to take a trip out to visit the Arkansas populations with Theo and our feelings that it was a distinct undescribed species were strengthened. In the herbarium these Arkansas plants had been identified one of two ways. Some botanists identified them as Clematis viorna the name I considered to be the ‘Appalachian’ type with cherry-red flowers. Others called these plants Clematis reticulata, even though they scarcely had reticulate leaves.
For the first time it occurred to me that part of the problem with studying Clematis is that most people had previously relied on herbarium specimens. This makes sense given that a researcher can borrow thousands of specimens from dozens of herbaria and within a few weeks can study a large percentage of all the specimens ever collected for a particular species. These specimens span nearly two centuries and represent the individual collections of dozens of collectors from potentially hundreds of counties and dozens of states. It would be impractical, likely impossible, for a single researcher to try and see most of these populations live in the field. Just think of how costly such a trip would be with all the expenses of fuel, food, hotel or camping fees, automobile repairs, etc. The ideal taxonomic study should involve extensive herbarium study and ample amount of fieldwork. Usually, study of herbarium specimens reveals variation and a researcher can then navigate to those populations to study them live, make photographs, collect tissue samples, and collect material for common garden studies.
Through my experience with examining thousands of herbarium specimens and observing populations from across the Southeast I realized there had to be more to the story, given all of the variation in morphology. I decided to dig deeper for clues and again I turned my attention back to herbarium specimens to see what could be leading folks (including me!) astray. Specifically, I wanted to search for specimens that troubled previous botanists. While examining specimens from the University of Arkansas Herbarium with Theo we found what I had been looking for, only it opened the door to a whole new way of thinking. What if taxonomists have been greatly underestimating the number of Southeastern species of Clematis?
The specimen that led me to ask this question is shown in Figs. 4-5. When this specimen was first collected in 1955 its collector did not identify it to species. Eleven years later, E.B. Smith annotated the specimen as Clematis versicolor. Ten years after that, W. Michael Dennis determined the specimen to be C. reticulata. In 1988, Smith returned with a second annotation and considered the specimen to be C. reticulata introgressed with C. viorna. Why did this specimen receive so many conflicting annotations? What led these experts to label this specimen with three different species names? I said to Theo, ‘what if there are several undescribed and narrowly endemic species of Clematis from different regions across the Southeast that have clouded our thinking?’ Perhaps all along I and other botanists have had trouble with Clematis because we were discounting the potential that much of what we have been looking at in herbaria could actually be undescribed. Have we been trying to ‘pigeonhole’ undescribed species into known
species? Specimens such as this one tell a story. They can be indicators of undescribed Fig. 4. Specimen of Clematis sp. nov. (‘Ouachita Leatherflower’) from the University of Arkansas Herbarium, illustrating the hallmark of undescribed species represented in herbaria.
species. They bear conflicting annotations which points to a lack of consensus among original collectors and regional or taxonomic experts. I have seen such specimens in other taxonomic groups and they have frequently been annotated as possible hybrids, just as this specimen was labeled as C. reticulata ‘contaminated with’ C. viorna. According to my own research, this specimen represents an undescribed species. So why did it take until now to realise its distinctiveness?
Furthermore, why were past botanists so quick to invoke the hybrid scenario first? Why not simply put a note stating that the specimen does not fit well within either C. reticulata or C. viorna? Or, why not annotate it in any number of other ways, such as calling it Clematis aff. reticulata or Clematis cf. reticulata. It seems that in some groups some botanists are all too quick to jump to the conclusion that an unusual plant is a hybrid, but I rarely see folks going to the other extreme and questioning from the start as to whether a specimen could represent a new species.
I'm not advocating that we should immediately assume that a plant that doesn't seem to fit a known species be considered an undescribed species at the onset. After all, it is a fairly rare event to encounter a new species. Just in the same manner as doctors are trained to first consider that a patient's ailments are due to some common cause, they must also be willing to consider that although against the odds a person could have some very rare condition. I have seen numerous cases where perfectly distinct species were initially regarded as mere aberrations, possible hybrids, or lumped away and considered to represent variation within a morphologically plastic species. This may have been done
Fig. 5. Note the lack of a consensus among experts as reflected by the conflicting annotations for this specimen. out of convenience for it often takes a lot of work to determine whether something is indeed a new species or not – as it should.
It isn't clear why previous taxonomists didn't notice this new species but I suspect that there are probably three main reasons: in the late 20th century I think that many botanists were reluctant to believe that some areas of the South could still harbour undescribed species, especially narrowly endemic taxa; the fact that our collective knowledge of Southeastern phytogeographic patterns was still in a relatively elementary state in the 1970s-80s due to inadequate collecting in some areas and lack of published studies of biogeographic patterns of Southeastern plants, together with the fact that Clematis is an architecturally complicated genus that presents numerous difficulties to herbarium study.
First, I would contend that in some cases botanists think that everything has been discovered already or they are reluctant to believe that an unusual population could represent an undescribed species. (For a great discussion on this topic see Barbara Ertter's publication Floristic Surprises in North America North of Mexico). In the 1970s-80s, the Ouachita Mountains had not yet become known as a center of vascular plant endemism. However, since the 1970s numerous narrowly restricted species have been discovered in this ecoregion, including Amorpha ouachitensis (1975), Cardamine angustata var. ouachitana (1982), Carex ouachitana (1987), Polymnia cossatotensis (1989), Hydrophyllum brownei (1991), Sabatia arkansana (2005); several additional species remain undescribed (Theo Witsell, pers. comm.). The fact that this region is a burgeoning hotspot suggests that we should actively seek out potentially undescribed species from the Ouachitas that may be ‘hiding out’ in herbaria. A 2010 publication by D.P. Webber and numerous coauthors titled Herbaria are a Major Frontier for Species Discovery, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that many undescribed species are hiding out in herbaria awaiting our discovery.
Second, prior to the 2000s we did not have a very good handle on phytogeographic
patterns of the Southeastern flora. Thanks to major botanical collectors such as Robert Kral, R. Dale Thomas, Delzie Demaree, Roland Harper, and E.J. Palmer, hundreds of thousands of plant specimens have since been collected from all over the Southeast.
Prior to the 1960s taxonomists had only a few specimens from each state to examine and there were significant gaps with many areas under-collected. This made it difficult to identify geographic distribution patterns, especially those involving narrowly endemic species. Fortunately, as species distribution maps were published online (e.g. BONAP) our understanding of plant distribution patterns has advanced greatly. It is now much more widely accepted that we CAN and DO have species that are found in only one or two counties, but I think most taxonomists in the Southeast prior to the 1970-80s considered this unlikely, thus many restricted endemics were considered to be aberrant individuals or hybrids rather than distinct species. Of course, there are exceptions.
Botanists like J.K. Small recognized many narrowly restricted species. His work with the numerous endemics of Florida probably influenced his tendency to do so. Reed Rollins of Harvard University also is well-known for his work on the narrowly endemic species of Leavenworthia and Lesquerella, which harbour numerous narrowly restricted species, including a couple that are single-county endemics.
Detailed distribution maps available from BONAP like the one in Fig. 6 for Clematis
Fig. 6. Distribution of Clematisreticulataaccording to BONAP (2015). reticulata were not available until recently. Such maps were compiled from specimen data available in dozens of herbaria. When Ralph Erickson was constructing his distribution map of C. reticulata in the 1940s many counties highlighted in the BONAP map below had no collections of C. reticulata. Without the intense collection of specimens during the latter half of the 20th century the many gaps in the range of the species that Erickson encountered would not have been filled. For example, look at the large gap in the range
of C. reticulata that separates populations on the east and west sides of the Mississippi River. Phytogeographers now have enough data from many dozens of species (e.g. longleaf pine) that show that this is a very common gap. However, in the early 20th century the paucity of plant collections from many parts of the South made such patterns difficult to interpret whether a species was truly absent from a region or just under-collected. Such inadequate maps made it difficult to determine phytogeographic patterns. In another case, note the two central Texas counties that contain C. reticulata but that are separated from the other east Texas populations. Is this a real gap or would additional fieldwork likely fill this void?
The lack of accurate distribution maps meant that we did not have a good concept of phytogeography until relatively recently. Robert Kral's two volume publication A Report on Some Rare, Threatened, or Endangered Forest-Related Vascular Plants of the South greatly advanced our knowledge of plant distribution patterns, especially of rare species. By the turn of the 21st century several atlases of plant distribution patterns had been published. Various publications have focused on distribution patterns of Southeastern plants (phytogeographic patterns), including Bruce Sorrie and Alan Weakley's paper Coastal Plain Vascular Plant Endemics: Phytogeographic Patterns and Doug Zollner et al.'s (2005) paper entitled Endemic vascular plants of the Interior Highlands, USA
I believe that the third major reason for the underestimation of diversity in Clematis is due to their architectural complexity. They aren't like dandelions or other small plants where you can put the whole plant on a single herbarium sheet. Most are long vines, but specimens usually consist of a 10-16” section of the vine, and often the distal-most portion of the stem. As a result, many potentially important characters are often not collected or documented, such as mid-stem leaf dissection. Other features are quickly obliterated by pressing and drying, such as flower colour and shape. Below, I discuss some of the characteristics of Clematis and the challenges they present to taxonomists.
Fig. 7. Plate showing inflorescence structures of various Clematis. The image at the far left is of Clematismorefieldii. The image at far right is of typical C.viorna. The four centre images are various populations currently identified as C.viorna. Note the significant differences in peduncle length, peduncle orientation (that is, ascending vs. descending), bract size, and bract position. These features of the inflorescence have in the past been largely overlooked or confused, especially when dealing with herbarium specimens.
The
The nature of the inflorescence in Clematis has been recognized as taxonomically important but still much confusion exists (Fig. 7). For example, Clematis morefieldii has axillary flowers that usually hang down below the leaves on very short pedicels and that are subtended by small hairy bracts. In contrast, C. viorna has ascending peduncles that are usually quite long and subtended by two foliaceous and generally smooth bracts.
Fig. 8. This plate shows how fresh flowers can yield potentially taxonomically significant characters that are obliterated during pressing and drying. The column to the far left represents Clematismorefieldiiwhich prior to 1987 was considered part of C.viorna. The three remaining columns are all from populations currently identified as C.viorna. Note the major differences in flower shape, degree of sepal reflexion, sepal tip length, flower colour, degree of sepal corrugation, and sepal width.
Some botanists have been reluctant to accept C. morefieldii as a distinct species, presumably in part because of the numerous ‘intermediate’" forms that exist between it and C. viorna For example, populations currently considered to be C. viorna from westcentral Alabama and eastern Mississippi and other populations in northern Arkansas are very much like C. morefieldii in their short peduncles. Peduncle length and bract size do vary, particularly with respect to developmental stage. Some species, like C. viorna, tend to have shorter peduncles with smaller bracts earlier in the season at the tip of the stem. Those developing later and farther down on the stem tend to have longer peduncles and
larger bracts. With continued development, additional flowers and bracts may develop. Even with this variation on a single plant, the flowers and inflorescences of each entity seems to be constrained within a certain range.
