Large Flowered Garden Hybrids
Clematis macropetala species with large violet semi-double blooms, was her favourite and it was always grown through a wisteria which flowered at the same time. C. montana is the robust, independent, ‘go out and conquer the world’ member of the clan, growing well in any position. I have seen it on walls, potting sheds, thatched cottages, Scots Pine, apple trees, even a ruined church. I grow the white form granditiora , the rose-purple flowered, bronze-leaved rubens and the pearl- pink, sweetly fragrant Elizabeth. All flower in May and some years a small second crop appears rather apologetically in August.
The species grow readily from seed or cuttings, and the most obliging of all is C. tangutica. Some years ago I tried three plants in a limestone rock garden and they are now very much at home rambling about amongst the stones. The flower stems are 12 in. long, each topped with a deep yellow, Chinese lantern-like flower. These are followed in due season by silver seed heads which in their own way equal the beauty of the blooms. Internodal cuttings should be made in August -September and placed in pumice or peat and sand mixture.
The Patens group, which includes my particular favourite Nelly Moser, are just thinned judiciously spacing out the remaining shoots to cover the available space. I do this in September, then all that is needed during March the next year is a little spring clean of dead wood. Some writers of text books recommend doing the work in February but their gardens must be a good deal warmer than mine for all I want to do in February is work in the greenhouse.
I have only grown Hagley Hybrid (Jackmanii) for two years but it is fast becoming a favourite of mine. Its rosy-mauve flowers are borne freely. Countess of Lovelace (Florida) has bluish-violet, double rosette-shaped flowers in early summer. pruning usually reserved for roses. Immediately the buds break in spring I cut the top back to within 6 to 10 in. of ground level. The young tender shoots which break after this cavalier treatment are protected from the depredations of slugs and when long enough tied in to canes so that they are not damaged by strong winds or a bad shot with the push hoe.
The initial training during the first year is very simply to build up a good framework and stop the bad habit most varieties inherit of producing long weak shoots which can collapse overnight with clematis wilt. Pruning after this is regulated according to the group into which the varieties fall. For example. the Lanuginosa group which includes Lady Northcliffe, a hybrid with deep lavender flowers which I grow on a’,north wall, and Mrs Hope which intermingles with Winter Jasmine on a west wall, opening mauve flowers barred with a deeper blue continuously through August into September; are pruned in February each year.
I used to be rather intolerant of Forsythia suspensa until one day, when travelling to Lancaster, I noticed a shrub which had turned an old grey stone wall lemon with a riot of flowers. This, I was assured, was F. suspensa fortunei carefully trained out on the wall for something like 150 sq. ft. A west or south wall would enable the wood to ripen fully.
