The secret side of clematis
They’re a garden staple, but these stunning climbers can do much, much more than most of us realise
SEVERAL years ago I was wandering around a public garden on a bright winter’s day when I passed a couple staring at a flowering climber trained against a brick wall. They seemed impressed by its countless cup-shaped, creamy pink flowers that were speckled red inside.
As I stopped to admire the spectacle myself, I overheard them discussing what this beauty might be. Realising that they didn’t know, I eventually pitched in to reveal it was a winter-flowering clematis – C. cirrhosa var. purpurascens ‘Freckles’.
My answer was met with some surprise because they thought clematis flowered only in summer. As it happens, these climbers are even more diverse – there are varieties that shine in every season. In fact, with a little planning, it’s possible to have blooms every day of the year.
Clematis are a large group of evergreen and deciduous climbers native to Japan, China, North America and Europe. There is also one species indigenous to Britain – Clematis vitalba (sometimes called traveller’s joy or old man’s beard), whose tiny white flowers are seen in woodlands.
They’ve been a fixture in our gardens since the 16th Century, when Clematis viticella arrived from Spain. Over the next century, many more species were shipped in from overseas, but none was as important as Clematis florida, a species from Japan with creamy white flowers and purple stamens – it was crossed with others to produce a range of large-flowered varieties.
Today, there are more than 2,000 different ones, with single, double, tubular, saucer, bell, star or tulip-shaped flowers ranging from 1in wide to those the size of a dinner plate.
For my money, the best winterflowering ones are varieties of Clematis cirrhosa. Discovered in the late 18th Century, Clematis cirrhosa var. balearica is a stunner, with pale yellow flowers spotted with red that are displayed to perfection against a foil of ferny foliage. The leaves are dark green for much of the year but take on bronze tints when temperatures drop.
Winter-flowering clematis need somewhere warm, sunny and sheltered to thrive – a south-facing wall or fence is ideal. Most of them are at their best between December and February.
Clematis armandii will get spring off to a bang with its heavily scented creamy white flowers. It’s the parent of several good varieties, including pink-flushed ‘Apple Blossom’. Prune immediately after flowering to keep plants within bounds. If you have a building that needs screening, it’s hard to beat Clematis montana var. rubens, with its pink flowers that appear in May. This rampant variety, which can easily scale 30ft, originates from China, where it was discovered in 1900 by plant-hunter E. H. Wilson. There’s no shortage of clematis that strut their stuff in summer. My favourite is ‘Star of India’, for its large purple flowers with a carmine stripe down the centre of each petal.
THOSE with smaller gardens could try compact summer-flowering clematis in containers – ‘Niobe’ has velvety red flowers, while ‘Fireworks’ boasts glowing purple and magenta blooms. And many late summer-flowering clematis continue to turn heads well into autumn, including ‘Bill MacKenzie’, whose bell-shaped yellow flowers last until November. Clematis need something to grip on to, so fix training wires, mesh or pieces of trellis to walls, fences or other structures. Dig a hole 18in from the fence, ensuring that it’s twice the diameter of the clematis container and deep enough so that the top of the rootball sits 2in beneath the level of the soil. Planting deeply helps to keep roots cool.
Once the plant is in the ground, untie the stems from their original stake. Push the stake into the ground at an angle close to the rootball, aiming it towards the wall or fence. Attach the top to your chosen supports, and then wind the stems gently around the stake. Hold them in place with twine.