The flowers of Clematis resemble small bells (Fig. 8). Unfortunately, such floral characters do not preserve well on herbarium specimens. As a result, important features such as flower shape have largely been ignored by taxonomists. Some species (e.g. C. glaucophylla) have narrowly urn-shaped flowers whereas others are broadly egg-shaped in outline (e.g. C. morefieldii). In some species, the tips of the sepals recurve prominently (e.g. C. viorna) but in other species the tips remain straight and do not recurve (e.g. C. glaucophylla). Another feature that seems to be useful for discriminating taxa is whether or not the backs of the sepals are ridged or smooth. Clematis viorna and C. carrizoensis are examples of species with smooth unfurrowed sepal backs whereas C. reticulata and C. flaccida are prominently grooved. Finally, some species, like C. crispa and C. pitcheri, have sepals with thin, wavy (crispate) margins whereas others lack such a dilated margin. The general colour of clematis flowers is very important taxonomically (Fig. 9). Some species such as C. texensis, C. carrizoensis, C. versicolor, and C. glaucophylla can only be reliably distinguished by flower colour. Flower colour varies with time of flowering and ecological conditions.
Fig. 9. This figure shows the difference between two plants that were formerly both treated as a single species, Clematis viorna. The two images on the left represent typical C. viorna. Notice the distinct cherry-red exterior and creamyyellow interior. The two photos on the right represent the recently described C. vinacea. Note this species has flowers with the same colour on the exterior as the interior. Also note the difference in sepal pubescence.
Plants in full sun typically have lighter coloured flowers than those in shade. Distribution of colour is also important. Some species have sepal backs that are monochromatic or have one colour from base to apex. This is the case in C. texensis, which is scarlet throughout. Other species such as Clematis
versicolor are bicolored, with darker colouration near the base and becoming lighter toward the tip. The colouration of the inside of the flower can also be important taxonomically. Some species, such as C. vinacea have sepals with the same colour on both the outside and inside surfaces. Others, like C. viorna are dark outside and creamcoloured inside. Most species have a fairly wide range of colour variation even within a population or on a single plant, as illustrated in different flower colours on a single vine in a population of C. subreticulata from Mt. Cheaha, Alabama. In spite of the variability of flower colour within a species, each species generally has its own particular colour range. Typically, herbarium specimens of Clematis only include the terminal section of the vine, usually the last 8-15 inches or so. Unfortunately, such specimens rarely show midand lower stem leaves, which often are larger and more dissected. Most of the Viornae have leaves that are compound. The leaflets are not always attached in a single plane to the main rachis, rather they often attach at an angle and are held in a different plane than the axis. Pressing specimens obscures this aspect of leaf morphology. The degree and type of leaf dissection is also important taxonomically (Fig. 10), though such characters have been used rarely to separate species. Some species typically have mid- and upper stem leaves that are pinnately compound, and the leaflets often lack lobes (e.g. C. morefieldii) whereas other species are often biternately compound throughout (C. viorna). Careful observation of the variation in leaf dissection should be made on a single plant and across the population.
Fig. 10. Both of these leaves are from plants that would key to Clematisviornain nearly all plant identification manuals. The specimen on the right represents true C.viornafrom the Appalachian region whereas the photo on the left is from an undescribed species in the Arkansas Ozarks.
Past taxonomists have used degree of leaf vein reticulation to distinguish some species of Clematis. This refers to whether or not the veins are raised above the surface of the leaf blade forming a net-like reticulum as opposed to the veins being flush with the leaf surface or embedded in the leaf tissue. Herbarium specimens rarely capture the full range of venation for a population. Plants growing in shade tend to have less reticulate veins and the leaves are often thin or flaccid whereas plants in full sun can have strongly reticulate-veined and thicker leaves. For example, vegetative or fruiting specimens of Clematis versicolor in deep shade are nearly impossible to separate from specimens of C. glaucophylla, whereas sun plants are easy to distinguish based on leaf thickness and venation.
Degree of leaf vein reticulation has been the primary character for separating Clematis viorna from C. reticulata (Fig. 11). The former is considered to have veins that are not
Fig. 11. Graphic showing the range of leaf vein reticulation from non-reticulate leaves at the far left to strongly reticulate leaves at the far right.
raised above the surface of the leaf or with only the primary and secondary veins slightly raised whereas C. reticulata usually has primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary veins raised above the surface of the blade, forming a net-like reticulum. Like the C. versicolor-C. glaucophylla example above, shaded versus sunny leaves complicates interpretation of this character. It is possible that degree of reticulation is due to clinal variation. Populations of C. reticulata in Florida, for example, have very thick and strongly reticulated leaves but as you go northward through Alabama populations of what have been called C. reticulata become thin-leaved and less strongly reticulate.
Restoring Order to the Viornae
My recent research suggests there may be as many as 9-12 previously undescribed species of leather flowers in the Southeast (Figs. 12-13). All of these are being ‘carved out’ of either Clematis viorna or C. reticulata, both previously considered widespread and variable species. Two species which have already been separated out in recent years include Clematis morefieldii and C. vinacea, both having been split out of C. viorna from the Southern Appalachians.
Fig. 12. Overview of the Clematis viornacomplex. Typical C.viorna is represented by the red circles with yellow border in the Appalachian region. The stars represent species already described (C.morefieldii= yellow star; C.vinacea= red stars). All other entities shown on this map represent putatively undescribed species.
Fig. 13. Overview of the Clematisreticulatacomplex. Typical C.reticulatais represented by the pink circles with black border in the southeastern U.S. Coastal Plain. Orange circles in Alabama and adjacent states represents the previously described Clematissubreticulata, a species that probably needs to be resurrected. All other entities represent undescribed species.
Nearly all of the new species to be recognized are diagnosed by a syndrome of morphological features but no single species can be separated by any one feature. The various taxonomically important features in Clematis such as leaf dissection, inflorescence type, flower colour, bract size and placement, sepal grooving, pubescence, etc., all are recombined in various ways such that oftentimes each major ecoregion has its own distinctive Clematis.
Glossary
Bract: a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are often (but not always) different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of a different color, shape, or texture. Typically, they also look different from the parts of the flower, such as the petals or sepals. Clinal: the gradual change in certain characteristics exhibited by members of a series of adjacent populations of organisms of the same species. Distal: located away from the centre of the body or from the point of attachment. Dissection: The degree of lobing of leaf or leaflet margins. Key (Taxonomic Key): is a device used by biologists for identifying unknown organisms. Keys are constructed so that the user is presented with a series of choices about the characteristics of the unknown plant; by making the correct choice at each step of the key, the user is ultimately led to the identity of a specimen. A Pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence. In the absence of a pedicel, the flowers are described as sessile. The stem or branch from the main stem of the inflorescence that holds a group of pedicels is called a peduncle Peduncle: the stalk bearing a flower or fruit, or the main stalk of an inflorescence. Phytogeographic: the geographic distribution of plant species
Rachis: The main axis of a compound leaf. Reticulum: a network; a reticulated system or structure frequently observed in leaves.
Special note: Dwayne Estes would like to acknowledge the generosity of Mt. Cuba Centre Botanical Garden in the funding of our Viorna research.
British Clematis Society Funds Important US VIORNA GROUP Research Project
From Your Editor, Brian Collingwood
BCS is absolutely delighted to announce their backing of an important Clematis botanical research programme. We are this year funding additional extensive new fieldwork by US botanist Dwayne Estes (Dwayne is a leading US authority on the Viorna Group) and two of Dwayne’s graduate Botany students, Zach Irick and Thomas Murphy. The fieldwork will focus on potential new species of Clematis in recently-discovered plant populations.
Proposal and Objectives of the research
In the course of fieldwork already completed (see pages 80-94) what appear to be additional and unexpected new species of Viorna Group clematis have been discovered, requiring crucial further investigations, information-gathering, travel and resources. The following summarises the substantial programme that Zach and Thomas will take on:
Travel to western Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Kansas to collect a number of species of Viornas that are found in the southern Rocky Mountains, Chihuahuan Desert, and southern Great Plains of the southwestern and south-central U.S. Careful study and collection of about six species in this region. Distance:3,500 miles.Time:6days.
Travel to south-central Alabama and eastern Mississippi to investigate two Clematis entities that are still in question, for taxonomic study Distance:1,500miles. Time:5days.
Travel to Edwards Plateau of central Texas to rediscover an apparently rare and endemic entity of the Clematis reticulata complex that has not previously been brought to the attention of botanists. Distance:2,700miles.Time:10days.
Travel to Coastal Plain of South Carolina to relocate and collect within close vicinity of the original type locality, Clematis reticulata, as collected by Thomas Walter in the 1700s. Distance:1,500miles.Time:5days.
This exciting 10,000 mile venture will allow more populations of the plants to be visited in situ, to collect data. The overall research project will culminate in the goal of describing and publishing numerous important new Clematisspecies, of which there are likely between nine to fifteen. BCS is pleased to sponsor Zach and Thomas on this vital research trip at the forefront of new clematis discoveries.
The background to the project and a full description of the Proposal follows.
Proposal: Enhancing the Taxonomic Study of the American Leatherflowers
Thomas Murphy, Zach Irick, & Dwayne Estes
Austin Peay State University
Centre of Excellence for Field Biology
Dwayne Department of Biology and wife
Clarksville, Tennessee USA 37044
Shawna
Introduction: The southeastern United States is well known for having high levels of biodiversity. A brief
Fig.1 Density map of number of native vascular plants per 10,000 km
glimpse at a map (Fig. 1) showing density of native plant species in the U.S. reveals that the east (especially the southeast) is the largest and most continuous region of high plant diversity in the country (BONAP, 2014). Estill & Cruzan (2001) assembled criteria for endemic plants (native to a highly specific habitat or area) and showed that the southeast contains several areas with large amounts of endemism; these include the Central Basin of Tennessee, Southern Appalachians, West Gulf Coastal Plain, and parts of Florida. The high biodiversity and endemism of the southeastern U.S. was officially recognized by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (2016) when the North American Coastal Plain was named as the world’s newest (36th) global biodiversity ‘hotspot’ (Noss et al., 2015). Much of this biodiversity has only been recently
recognized as taxonomically distinct or consists of species that have not been recognized in many decades but that are being resurrected based on new data proving their distinctiveness. Since 1970, there have been about 250 new species named from the southeastern U.S. and this number shows no sign of slowing (Alan Weakley, Univ. of North Carolina, pers. comm.). This is in part due to the high inherent diversity and endemism present in this region that has only been recently acknowledged.
Botanists name and describe a plant species in two ways. The first scenario is when someone discovers a plant in the wild that has never been documented and/or observed by botanists. The other scenario occurs when a botanist discovers something different about an already documented taxon that has been misidentified as an already existing species. Given that the eastern U.S. has been explored for 250+ years, the latter scenario is more common. A modern and remarkable example of botanical discovery in the U.S. was in Bibb County, Alabama at the Ketona Dolomite Glades, in which eight new endemic plant species were named from a single site (Allison & Stevens, 2001), with one more discovered more recently. While this is an extreme example, it is a testament to the unknown botanical potential the southeastern U.S. still holds.
One group that has caused much taxonomic confusion among botanists is the American leatherflowers, Clematissubgenus Viorna(referred to as Viornas or leatherflowers). This subgenus is broken into two sections, Viorna and Integrifolia. Section Viorna consists of species that have a climbing habit, while section Integrifolia is composed of species with an erect herbaceous habit. The Flora of North America (1997) recognizes twenty-five species within this subgenus, twenty of which are in the U.S. (BONAP, 2014). All within the 20th century, the leatherflowers underwent four major treatments, all of which were different from the other in some way. These can be found in Erickson (1943), Dennis (1977), Pringle (1997), and Yang & Moore (1999). Anywhere
Figure2. Map of Clematisreticulatarange and hypothesized new species
between eight and twelve species were recognized in these treatments for the vining Viorna section. The number of treatments alone warrants the need for further investigation in this obviously confusing group of plants. More recently, two new species of Clematis subgenus Viorna have been described in the past twelve years: firstly, Clematis carrizoensis, an endemic to the Carrizo sands of northeast Texas (Estes, 2006), and secondly, Clematis vinacea, an endemic to the Southern Appalachians (Floden, 2013).
In this section, two species in particular are likely in need of clarification. Clematis viorna and Clematis reticulata which both have widespread ranges in the U.S., often in a diverse range of habitats and with numerous disjunct populations. Past botanists dismiss these as just highly variable species. Upon closer examination, this variation seems to correlate to their different habitats and geographic locations in which these entities are found (Fig. 2 and 3). This warrants a taxonomic investigation to see if what we have long considered two species are actually several overlooked and undescribed species new to science.
An introduction to these concepts, hypotheses, and preliminary results can be found in blog posts written by Estes (2015a and 2015b) http://southeastveg.blogspot.com/.
In 2016, Mt. Cuba Centre, a botanical garden in Hockessin, Delaware, awarded Dr Dwayne Estes a grant to conduct a taxonomic revision of the Clematis viorna and C. reticulata (Fig. 2) complexes. This grant funds two graduate students, Zach Irick (started in fall 2016) and Thomas Murphy (started spring 2018).
During the course of their extensive fieldwork, Zach and Thomas have done the following:
•Press and voucher high quality specimens
•Collect transplants for a common garden experiment
•Acquire leaf samples from populations for future phylogenetic research
Figure3. Map of Clematisviornarange and hypothesized new species
•Take high quality photographs of Clematis and habitat. Pressed plant specimens will add to other herbarium collections on loan from several other herbaria, over 1,000 of which will ultimately be examined and measured for a morphometric analysis (using measurements and statistical analysis of plant features to distinguish if and how they differ). This process involves comparing many physical characteristics and measurements in combination to determine which combinations are taxonomically meaningful. These
transplants will be sent to Mt. Cuba Centre to build the largest and most comprehensive collection of American leatherflowers. Austin Peay State University will retain duplicates of these transplants for use in a common garden in APSU Clematis common garden experiment.
This portion of the study began in March 2018, when Zach and Thomas constructed a raised bed garden to serve as a space to grow and study collected transplants (Fig. 4 ). While the garden was just planted this year, it is already being used for research. For example, they have used fresh material grown in the garden to photograph for use in publications (Fig. 5 and 6). The live garden material allows for Zach and Thomas to take photographs of various characters of Clematis in a systematic manner. Additionally, characters such as flower colour are lost when pressing and drying herbarium vouchers, so having live specimens will provide these ephemeral characters. Finally, because the plants will be grown in the same conditions, the common garden
Figure 5 Flower of Clematis reticulata in common garden
Figure 4 Filling and spreading topsoil
will also allow us to separate characters driven by environmental conditions from more conserved characters that are actually meaningful to describing a new species.
In addition, leaf samples have been collected and preserved in silica packets. These have and will be used in genetic research. Molecular data can inform evolutionary relationships and mechanisms that will contribute overall to the taxonomic understanding of the Viornas.
This will all culminate in the goal of describing and publishing numerous new Clematis species, of which there are likely 9-15. Following this, Dr Estes, Zach, and Thomas will collaborate on Guide to the North American Leatherflowers, which will include detailed descriptions, distribution maps, habitat photos, and high quality photographic plates dedicated to each species. This research has applications to a broad array of scientific disciplines including plant taxonomy, ecology, conservation, and horticulture.
While almost all of this project has been funded and is well on its way to being completed, we can push this research further with the new British Clematis Society funding. The Mt. Cuba grant has provided funding for much of the travel (ca. 10,000 miles across 22 states) for this study.
Figure6. Photograph showing variation of peduncle length, bract position, and flower colour in the Clematis reticulata complex
However, in the course of fieldwork what appear to be additional and unexpected new species have been discovered requiring additional fieldwork, travel, and resources. This includes finer sampling by visiting more populations in situ to collect data, promoting representation of these complexes in botanical gardens and the horticultural trade by developing propagation protocols, and presenting our research to the greater scientific community. Objectives and requirements for further research can be found below.
Objectives:
Reaching the Greater Scientific Community
●Travel to Association of Southeastern Biologists meeting in 2019 in Memphis, Tennessee to present research to regional audience.
●Travel to Botany 2019 meeting in Tucson, Arizona to present research to national audience.
Botanical exploration
●Travel to western Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Kansas to collect a number of species of Viornas that are found in the southern Rocky Mountains, Chihuahuan Desert, and southern Great Plains of the southwestern and south-central U.S. The Mt. Cuba grant did not allow for the careful study and collection of about six species in this region (as their funding was specific to the species of the eastern U.S.)
●Travel to south-central Alabama and eastern Mississippi to investigate two Clematis entities that are still in question for the taxonomic study
●Travel to Edwards Plateau of central Texas to rediscover an apparently rare and endemic entity of the Clematis reticulata complex that has not previously been brought to the attention of botanists.
●Travel to Coastal Plain of South Carolina to relocate and collect within close vicinity of the original type locality of Clematis reticulata collected by Thomas Walter in the 1700s.
●Share propagation techniques with conservationist and amateur/professional growers
Figure7. Clematishabitat found in high sands of river scour community in McCurtain County, Oklahoma.
Propagation and Distribution
●Employ several techniques to propagate Viornas sexually and asexually.
●Distribute plants that are successfully propagated to other botanical gardens for representation in ex situ scientific collections and horticultural trade audience.
Methods:
Botanical Exploration:
A wide geographic range of each Clematis complex being studied has been collected. Over 115 populations have been visited (Fig. 7) to voucher, transplant, and photograph. However, there are still gaps in the sampling of Clematis in North America that could be
alleviated by going on 4 trips within the next year. The BCS funds will cover these trips.
This trip is particularly important, as it covers two areas of the Southeast that contain taxonomically questionable entities. The first sites visited will be in south-central Alabama where the Piedmont and Ridge and Valley ecoregions transition to the Southeastern Plains ecoregion. Within the Clematis reticulata complex, there are two potential new species, one residing in each ecoregion. Further investigation is needed to study whether or not plants in the transition between these two areas are intermediate due to environmental conditions or if there is a distinct separation.
The second leg of this trip will be spent in east-central and northeastern Mississippi to collect material from what has been called Clematis beadlei among other names in the past. The taxonomic placement of this entity is uncertain. Because it has weakly reticulated leaves, it has been placed in the Clematis reticulata complex by some and the C. viorna complex by others in the past. Further study of its habitat and in situ characteristics are important to deciding in which species complex it belongs.
Trip 2: Edwards Plateau of Texas
Distance: 2,700 miles
Time: 10 days
This trip is in search of a hypothesized taxonomic entity, in the Clematis reticulata complex, on the Edwards Plateau in central Texas. This is thought to occur in three counties in the region within close vicinity to the Rio Frio River. Due to the rarity of this particular entity in the area, ample time to search for populations has been included in the budget.
Trip 3: Coastal Plain of South Carolina
Distance: 1,500 miles
Time: 5 days
The type specimen of Clematis reticulata was collected in 1788 in Lexington County, South Carolina by Thomas Walter. A small amount of time has been spent in South Carolina searching for the species, but it has not been relocated. A botanist in the state recently claimed that it was more rare in the state than other surrounding states (John Nelson, University of South Carolina Herbarium, pers. communication). This trip would allow for an extensive search among 8 counties in South Carolina. To prepare for this trip, local botanists and naturalists will be contacted to assist in relocating at least one population to increase the geographic representation already sampled in the APSU common garden. Having a collection within the vicinity of the type locality is crucial to
discern between the original description and the new species concepts being proposed for naming.
Trip 4: Midwestern and Southwestern US
Distance: 3,500 miles
Time: 6 days
As seen above, travel funding to attend the Botany 2019 conference in Tucson, Arizona is requested. Instead of flying to the conference, driving would allow for the collection of three Viorna species: Clematis hirsutissima, C. bigelovii, and C. pitcheri. Investigation of these species is not funded by Mt. Cuba Centre, as their collections are focused in the eastern U.S. However, collecting plant material and data from these populations is crucial to begin the next step of Clematis research. Having collections from Western Clematis populations may provide further insight into current and future research. By stopping at populations during the three-day travel there and back, this trip would cost nothing, as it would be covered by conference travel.
Figure8. Immature fruit of insituClematis Sevier County, Arkansas
Propagation and Distribution:
Propagating seed from wild populations and cuttings from wild collected transplants would also benefit this research. According to Dr Peter Zale at Longwood Gardens (Kennett Square, PA), seed germination is most effective in plastic boxes with blotter paper (pers. communication). Seed is collected when the fruits (Fig. 8) have turned completely brown. The pericarp is peeled off and the seeds are placed in plastic germination boxes on moist blotter paper. This process decreases time from seed to flower compared to the traditional method of sowing in seed pots in a greenhouse.
Asexual propagation is considered a difficult task with the Viornas (Glenn Dale Bryant, Alabama, pers. communication) Cuttings will be taken in mid-summer when the plants have developed semi-hardwood stems. This plant material will be scarred and dipped in different concentrations of liquid rooting hormone. Plant material will then be inserted into a variety of soil mixes in 38-cell plug trays including different soil mixes with variable amounts of peat, perlite, and sand. Trays will be placed on a greenhouse bench on a heat mat set at 70º F under a shade cloth. Trays will be watered as needed. Funding
is needed for all of the above mentioned materials for both seed germination and asexual propagation. Due to the lack of literature and general knowledge of this process, an experimental approach will be utilized by using various soil mixes, rooting hormone concentrations, etc.
Both of these methods have the potential of benefiting our research and facilitating future research among the scientific community by allowing for the following:
●To have a larger quantity of plants to serve as backups in the case of drought, disease, damage from animals, etc.
●To distribute to other botanical gardens to bring awareness to the upcoming taxonomic revisions
●To develop protocol for asexual propagation to distribute among growers and other botanical institutions
Reaching the Greater Scientific Community:
Travelling to scientific conferences and meetings is a crucial aspect of conducting research in order to inform peers and colleagues of the taxonomic revisions to come, especially in a group as charismatic and as poorly known as the Viornas. It is also important to present this to multiple audiences – this has been considered, both a regional and national conference are of interest.
Presenting at the Association of Southeastern Biologists conference, which will take place in Memphis, Tennessee in April 2019, will provide an opportunity to present to regional biologists who routinely encounter the Viornas in the field.
Botany 2019 in Tucson, Arizona is a national meeting that will allow for networking and presenting to wider audiences of field botanists and plant taxonomists. Because this research covers the entire southeast U.S. and a small portion of the Midwest, its overall scope and taxonomic implications are worthy of sharing on a national level. Funding is needed for conference fees, travel, costs of each day, and lodging. In the budget, extra time has been allotted for travel in order to collect several other Viorna species from Missouri, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. Mt. Cuba Centre’s grant only funds research of Viornas in the eastern U.S. Collecting material and data from these closely related species is worth the time – as there could be taxonomic problems in other complexes. This could pave the way for future research in the Viornas.
References: Allison, J. R., Stevens, T.E. 2001. Vascular flora of ketona dolomite outcrops in Bibb County, Alabama. Castanea, 66 (1-2), pp. 154- 205).
Dennis, W.M., 1977. A biosystematic study of Clematis section Viorna subsection Viornae. PhD Dissertation, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN. Erickson, R.O., 1943. Taxonomy of Clematis section Viorna. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 30(1), pp.1-62.
Estes, D. 2006. A new narrowly endemic species of Clematis (Ranunculaceae: Subgenus Viorna) from northeastern Texas. SIDA, 22 (1), pp. 65- 77.
Estes, D. 2015a. Is over-reliance on herbarium specimens for taxonomic studies leading us to underestimate Southeastern plant diversity? (part 1 of 2). Natural History, Flora, and Vegetation of the southeastern United States. Blogspot. May 9, 2015. (http://southeastveg.blogspot.com/2015/05/is-over-reliance-of-usingherbarium.html)
Estes, D. 2015b. Untangling the viny viornas: a case of how we’ve underestimated biodiversity in architecturally complex genera (part 2 of 2). Natural History, Flora, and Vegetation of the southeastern United States. Blogspot. Nov 11, 2015. (http://southeastveg.blogspot.com/2015/11/untangling-viny-viornas-case-ofhow.html)
Floden, A. 2015. A new leatherflower (Clematis: Ranunculaceae) from the southern Appalachians. Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas, 7 (1), pp. 1- 7.
Noss, R., Platt, W. J., Sorrie, B. A., Weakley, A. S., Means, D. B., Costanza, J. K., Peet, R. 2015. How global biodiversity hotspots may go unrecognized: Lessons from the North American Coastal Plain. Diversity and Distributions, 21(2), 236- 244.
Pringle, J.S., 1997. Clematis. Flora of North America, 3, pp.158-176.
Yang, T.A. and Moore, D.M., 1999. A revision of the Viorna group of species (section Viorna sensu Prantl) in the genus Clematis (Ranunculaceae). Systematics and Geography of Plants, pp.281-303.
Significant Outcomes of this Proposal:
Taxonomic Investigation: As mentioned above, travelling to the midwestern, southwestern, and southeastern U.S. is important for several reasons, as it is unexplored territory within modern time. If there are several eastern U.S. Viorna complexes that are in need of taxonomic revision, there could easily be a similar case in their western relatives. For example, recent observations of Clematis pitcheri appear to be morphologically different between eastern and western populations, which could warrant the description of multiple new species. Travelling to south-central Alabama and eastern Mississippi is also imperative to resolving two long-standing problems within Zach and Thomas’s study groups. Overall, these taxonomic investigations enhance the current research along with paving the way for future studies.
Plant Conservation: Propagating and distributing from various wild origin populations plays a direct role in the conservation of the Viornas. Distributing to other institutions ensures better access for researchers and the public to many of these hard to find species. Habitat loss is a threat to numerous Viornas so having a way to conserve the wild-source genotypes is imperative to preventing loss of several types, including undescribed species.
Spreading the Word: Even the best scientific research means nothing unless it is presented to other groups of scientists. Spreading the word at regional and national conferences is not only informative, but it might inspire other scientists to launch their own studies (e.g. population genetics, ecology, phylogenetics, horticultural qualities) within the Viornas.
Benefits to the British Clematis Society:
1. Acknowledgement of BCS on all presentations and publications for their financial contribution
2. Presentation via webinar to the members of the BCS that would allow its members to benefit from learning about the plethora of new species in the U.S.
3. Deposition of duplicate herbarium specimens to Kew Gardens or British Museum of Natural History to ensure their herbaria benefit by having these taxa in their collections. Since these are two of the most highly used herbaria in the world, sending duplicates to one of these institutions would have great benefit to taxonomists on an international level.
4. Exchange of cultivated material and/or seeds resulting from our study with BCS or BCS affiliates
5. Potential for Dwayne Estes, Thomas Murphy, and Zach Irick to publish articles about research, travels, and/or photographs in The Clematis.
A full breakdown of costs has been supplied to BCS and approved by Committee.
Well, What Do You Think?
Everett Leeds UK everettleeds@gmail.com
The other day, whilst in the shower (don’t use the bath anymore, struggle to get in and out) it occurred to me that we, the Society, and probably Plant Heritage, have no idea what live clematis are being grown throughout the country. There are cultivars out there that are on the brink of extinction and we don’t know anything about them, so we have no means of saving them for posterity.
This poses many questions. How do we find out about them? What do we do when we have identified such plants? Who decides whether a plant is worth saving? Do we really want to know, anyway? The list is endless. Answers on a postcard……….
That great clematarian Mike Brown had to give up his National Collection status for Herbaceous Clematis and as far as I know there is not another in the UK to keep this going. Have we a member who can start one, or does anyone knows of a location where such a collection could be held? Does anyone have any sway with the National Trust?
Herbaceous clems have long been a favourite of ours and between us we could provide enough material to start a collection somewhere so that they can be enjoyed and brought to the notice of the wider community. Presently not many gardeners know about them and as a consequence garden centres don’t stock them. Is there anyone out there…..?
(See page 108)
A New ‘Dispersed’ National Collection of Herbaceous Clematis?
Rosie Yeomans (Hampshire Plant Heritage Co-ordinator) and Valerie Le May Neville-Parry rosieyeomans@gmail.com val@lmnp.co.uk
Referring to Everett’s discussion about Mike Brown’s National Collection of Herbaceous Clematis in the previous article – would you be interested in maintaining a number of Herbaceous Clematis as part of a ‘dispersed’ National Collection? And keeping an up to date list of the plants in your collection?
Val. Le May to Everett Leeds: ‘Quite right, Everett – and the same goes for the Montana Group – my Hampshire Plant Heritage co-ordinator, Rosie Yeomans, has suggested a ‘dispersed’ National Collection of the Montana Group, as no one has the time, space or inclination to take on the whole group. So, what about a group of half a dozen members sharing an herbaceous collection? I, for one, have loads of them –donated by the said Mike Brown. I love them, and they give such extended interest as well as being relatively easy to establish and maintain – not many with long, winding, easily broken stems. If Mike could provide a list, then perhaps we could go on from there. What about it?’
Rosie Yeomans to Val: ‘Hi Val, this is a great idea. It could easily be a dispersed national collection, with no geographical/county boundaries of course. However, there would need to be a leader who administers the collection ie keeps an accession list and updates it every year. I’m happy to help with the application process, all the necessary details and forms are on the Plant Heritage website. Do keep me posted.’
And there we have it. Can you assist? We need volunteers to come forward. It would be a straightforward, enjoyable and highly valuable role. YOU would be part of the team keeping watch over a significant clematis heritage for the future. If you think you can help, please contact either Mike Brown, Everett Leeds, Valerie Le May NevilleParry on either of the email addresses above.
(Both images) Val Le May Neville-Parry’s herbaceous cultivar, Clematis ‘Chris’
Everett Leeds
page 117
page 150 page 157
WORDS OF WISDOM CHERISHED AND PUT INTO PRACTICE IN 2018
Val Le May Neville-Parry val@lmnp.co.uk
‘Dwww.clematismontana.co.uk
o not pot on after the end of August. After this, your rooted cutting will be unable to fill its new, larger, pot with roots before resting throughout the autumn and winter. Their demise is assured’. Many years ago, Roy Prior warned members at one of his fascinating clematis talks.
‘Try wounding the base of the cutting – this often promotes rooting’. Brian Collingwood’s advice when I told him of my repeated failure to root ‘The Jewell’ cuttings. You can see from the little rooted cutting below that I followed this advice.
‘When you get a good plant, share it to ensure it survives.’ Mike Brown knows a thing or two about clematis and has given me many wise suggestions over the years. So, having failed to root cuttings of ‘The Jewell’ for many years, I have encouraged other BCS members and professional propagators to take cutting material of ‘The Jewell’.
‘Have you got a hydropod?’ – Keith Shortland kindly told me of their value and drove hundreds of miles to set mine up a couple of years ago. Keith managed to root two cuttings of ‘The Jewell’ two years ago but both died in infancy.
‘I think cuttings need to be taken as early as possible as this cultivar takes a long time to establish a root system.’
This comment came from world-renowned horticulturist with particular expertise in propagation, Peter Catt, of Liss Forest Nursery.
Over the years I have found most plants in the Montana Group to root quickly and grow on to maturity without problems. But not this plant. Purchased in 2004 labelled C. chrysocoma ‘Continuity’, it is a clear visitor favourite and the one the Gardeners World team selected to feature. The name has been subject of much debate. Definitely chrysocoma in leaf form, and easily the best at sending out copious sprays of wonderful flowers throughout the summer and well into October – so ‘continuity’ is an appropriate name. As I write, on 19th September, it is laden with lovely bright pink buds and flowers along the length of stems that garland thick rope, hung between trees.
Duncan Donald asked Raymond Evison for an opinion. Is it the original C. chrysocoma ‘Continuity’? ‘No’ replied Raymond. He didn’t think so. I was delighted as that enabled me to re-name my plant ‘The Jewell’ for David Jewell, Head of Collections at Hilliers Arboretum. David originally gave material to Hilliers master propagator, Alan Postill. Alan rooted cuttings during the summer of 2017.
Updating the article which appeared in the 2017 Journal I am delighted to report that Alan Postill brought a dozen rooted cuttings through the dreadful winter and spring 2017/18. I was given a young plant in late spring 2018. It had good top growth but a weak root system. On tipping it out of its pot I could see that not many roots were getting through the netting encapsulating the coir/peat block. I was able to tease out the netting surrounding the roots before potting it into a two litre long pot. Despite the prolonged intense heat this summer the plant has grown well, established a good root system and is ready to plant out now or next spring. More about the other rooted cuttings below. Sadly, Peter Catt reported that he had problems with his propagation unit and his two rooted cuttings had died.
David Jewell requested more cutting material earlier this year. He was due to pick it up late afternoon on 9th July. It was incredibly hot, so I cut suitable lengths of stem at 7am, popping them into a plastic bag with a drop of water, then into the fridge to keep them cool and turgid. Checking my computer at 7.30a.m. – a message from David –Alan had problems with the Hilliers propagation unit. They couldn’t accommodate the material. The inside of my house was being decorated that week, the tree surgeon due the following day, and house guests all week. I had a hip replacement three weeks previously. The cutting material remained in the fridge for seven days. Decorating over, house guests gone, and on inspection, the material looked in pretty good condition. I prepared lengths, wounding the stem as advised by Brian, and popped them into the hydropod on 16th July. A month later, on 13th August, I was delighted to see little roots emerging from several cuttings. Eight days later the first three rooted cuttings were
Clematis 2018
potted up. They were placed in a tray outside, but under a huge sun umbrella to protect them from the heat and watered sparingly. By 19th September, ← all three had little white roots peeping through the bottom of the pots. The top growth remains strong and healthy and the emerging roots remain white tipped.
Another five cuttings were potted up on 28th August. They also have roots appearing from the base of their pots. Sadly, a further six, all with good root growth, but potted up at the beginning of September, are already showing signs of distress. Just too late, I suspect. It looks as if Roy was right. Even in this atypical year, with the day temperature remaining well into the high teens and low twenties, the roots appear unable to put on enough growth to establish sufficiently in their pots. On 19th September all the potted-up cuttings were put into the cold frame where they will remain over winter.
On September 23rd a few rooted cuttings remain in the hydropod. I plan to put them into very small pots, initially in a propagator for protection, in the hope they might just survive the transfer and make it through winter.
Back to last year’s rooted cuttings. When visiting Hilliers Nursery on 21st August 2018, Alan kindly gave me another three ‘yearlings’. They were alive, but there was little sign of either top or root growth during the summer. I tipped them out of their pots, gently teased away the little nets, replanted them into fresh compost and gave them a light watering. A month later, September 22nd, they remain alive but no signs of roots emerging from the bottom of their pots. I wonder if the immature roots are too thick and/or too soft to push through the netting and grow successfully? I will watch them over the coming winter months and see how they look, when spring comes around.
Left: Netting removed in early summer and then kept outside but shaded from the intense heat throughout the summer. Middle: Netting remaining round the roots and kept inside the Hilliers greenhouse throughout the summer. Right: Cutting rooted in a hydropod throughout the summer and potted up 21st August
We need to try different methods of propagating clematis. Some of the best may well be a challenge to propagate. Any suggestions from those of you who have experienced success or failure would be most welcome.
A New Montana: ‘A
lan Postill’ →
‘The Jewell’ has been seed parent to some delightful, compact Montana plants, including the lovely ‘Chloe’, named in 2016 by Matt Biggs for his younger daughter.
Another beauty, also sown in 2014, flowered profusely for the first time in 2018. The plant has fine leaves (above) and pink and white flowers. It will be included in The Garden magazine feature in spring 2019. As Alan has successfully propagated ‘The Jewell’, it
and Jacqueline
seemed appropriate to seek permission to name this seedling in his honour. Alan and wife, Jacqueline (you might know the beautiful daphne named for her) visited By The Way on 21st September. The picture shows them standing to the right of the seedling.
Foliage and seedheads of ‘Alan
Alan
Postill with ‘Alan Postill’
Postill’
Ton Hannink: Subsection Floridae
Subsection Floridae and the Florida Group
Ton Hannink Netherlands hanninkj@home.nl
Subsection Floridae
Further to my following articles, covering all but one of the individual species of this subsection, my observations over the years have led me to become more and more convinced that this ‘subsection’ is actually very inhomogeneous. By this I mean that although the species are grouped together into a subsection, it seems to me that the plants within it are in actual fact disparate in nature, and that the Floridae subsection is more of an artificial assemblage rather than a natural group. See below:
Points of note regarding the Subsection
The foliage of the various species covers a broad range of sizes from small to large and the form of the individual leaflets differs widely – in fact, C. hancockiana foliage shows more of a resemblance to C. lanuginosa or C. patens than to anything like C. florida. The colour and size of the floral elements also differ, eg the sepals range from 4-6cm in length and the sepals of C. hancockiana actually curl back on themselves laterally when the flower is fully open, lending them an almost tubular appearance. The anthers too are of varied colouring, ranging from violet to yellow, with the pistils from very dark to pure white. Contrast the pistil colours in the table above – three species dark, one white and one dark red. Some of the seeds of the species are plumose
Comparison of foliage of C.florida, C.hancockiana, C.lanuginosa&C.patens while some are non-plumose. The extent of the variations is as broad as the differences between subsections Floridae, Viticella and Patentes/Lanuginosae themselves.
I have exhaustively compared my other wild species – C. viticella, C. lanuginosa, C. patens var. tientaiensis and the species from subsection Floridae and I do not believe there is any validity in the separation of this group of species into three ‘distinct’ subsections; my leaning is that they belong to one single section, Viticella. I hope that DNA analysis will, in time, provide new insights into this intricate evolutionary botanical conundrum.
Finally, of all of the species in this group of plants, in my opinion the standout entity of them all is, without any doubt, the strikingly beautiful Clematis hancockiana.
The ‘Florida Group’
A casual glance at the above table is sufficient to illustrate the huge range of potential hybridisations that are possible between the above species, and also with many other clematis; therefore, the traditional concepts which have hitherto defined the ‘Florida
Beautiful C.hancockianaand its recurved sepals
Group’ must surely now be ripe for revision. Having all of these dissimilar species in my sole possession for many years has enabled me to make many previously untried crossings, which have to-date produced a most expansive range of fascinating hybrid plants. This has led me to the conclusion that there is, in fact, no valid ‘key’ that can be constructed to represent a ‘Florida Group’. (Ed: In botany, an identification key is a sequential series of descriptions that aids in the identification of specific entities, such as plants of a particular family. Traditionally, identification keys work by offering a fixed sequence of identification steps, each with multiple alternatives, the choice of which determines the next step. At each step, the user must answer a question about one or more features (characters) of the entity to be identified. For example, a step in a botanical key may ask about the colour of flowers, or the disposition of the leaves along the stems. Depending on the choice made, there is then a further series of choices about, say, the form of the foliage, and so on through the various vegetative characteristics, until finally the identity of a specific plant can be definitively pinned down.)
Considering the construction of a key for the ‘Florida Group’:
The leaves: the foliage alone of these plants is so varied in form that there is no possibility of a straightforward key. The variations are significant across each of the species in the subsection. See the image comparing some of the leaf forms, above. Flower colour: the colours of the flowers of these species, as noted in the above table, range through the entire colour spectrum, from white to dark purply-red. Sepal numbers, colour, form: the sepal numbers range from 4 to 6, in various forms and they even include ‘curled’ sepals (eg as in C. hancockiana). The anthers can be either dark through to white in colour This is also true of the pistils which range from dark to white in hue. The seeds: plumose and non-plumose; even among the white-flowered species alone, the seeds can be either plumose or non-plumose:
The Clematis 2018
compare the white C. courtoisii – with plumose seeds –with the white C. florida, which has bare, nonplumose achenes. Such expanse of characteristics renders the creation of a valid key for the ‘Florida Group’ inordinately problematic to achieve.
In these final three pictures I wanted to try to give you some inkling of the almost unlimited range of hybrids that can arise between species from the Floridae subsection. The huge variations in colour, form, size, pistil, anthers and other characters are so very wide that to my mind a valid, logical and workable ‘key’ for the ‘Florida Group’ of plants cannot as yet be appropriately formulated.
Clematis akoensis
Ton Hannink Netherlands hanninkj@home.nl
Some years ago I saw a picture of Clematis akoensis on the internet and in view of the stupendous contrast of the white flower with the dark blue centre, was very impressed with the beauty of this species. The picture was on a website referencing Taiwan and I immediately started searching for this Clematis – but could not find any further information. This species is not included in Magnus Johnson’s work The Genus Clematis but it is described in Christopher Grey-Wilson’s Clematis, The Genus. GreyWilson describes it thus: ‘an attractive species that would be well worth while bringing into cultivation. It would be highly advantageous to seek out the larger-flowered and better-coloured forms in the wild’ .
At that time, I had an excellent contact in Taiwan (for trading plants and seeds etc) but unfortunately he was unable to find plants or seeds of this particular species. However, in 2010 James Earl (from the USA) sent twenty seeds of C. akoensis to me and I managed to germinate them all, resulting in a score of young plants. The plants thrived and a most remarkable feature was the ‘marbling’ in the leaves. I initially imagined that this characteristic would probably change as the plants developed into adulthood, but it persisted even in the mature plants.
By the August of the first season a few flower buds had developed here and there, but to my disappointment they didn’t open. In this species one can quickly discern by observation whether it is a new stem or a flower bud that is forming in the node.
In cultivating the seedlings, I noted that C. akoensis needs at least +5°C over winter, otherwise the plant does not develop well enough for flowering. Depending on the temperature and the amount of sunlight, the flowers will open but if it is not sunny enough they remain green, or produce white flowers with white, instead of blue, anthers.
If the temperature rises too high the plant must be placed outside the greenhouse as soon as possible, because it is prone to spider mite infections. Once the flowers have faded, new shoots are immediately produced, and these grow and develop quite rapidly.
Feeding must be undertaken diligently – too much fertilizing is detrimental. I lost two of my larger plants on account of overfeeding – which included during flowering time – this was just too much for them. Since then I’ve learned only to feed them until they begin to develop flower buds, then stop; starting again once the flowers have finished.
It is easy and straightforward to take successful cuttings in July.
This species is also very useful as a pot plant because it is not too vigorous and can be easily accommodated on stakes. Use a pot of about 5 litres for a younger plant and fill this with slightly acidic soil, keeping the pot moist (but not too wet) over the winter. This species blooms in February and March so in wintertime the plant needs good light and warmth to prepare it for spring flowering. The blooms have a strong perfume, once the temperatures rise a little.
Clematis akoensis is one of the most beautiful fragrant evergreen clematis.
Technical summary: Clematis akoensis was first described by Hayata, in Journal of the College of Science, Imperial University of Tokyo 30(1): 13. 1911: The vines become woody and shallowly grooved, glabrous, ranging from green to brown red in colour, with pinnate 5-foliolate leaves, sometimes ternate, dark green in colour, occasionally speckled or marbled The leaflets are cordate-ovate, broadly elliptic, subleathery, base subcordate, truncate, or broadly cuneate, margin sparsely serrulate or rarely entire, apex acute, obtuse, or emarginate; basal veins abaxially more or less prominent. The plant is evergreen in Europe and the USA. The flowers are around 3.5-7.5 cm in diameter and the colour of the sepals is white, sometimes with a pink hue. Flowers usually have five or six sepals and exude a powerful perfume. Flowers axillary, peduncle 1-7.5 cm; bracts petiolate, ovate, elliptic, or linear. Pedicel 4 6( 8) cm, glabrous. Sepals (5 or)6, obovateoblong to oblong, 2 3.5 × 0.5 1.3 cm, abaxially densely puberulous, adaxially glabrous, apex mucronate. Flowering time in Europe and the USA is from January until May but temperature and the amount of sunlight available are critical. The stamens are rather elongated and are of a most beautiful blue coloration. The filaments are blue, the connectives violet-blue and the anthers blue-white. Stamens 0.8 1.5 cm, glabrous; anthers narrowly oblong to linear, 3.5 5 mm, apex apiculate. Ovaries pubescent. Style ca. 1 cm, densely villous. Achenes narrowly ovate to rhombic, 5 8 × ca. 3 mm, densely pubescent. The achenes are persistent with plumose tails. C. akoensis reaches around 2 meters in height and in the wild is found at forest margins and scrubland, where the sun penetrates, from near sea level up to round 800 metres high, in southern Taiwan.
Clematis cadmia
Ton Hannink Netherlands hanninkj@home.nl
In 2001 I received from China two plants rather inspiringly labelled Clematis cadmia; I was really fascinated about this Clematis species because despite all my efforts to track it down I had still not yet even managed to see pictures of it in flower. In due course the new plants’ buds slowly developed but as soon as they began to open I immediately had doubts – there were only four sepals instead of the six I was expecting. Once the flowers were fully open my initial reservations were confirmed: sadly these plants were obviously not C. cadmia – in due course they actually turned out to be a form of Clematis chrysocoma (from Section Cheiropsis subsection Montanae).
Seven years went by before I finally received another batch of young plants from China, but I still had no real idea about the morphology of this elusive species. As is the case with several of the species within the Florida Group, the available information is relatively thin on the ground; however, the available accounts seemed to infer that this species could, for various reasons, be very interesting to the Clematis devotee.
I kept the plants in the greenhouse because I didn’t know how hardy they would be. Once spring was underway the young plants romped into growth and as the foliage developed I could see that it was fairly similar in form to Clematis florida. In addition to my clematis collection my greenhouses hold all my containerised tropical plants, some of which have very strong perfumes. One morning I noticed a new, strong fragrance which set me off searching for the responsible container plant. I was surprised to find that it wasn’t one of my tropicals at all – the source of the fragrance was in fact C. cadmia. I was amazed because I couldn’t find one single reference about scent in this species in all my books and articles. In fact the consensus – according to the literature –was that fragrance of any kind was gravely lacking in the whole of Section Viticella subsection Floridae – however I already knew this to be incorrect, since my Clematis
hancockiana plants invariably produces a very strong, pungent perfume. The fragrances of Clematis cadmia and Clematis hancockiana are completely different and one can easily distinguish between them. At this early flowering only a small number of Clematis cadmia blooms were produced.
Clematis cadmia displays several very individual traits. The plant only blooms once per season and plants must be pruned very hard prior to winter, otherwise the following season’s flowers will be few and far between. This singular flowering time attribute differentiates it completely from C. florida, C. xiangguiensis and C. courtoisii; having said that, its stems and leaves remain healthy and strong for a long time, so it’s a very useful clematis in the garden. It is ideal also for growing into small shrubs and modest sized trees – if you can manage the right combinations you can have spring shrubs or trees
Clematis 2018
bearing scented flowers! You really should plant this clematis out somewhere where you can enjoy the lovely perfume in spring, or, better still, put it in a container – the plant doesn’t get too large and you can position containers and move them around at will. C. cadmia also does well climbing on trellis or similar.
Since acquiring the plants I have included C. cadmia in my breeding programme. Although not an easy species to hybridise, my crosses, which had never previously been attempted in the clematis world, have yielded a wide range of hybrids bearing flowers with varying levels of fragrance, from modestly scented to very strongly fragrant.
I have had excellent results with this species and can confirm that the plant is indeed entirely hardy in Holland.
Botanic aspects
Clematis cadmia was fully described by Hooker & Thomson in Flora Indica 1: 5; 1855 and in Flora of British India 1:2; 1875. There are two species; Clematis cadmia and Clematis cadmia flore pleno (according to Magnus Johnson’s nomenclature). The plant is distributed fairly widely in various Provinces of China: Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang; and in India, Gorakhpur, Khasi Hills, Manipur, Sikkim, Assam, and Burma. Flowering time is generally April to May. This species occurs in grassy areas, along stream banks, sometimes even with its feet in the water, at about 100m altitude, and the height is generally about 2 – 3 metres. The flowers of Clematis cadmia are single and flat, around 812 cm in diameter and with scent; the colour of the 6 tepals ranges from white to lilac, each tepal being about 3 - 5 cm in length. The anthers are variable in hue from yellow through to light browny-red. In complete contrast to all the other members of subsection Floridae, the pistils are white. The seeds are large and non-plumose, and they germinate very readily after a wait of only 2 - 6 months.
Clematis courtoisii
Ton Hannink Netherlands hanninkj@home.nl
Clematis courtoisii belongs to Section Viticella, subsection Floridae This subsection comprises the following species; C. courtoisii, C. hancockiana, C. longistyla, C. florida, C. cadmia and C. xiangguiensis. In this group all the main features of the plants are widely variable – flowers, foliage, roots and even the seeds
Almost as soon as the very first plant arrived (from China) I had a big surprise: I was quite amazed by the unexpectedly large size of the leaves –not as I had anticipated – I’d expected something similar to C. florida, but no, not at all!
But that was only the beginning. Soon the flower buds formed – again, so much larger than C. florida – when they opened I was pleasingly stunned about their size. Also, the strikingly beautiful anthers were so long and so dark that I must say, without any doubt
I had never before seen the like in Clematis. The reason I was so astounded was that I had not expected this species to differ too much from C. florida as, in the literature, one
always reads that these species are almost identical – but of course, some of the writers of these scripts have never grown the actual plants, in the flesh.
This species is one of the most beautiful ‘whites’ in the entire Clematis genus.
Many years ago when I first developed a serious interest in Clematis, C. florida was such a special plant for me and the Florida Group seemed so neat, uniform and homogenous in its characteristics. Now, I feel completely the opposite – the species found in subsection Floridae are in fact most dissimilar and variable – these species could belong to Viticella and/or Patentes or Lanuginosae; I say this because I have in my greenhouses all the species in the group with the sole exception of Clematis longistyla and have worked a lot with them, over the years. I think also that many of the hybrid cultivars currently assumed to be close to, or derived from, the Florida Group could actually very likely be erroneously ascribed.
Clematis courtoisii is not hardy in Holland, so during winter the plants are best kept in containers always at a temperature above 0°C. Once the season starts the plant grows very vigorously but succeeding with cuttings of it is certainly not the easiest task.
In my hybridising programme C. courtoisii has given dramatically unexpected results –different again from my C. florida crossings. This makes the Florida Group all the more important, especially taking into account the results of my hybridising outcomes with C cadmia and C. hancockiana.
It is a pity that I have not as yet been able to locate a source of Clematis longistyla, the last member of this Group, as this would permit me to understand and compare this enigmatic final species with C. courtoisii and the others of the Group, which all grow for me every season, here at home
C.courtoisiiseedhead→
General form of the plant
C. courtoisii was first described by H. Handel-Mazzetti, in Acta Horti Gothobergensis 13: 200. 1939 – 1940. Herewith, a brief synopsis: This species will attain about 3 metres – thus it is a little bit lankier than C. florida. The twice ternate or pinnate leaves are around 3-6.5 x 1.5-2 cm and therefore much larger than C. florida; the stunning flowers are approximately 10-12 cm across, with 6 sepals. The sepal colour is white but suffused with a faint purplish hue. As can be seen from the pictures, the huge, striking anthers are very spectacular indeed – dark violet – with a length around 1.5 – 2 cm. The seeds are smaller than those of C. florida and are plumose, with red-brown hairs. Flowering time is March-May, but with judicious pruning the plant will bloom a second time and often even a third. This plant is very floriferous indeed. In the wild this species is found at forest margins, on slopes or along streams, 200 500 metres. Areas include Anhui, S.E. Henan, E. Hubei, E. Hunan, S. Jiangsu, N. Zhejiang, in China.
Clematis florida
Ton Hannink Netherlands hanninkj@home.nl
Many years ago I bought a plant of the species Clematis florida – in full flower at the time – and it was very exciting to have such a beautiful white Clematis. The nurseryman told me that it was advisable to plant this species near a south wall for protection; it was regarded as a slightly tender plant and not overly hardy. I followed this dictum and duly planted it out in the garden but within a few months it was dead! I immediately went out and bought more plants but only a few months later they too had perished. Then my nurseryman suggested I buy PISTACHIO (C. 'Evirida') instead, which he pronounced as ‘a strong healthy selection’. Exactly the same result! After that, I gave up on keeping Clematis florida. Later, I heard that most of the nurseries have the same problem with this species.
Now, C. florida has some well-known (and slightly hardier) variants – C. florida var. florida ‘Sieboldiana’ and C. florida var. florepleno ‘Plena’ (C. florida ‘Alba Plena’) – the ‘double’ forms. It is nowadays well
documented that in culture these double forms occasionally ‘revert back’ to the single, pure white form. These ‘reversions’ can be then propagated in the normal way (from cuttings) and thus the nurseries have a supply of a C. florida ‘species’ which can be offered to the general public as ‘a hardier form of the species’. For me, however, it was quite disappointing that there were no good, normal examples of C. florida around.
Sometime later, I happened to be in correspondence with clematis loving friends in Asia about my negative experiences with the poor C. florida strains available in Europe, expressing the hope that someone somewhere could possibly have, or find, hardier forms of the original species plant. Time passed then one day I received an email from a friend stating that a very healthy Clematis florida clone was available, in Asia, and that the person concerned could send me a healthy young plant.
In due course a tiny but healthy plant arrived which, once potted up, immediately sprang into vigorous growth. Very quickly thereafter many buds appeared and before long the plant was full of glorious, beautiful flowers. A large amount of seed followed, after which I cut the plant right back – new vines sprouted and within two months it was back in full flower.
At the end of the season I placed the plant in the frost free greenhouse and made sure the medium was kept fairly dry. The plant breezed through the winter months and when spring came around, and as soon as it was in growth again, I immediately took about ten decent-looking cuttings. Under my standard propagating conditions every one of them had rooted within two months. I had never ever seen this before with Clematis florida!
It was marvellous to finally possess a healthy and slightly hardier Clematis florida and propagation was soon begun, with a view to introducing a more robust version of the plant into cultivation.
Because the plant attains less than 2m in height, Clematis florida is also very useful as a pot plant. Even in a container, the plant can be hard pruned after flowering and it will unfailingly produce a second crop of flowers in a matter of weeks. This plant is still not fully hardy in Holland – this is only seen in subtropical climates, nevertheless it can do very well in a sheltered south facing position in the garden, as long as it is given some winter protection. Everyday gardeners can benefit greatly if new, healthy strains of coveted plants can be located, propagated and introduced from the wild.
Botanic notes
ClematisfloridaThunberg, Syst. Nat., Ed. 14. 512. 1784. In Europe C. florida is a perennial herbaceous vine; height attained is approximately 2m and the pure white flowers of 10-12cm diameter are formed of six overlapping obovate-rhombic sepals; the pistils and anthers are a striking, contrasting lovely dark purple. In Europe the first crop of flowers appears from around April, to June but the plant can then be cut back and it will rebloom several weeks later. In the wild it is found along streams and in open brushwood at around 1700m. The principal habitats (all in China) are Guangdong, N. Guangxi, Hubei, Hunan, W Jiangxi, S.W. Yunnan and Zhejiang.
Clematis hancockiana
Ton
Hannink Netherlands hanninkj@home.nl
Iwas able to obtain one single plant and by necessity had to wait until the following spring before really being able to see whether it had survived the voyage. This species is incredibly rare in the clematis hobby and the available information was extremely sparse, to say the least. At the time, no other person in Europe or the USA had ever seen this Clematis in flower.
The details that do exist in print almost invariably purport that the plant is very similar to Clematis florida… so when the first leaves finally appeared I was not at all certain that this really was C. hancockiana. The leaves were not immediately evocative of other known species in subsection Floridae, such as C. florida, C. courtoisii, C. cadmia or C. xiangguiensis, nor to species in subsection Viticella such as C. viticella, C. campaniflora and C. huchouensis
In August 2011 the first buds finally arrived; also, the bracteoles, precisely as
described by Magnus Johnson in The Genus Clematis: ‘bracteoles large, broad ovate, entire, to 3 cm long and 2.5 cm wide’. The buds are held upright, just as in C. florida
The flowers opened in due course – there were only four sepals at first, but later blooms bore six sepals, to a certain degree reminiscent in form of C. viticella. However, the incredible colour of the newly open flowers was unbelievably exciting! I had never before seen such a combination of colours. The exterior of the sepals was green, the insides reddish-brown and the anthers a beautiful light red-brown. As the blossoms age the sepals open out fully and even become recurved. Nothing at all like C. florida or C. viticella! The flowers (and especially the pollen) release a faint but noticeable fragrance –as with many clematis this is a little more pronounced when basking in warm sunshine.
In due course the seeds began to form – the achenes are not the same as C. viticella or C. florida, but something in between. I was over the moon to see some of them slowly ripening, and it quickly became clear that many of the achenes were definitely fertile. Of all the species clematis, Clematis hancockiana is one of the most special. Not the easiest Clematis to maintain and propagate, though, during the eight years that it has been in my collection. C. hancockiana is not at all ‘just another C. florida’ – the form of the foliage and seeds bring C. lanuginosa more to my mind. This is a very beautiful and interesting Clematis. Hybridising with this species has yielded some incredibly fascinating, varied plants.
Results of some crosses → involving C.hancockiana
Characters and form of the species C. hancockianaMaxim.
Clematis hancockiana was first described by C. J. Maximowicz in the Bulletin de la Société Impériale de Moscou. 54(1): 1. 1879: The height is around 2.5 meters, with leaves approximately 3-4.5 × 1.42.4 cm and much larger than in C. florida. The flowers are around 3-5 cm across, bearing 4 or 6 sepals of dark purple red. The anthers are very dark violet and are around 1 cm in length. The seeds are smaller than those of C. florida and are plumose.
Flowering time is generally April-May, but after pruning, a second crop of flowers will appear later in the season This species is very floriferous indeed.
As for the general habitat, the plant is found on slopes and in scrubland, twining around host plants at about 100-500 m. The plant is native to several areas in China: SE. Anhui, S Henan, E Hubei, S Jiangsu, N. Jiangxi, E. to N. Zhejiang.
William Hancock (18471914) first found the species on hills 300 meters high near the town of Ningpo, on 13th May 1877.
Clematis xiangguiensis
Ton Hannink Netherlands hanninkj@home.nl
Agood few years ago a clematis friend in China asked me ‘would you be interested in Clematis xiangguiensis’? My immediate response was, ‘Yes of course I would be very interested!’ At that time, this clematis species was a bit of a mystery to me so without delay I searched around for it on the Internet to try and garner some information – this species is not included in the clematis world as defined by either Magnus Johnson or Christopher Grey-Wilson. About the only thing I could find on the web was that it had now become an accepted named species – no details at all about the plant’s botany – its form, characteristics, flowers and so on.
Some time later, in 2011, I received two tiny precious plants and it was very pleasing to watch the first leaves begin to emerge. The foliage resembled that of C. florida. In that first year the young plants didn’t produce any flowers or even any flower buds, just foliage as the plants established themselves.
Some of the other species of the Florida Group can be rather tender, so, drawing on my experience of other plants in the Group, over the next winter I kept them potted-
up in fairly dry medium in a frost-free greenhouse. The next season was quite different, however! Both plants quickly developed large numbers of very early buds which soon opened to produce masses of Clematis xiangguiensis flowers! The blooms were smaller than those of Clematis florida, but it was immediately clear to me that this species is extremely closely related to C. florida. Just like the latter, mature flowers of Clematis xiangguiensis open out fully flat; they closely resemble those of their C. florida cousin, in form. Again, just like
The Clematis 2018
C. florida, the plant can be pruned shortly after flowering and it will come right back on new growths to produce another full crop of gorgeous flowers.
My overall impression is that C. xiangguiensis is a very floriferous and robustly healthy species! I am not fully certain yet of how hardy it is, as I have still not risked the plant outside the greenhouse during the winter months.
As has been the case with other of my plants from this group, my C. xiangguiensis hybridisation programme has yielded a novel range of very interesting progeny.
Comparing the two species, the main points that come to mind are as follows: firstly, C. xiangguiensis does not quite attain the height of C. florida in cultivation – overall it is a plant of slightly smaller stature; in terms of foliage the leaves of C. florida are generally somewhat larger, as also are the flower buds. Both plants produce pure white flowers, with C. florida coming in at about 10-12cm and C. xiangguiensis around 8-10 cm. Despite this size difference, however, in both blooms the central boss of stamens is of a beautiful striking dark purple. After the flowers have gone by, the seedheads and achenes of the two plants are quite similar in size, colour and form.
Botanic aspects
This species is still relatively unrepresented in the Clematis texts available at the present time. To give an indication of the paucity of information obtainable on this plant, even the main world plant web databases as yet give little more than the following very limited information:
Clematis xiangguiensis W. T. Wang Guihaia 27(1): 15 (-16; fig. 6). 2007 [Jan 2007]
Distribution: Guangxi (China Southeast, China, Asia – temperate); Hunan (China Southeast, China, Asia - temperate); Type Information: Collector(s): Guangxi Exped. 533954, Locality: Lingui, Ertang, at roadside. Collection Date: 1953-10.
Hybridising with C. florida var. florida ‘Sieboldiana’
Mariko Nakanishi Japan ericat.2@comet.ocn.ne.jp
We have had abnormal weather in Japan this summer with temperatures in excess of 40°C every day. I shaded my clematis with nets and tried to allow air to pass through; if this heat continues every summer, cross pollinating will become impossible.
Last year I made a C. florida var. florida ‘Sieboldiana’ crossing and was able to get seeds, but 2018’s seeds failed because they couldn’t tolerate the heat.
In 2015 I crossed C. florida var. florida ‘Sieboldiana’ with × diversifolia ‘Eriostemon’. The seeds germinated in 2016 and the first flowers appeared in 2017.
When using ‘Sieboldiana’ or C. florida etc for cross pollinating, it is typically found that the offspring have deep purple anthers, filaments and pistils. In my case, this was indeed what transpired. However, I thought that in the case of the F2 generation, traits of the × diversifolia ‘Eriostemon’ would show, that is to say, yellow stamens. This has been the normal result for many other people who have made such crosses.
(Ed : F1 stands for the ‘first filial generation’, obtained on cross pollinating the parent plants. F2 stands for the ‘second filial generation’ that is obtained by selfpollinating the F1 generation plants.)
C.‘Bicoelio’
In my C. florida var. florida ‘Sieboldiana’ crossings, the seedlings’ anthers, filaments and pistils were yellow – this seems to be the dominant inheritance feature for the filaments and anthers. But
Germinations
Foliage
Buds
It will be interesting to see the mature flower forms
× diversifolia‘Eriostemon’
C. ‘Bicocona’
The Clematis 2018
what surprised me was the frequent (but not without exception) expression of × diversifolia ‘Eriostemon’ in terms of the sepal numbers – only four sepals.
C. ‘Bicocona’
This was a very interesting result. The filaments and anthers were purple, but the pistils were yellow. These are, of course, brand new first flowers – we know that first flowers are not always representative of the final form – so I am looking forward to seeing the mature forms, when my plants are older and are producing more flowers.
With regard to the colour range, some are a deeper colour than × diversifolia
‘Eriostemon’ – close to the purple of C. florida var. florida
‘Sieboldiana’; another is much more similar to × diversifolia
‘Eriostemon’.
C. ‘Bicome’
It will be very interesting to see what blooms arise when these plants are used for later crosses.
(Ed: Note: these are Mariko’s proposed names for the new plants, which have not yet been registered.)
Hardwood Cuttings
Everett Leeds UK everettleeds@gmail.com
In the last few years I have been experimenting with hardwood cuttings. The reason for this is I have no greenhouse or other suitable place to grow softwood/semi ripe ones. I don’t fancy having pots on window sills and ‘her indoors’ wouldn’t like them either.
I have been very successful with Heracleifolia types and this year (well, really late Autumn last year) I took a bunch of Clematis 'Paul Farges' SUMMER SNOW and they, in the main, ‘took’ quite well.
Using double noded stems → I use double noded stems and push them up to their necks into the potting medium. I was surprised in July when one of the cuttings actually bloomed before I had thought about potting them on. It was a tiny flower but that was probably down to lack of nutrients. In fact, I’m going to leave it a while so the roots can develop further, before giving it the shock of transferring to another pot.
The Clematis 2018
I use neat Perlite, nothing added, except for the occasional watering, more especially in the warmer months as Perlite does not retain much fluid. I keep the pots outside on the ground next to the building wall (it faces north-east) and although they get covered in snow if that happens they still burst into life in the late Spring. I occasionally have a look for slugs and snails and if found they are swiftly despatched – check cuttings for slugs every time. So, why not have a go? Select material when you are reducing top growth NovemberDecember time and see what transpires. Good luck!
The EarlyYears of
BCS meeting at Caddick’s Clematis, Lymm, ca. 1988
Caddick’s Clematis Nursery
Harry Caddick UK BCS Member and a Co-founder of the IClS 1984.
We grew all our own vegetables in a very ugly-looking garden and, since we had to look out onto it every day from the house, we eventually decided we would do something to try to make it look a little easier on the eye!
The year 1978 arrived and while holidaying in Ambleside in the Lake District we passed a house whose Lakeland stone gable end wall was utterly bedecked with over one hundred beautiful huge flowers, on a wonderful ten feet high plant! I didn’t know what the plant was but Denny, my wife, recognised it as a Clematis
Just around the corner was a garden centre. We spotted the same plant being sold there, so we immediately bought one – it was old faithful ‘Nelly Moser’!
From that moment on we became obsessed with Clematis, collecting every variety we could possibly find from garden centres and by mail order, from wherever possible up and down the country! After a while we began to notice that the majority of sources sold largely the same range of stock, so we started to keep an eye out for any more unusual types that we came across. By this time Harry had taught himself, using one of the greenhouses in the garden, how to propagate the plant reliably.
Over the next few years we accumulated a fair collection and, naturally, in due course started selling them to friends and family. When Aunty Jean saw ‘Nelly Moser’ in the greenhouse she insisted on buying a plant – that plant is now forty years old, and Jean is nearly ninety-three!
From this point on we developed into a small (at first) ‘hobby’ mail order business, advertising in the main gardening magazines, selling plants raised in the greenhouses, packing them up and despatching them from the kitchen!
While packing plants one day there was a knock on the door. Harry opened the door to find a man and woman standing there. The man said ‘Sylvia Denny’, to which Harry responded ‘Yes, we have that plant’! ‘No’, the man answered, ‘this is Sylvia Denny’, pointing to his wife. Then, pointing to himself he said, ‘I am Harry Denny’ (aka Vincent Denny). We immediately invited them in for a cup of tea and a chat – the start of what turned out to be a lifelong friendship.
For a couple of years, we grew more and more clematis from home whilst keeping up Harry’s ‘normal’ job of working for the Manchester Ship Canal Company. Until, of
course, we ran out of room for plants. Just at this time, as fate would have it, a parcel of rentable land became available fairly near to our home, so we packed up all the plants
Early days
and equipment and shifted everything to Lymm, setting up as a small part-time business. Although we had the dream of being able to ‘give up the day job’ and commit to growing clematis full time, it would have been a dicey thing to consider doing. Could we possibly sustain a full-time business growing clematis exclusively? Giving up Harry’s established employment, with regular earnings, security and benefits was obviously going to be a pretty risky move – a very difficult decision to make.
One morning Harry was beavering away in the greenhouses in Lymm prior to getting off to work (at Latchford Locks) when a gentleman arrived to see him, out of the blue. It was one of the travelling Dutch nurserymen/representatives (Gerald Stolwyk, if memory serves… but it was a long time ago) who often visited the UK, meeting nursery owners and selling new plants into UK garden centres, while making contact with and meeting breeders, other nurserymen and horticulturally connected individuals. One of his customers had told him about ‘Caddick’s Clematis’. Out of interest (and by being experienced enough to follow a promising lead through) he had stopped by for a chat.
In the course of the conversation that followed Harry explained to his guest how he got started with the hobby and gradually transformed it into a small business. He added, of course, that his ambition would be to give up the Ship Canal job and go full time growing clematis, but that was a big step to take – perhaps just a little too big for the time being? Harry’s new friend took one look around the premises, saw all the fantastic clematis in full flower and proclaimed that in his opinion Harry had all the necessary
skills and assets to be able to make more than just an adequate living from the hobby! Those comments were all the encouragement we needed, and it soon gave Harry the impetus to hand his notice in at the Ship Canal Company, after twenty-one and a half years’ faithful service, to become a full-time clematis grower!
Just six weeks later we were attending a local horticultural trade show (we were displaying a lot of plants) and an individual came over and said; ‘Excuse me, but can you please supply me with 15,000 plants?’ Minutes later another enquirer asked us for 8,000 plants and it went on like that all day! It was, without doubt,
← On the reverse of the card quickly evident that giving up the ‘day job’ had, after all our worrying, been the correct decision.
Over the next six years the nursery became more and more successful. The mail order side grew strongly, and we also had large numbers of people regularly visiting the nursery in person to buy plants.
We supplied plants to Buckingham Palace, Highgrove House, to TV celebrities from Coronation Street and even to politicians, including Michael Heseltine! Then, suddenly and without notice, in late 1991, we were informed that we had to vacate the land, which would mean relocating the entire business, lock, stock and barrel to a new site, who knows where?
Days later, by fortuitous coincidence, we spotted that some land, twelve acres in fact, and much nearer to our home, had become available for purchase. We sank all our savings (and every penny besides) into acquiring it. We then
began the huge task of shifting everything – greenhouses, equipment, and of course all of the plants – to the new location approximately one mile down the road.
Harry and Denny attend the BCS trip to Holland, late 1980s
1988 – Garden meeting of the BCS Committee at our nursery
During autumn and winter of 1991, we ground out the days, physically moving the entire array, whilst still addressing customers’ orders and sending plants out. At the new site, of course, we then had to rebuild a complete new nursery from scratch. It was imperative to fully plan every day’s activities and, after more than five months of Herculean graft
The new nursery – the sales area, just after completion dismantling, moving and rebuilding, we were ready to open the doors of the new nursery of Caddick’sClematison 1st February 1992. This was to be our livelihood for the next twelve years.
There was always a lot of hard work to do, but it wasn’t all like that – we also had many memorable moments – those things that stay with you forever. For example, the day the phone rang, and my fifteen-year-old son answered it…I recall the advice he offered to the person at the other end: ‘Well, I think it would probably be better if you took the plants out of the electricity cupboard under the stairs and planted them in the garden – they may be happier?’ Our son is the politest person you could ever meet but this tested even him! One day we had a lady call on us, by her appearance obviously used to working on the land; I was advising her about the planting of clematis and how they needed good soil and plenty of feed. ‘Oh yes’, she said, ‘will sheep shit do the trick?’ ‘Oh yes’, I replied, ‘as long as it is well rotted!’ We’ve laughed many times about the sheep and her, over the years. We once had a lady ring, after receiving her plants from the courier, to say that something was laying eggs in the compost. She’d had to spend hours laboriously picking them all out one by one with tweezers. We had to politely ask her to put them all back into the compost again before planting the plant – as they were the ‘Osmocote’ slow release fertiliser pellets we routinely blended into our potting mix. By the end of 2003 we were growing and selling more than five hundred varieties of
The Clematis 2018
clematis drawn from all over the world.
One day we were approached by some American friends who Denise and Harry Caddick wanted to discuss buying some of our plants. They wanted 300,000 each year – too much for us to handle! We had created a marvelously successful nursery from literally nothing but a bare field, but in another sense, also a monster, which was slowly but surely consuming us. We decided that the time had come for us to consider retiring, so we put the business up for sale, expecting that it would take some considerable time before anyone who might want to buy it would come along. As these things happen in life, we had sold the business and land within four months and suddenly we were standing on our home doorstep looking out – retired!
So, advice to all you clematis lovers out there – beware your ‘little hobby’ – it can take over your whole life!
Still going strong after four decades – Aunt Jean’s ‘Nelly Moser’
Clematis registered from July 2017 to June 2018
Duncan Donald clematisregistrar@rhs.org.uk
Iaccepted twenty-one applications for new clematis cultivar names during the second half of 2017 and the first half of 2018: seven of these were from the UK; four from the Netherlands; three from Latvia; two each from China and Poland; and one each from Finland, Russia and the USA.
Ken Black (the Society’s Membership Secretary) has named three Early Largeflowered Group seedlings selected and given to him by Harry Caddick: ‘Clotted Cream’, with 8 white sepals whose outside green bar shows through inside; ‘Harry’s Double Blue’, with a dozen or more sepals/staminodes, blue-purple with a purple bar; and ‘Kenhelen’, with 7 or 8 overlapping sepals, white with pale blue margins.
Richard Hodson’s latest cultivars include ←‘Lilac Wine’, a lilac-/purpleflowered Integrifolia Group seedling with markedly undulate, sometimes twisted, sepals; and two Viorna Group hybrids: ←‘Raspberry Ripple’, with mainly raspberry-red urn-shaped flowers, & ‘Sylviorna’, with lilac-purple and white urn-shaped flowers.
Val Le May Neville-Parry has named one of her Montana Group seedlings ‘The Two Maureens’ after two of her friends. It has, for a Montana, relatively compact stems, bearing 4-6-sepalled white flowers, whose bar outside is tinged very pale purple.
Wim Snoeijer has registered four cultivars on behalf of Van Zoest. Two are Early Large-flowered hybrids (which Wim would classify in his re-defined Patens
Group): ‘Zo08159’ MYOSOTIS, with strongly ruffled, pale violet flowers; and ‘Zo12220’ ISABELLA, with long-pointed, pale purple flowers with a darker bar. ‘ZO08171’ PRINCE WILLIAM Wim would classify in his Texensis Group (sensu 2008); it has mainly outward-facing, violet to dark purple flowers. ‘Zo09146’ AMAZING MIAMI is another Van Zoest selection for cut-flower production; Wim would classify this in his Diversifolia Group (sensu 2008; currently included within Integrifolia Group by the ICRA); its flowers have 6, pale bluish purple sepals.
Aivars Irbe’s 2017 book Mežvīteņi un citi augi dārzā included mention of three new Atragene Group cultivars he has raised in Latvia, which he has now kindly registered –all macropetala seedlings with pendent, semidouble flowers. ←‘Aldonis’ has violet sepals; ‘My Maiga’, named after his wife, has redpurple to purplish pink sepals with paler margins. ‘Lovely Elga’ (below) has pale pinkish white sepaloids, and guard sepals with darker outsides;
Zhejiang A & F University has registered two clones of different native species, both wild-collected in Zhejiang: C. hancockiana ‘Wei Li’, with deep maroon flowers ageing blue-purple; and C. patens subsp. tientaiensis ‘Qing Kong’, with mainly white sepals tinged blue-purple along the bar.
Szczepan Marczyński has registered two new, Early Largeflowered Group cultivars, named respectively after the former President and First Lady of Poland, both of whom died in an
air crash near Smolensk in 2010: ‘Lech Kaczyński’ (left) has flowers with 8(-15) sepals, predominantly violet-purple, redder along the bar, with contrasting pale yellow stamens; ‘Maria Kaczyńska’ (right) has single or semidouble flowers, with 8-12(-20)
white sepals with markedly frilly margins and contrasting purple stamen-connectives.
As well as helping push back the frontiers of our knowledge on the phyletics of clematis species, Daniel Falck has named an (integrifolia × ‘The President’) seedling of his as ‘Galactica’: this has heliotrope-scented flowers with mainly 4 (sometimes 6) satiny sepals, dark indigo-violet inside around a dark purple bar, dark purplish violet outside with paler margins, and with the stamens usually angled at the connective.
Professor Dorofeeva has named a selection of C. integrifolia with purplish blue flowers as ‘Stanislav Mamaev’, in honour of the former director of the Botanical Garden at Yekaterinburg for almost 50 years.
As ever, I should be happy to hear from anyone who wishes to register a new clematis cultivar or Group epithet, or to enhance an existing Register description, or who has views on any aspect of cultivar or Group registration they might wish to share.
International Clematis Society – 2018 Report
Ken Woolfenden Editor and Webperson, I.Cl.S.
The International Clematis Society (I.Cl.S.) currently has members in twenty-four countries around the world. Each year the Society publishes a journal, two or three short newsletters and generally holds one meeting, visiting a different country from that of the previous few years.
At a previous Constitutional General Meeting (CGM), members said they would like a future meeting to be held in Scotland. After much research, the Society produced an itinerary and then worked with Brightwater Holidays Ltd. to make it happen. In July 2018, 36 members of the Society started an 8-day meeting based in Edinburgh and St. Andrews, Fife, using university accommodation in both locations, as it provided good quality facilities at a reasonable price.
The weather was wonderful, we had sunshine most days and only one wet morning. Although there are no specialist clematis nurseries in Scotland, there are quite a few gardens featuring clematis. One of the most famous is Wemyss Castle, best known for their montana collection. Although our visit was too late for the majority of these, the walled garden is fantastic whatever time of the year you visit, and Charlotte Wemyss grows many other clematis in addition to the Montana Group.
Wemyss is one of a number of Fife walled gardens that we visited. Each one was unique, yet they all offered interesting features, both in structure and plants.
Also included in the itinerary were two very different visits, Little Sparta, the hilltop garden of Ian Hamilton Finlay and Jupiter Artland, a collection of modern garden installations including Life Mounds by Charles Jencks. Such a contrast to the rest of the itinerary, yet just about everyone found something to enjoy.
I.Cl.S. created our Golden Clematis Award to recognize excellence in clematis matters or specific clematis-related achievements by both Members and non-Members. Any member can make a nomination and awards are voted on by the membership at CGMs. The first awards were given in 2008.
The Society was pleased to make three awards this year:
• Linda Beutler, ex-President of the Society and Curator of the Rogerson Clematis Collection, Oregon, USA,
• Richard Green and Ian Lang, who set up and maintain “Clematis on the Web” (http://www.clematis.hull.ac.uk/),
• Everett Leeds, clematis grower, expert, member of the BCS and co-author of An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Clematis. (See page 15 of this Journal.)
In 2019, the Society is planning a return visit to Portland, Oregon, USA for a meeting in the middle of June. It is quite a few years since we last visited and we’ve been promised many new gardens to visit plus some old favourites.
Letter to the Editor re: Dr Eric Hamilton
Rosemary Dawson
Aysgarth Road
Dulwich
London
SE21 7JR
Dear Brian,
IApril 9th 2018
attended the funeral in Dulwich of Dr Eric Hamilton recently, who died after a long period of severe disability due to a road accident some years ago.
Eric and his wife Clair (who passed away five years ago) introduced my husband John and I to the BCS when the chairperson was Gillian Lacey; on the day, John Howells was the speaker at the meeting.
Eric, a rheumatologist, was on the staff at Kings College Hospital with my late husband for many years.
Eric had an amazing woodland garden high up on a steep slope in Dulwich and planted more than 2000 daffodils regularly to maintain the beautiful landscape. He also had an interesting collection of clematis – now, the house has now been sold. Some members of the then-new south east branch of BCS came there for several years when Eric and I were able to entertain them, which sadly we eventually had to cease, due to a lack of support.
Eric was a good physician, an active Christian and a great father to four sons, and I shall miss my visits to talk clematis. I will also write to Mary Toomey, who knew him.
Sincerely,
Rosemary Dawson
From Everett Leeds:
Yes, a lovely man. The garden had a fantastic view over London and the City. I remember I did a clem talk to their local gardening club and Eric kindly invited me for dinner beforehand. During it a fox just ambled across the patio outside the glass doors only a few feet away. A magical moment. EL
C.heracleifolia'Cassandra' by Everett Leeds
NOTES
NOTES
NOTES
Editor’s 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.
Tosh Ashworth/Medway Sling Co. Marie Holt
Ken Black John Jenkins/Wollerton Old Hall
Anna Tindall/Burton Agnes Hall & Gardens Everett Leeds
Suzy and Chris Cocks/Taylors Clematis Andy McIndoe
