Clematis that doesn’t climb

Press, 24 January 1986, Page 14

Clematis that doesn’t climb

GARDENER’S DIARY

Derrick Rooney

Clematis is usually regarded by gardeners as a race of climbers, but several of the most interesting (and useful because they flower in summer rather than spring or autumn) members of the

genus are shrubby or herbaceous and don’t have the hang of climbing.

this plant appreciates a good belt of manure (horse or sheep, It isn’t fussy) in spring. The ideal place to grow it is at the foot of a large rock garden, which is where I grew my plant for several years until it got too stroppy and had to be removed to a spare space down the garden near a plum tree. Now I don’t know what is happening to it because the combination of a wet summer and a huge crop has caused the tree, or most of jt, to collapse. Until the plums have ripened, thus enabling me to effect such repairs as are possible by pruning away the shattered branches, I won’t know whether the clematis has survived.

Clematis heracleifoiia is most likely the best known of this group. Usually described as herbaceous, it’s actually almost a shrub and dies back in winter to a stubby framework of low, woody shoots studded with old hard leaf-stalks which hold on long after the leaves have fallen. It doesn’t colour noticeably in autumn, and that’s a mark against it; and the purplish blue flowers are small. All is forgiven, however, in return for the scent, which is at once pungent and sweet. Some writers have likened it to hyacinths, but I’m not convinced.

Clematis heracleifoiia needs plenty of sun if it is to flower well — in shade it grows into huge leafy clumps among which the flowers hide modestly; in sun the flowers are more conspicuous. As it can grow a metre high and as much wide

I rather suspect that it has.

Meantime, its vacant space beside the rock garden has been filled alarmingly quickly by a hosta, which is enjoying the opportunity of sideways expansion. It, too, will have

to be moved on soon.

The closely related Clematis stans suffers the odium of many writers but, happily, it seems to be unaware of this in my garden and in the garden of the friend who supplied me with seed.

Christopher Uoyd in his book on clematis described C. stans as “a floppy Im to 1.3 m herbaceous species carrying flowers of a spitefully non-contributory, offwhite sklmmed-milk colouring.” That’s a nicelyturned phrase but either he has a poor form or we are not writing about the. same thing, because C. stans in New Zealand has a shrubby framework and little tubular, hyacinthblueflowers which are scented. It is not a showy plant but an interesting one, really a shrub and not herbaceous at all. With time it develops a rugged woody framework 60cm or more high, which is exposed in winter. This makes it easy to place in the garden.

shoots may be more than Im long and have no climbing instinct at all, but if staked and tied up they look ungainly, like a bunch of knobbly knees. I solved the problem by planting it among earlyflowering things, over which it can flop at will in summer. The white, crossshaped flowers appear in midsummer in large flatfish clusters 30cm across. A form called Purpurea has rich purple tints in its foliage and shoots in spring, but fades to green as the season progresses. I find Clematis integrifolia, a European herbaceous species which has been in cultivation for hundreds of years, a tiresome plant At its best it is the best of this group. Its flowers are bell-shaped but with prettily reflexed sepals of respectable size and a good hyacinth blue. But for me it grows miserably, sending up only two or three shoots each season. As each shoot produces only two or three flowers

On the other hand can hardly be said to Clematis recta is a prob- make a show. Perhaps lem plant. Completely it would do better in heavherbaceous with no woody er son. AH these clematis, framework, it dies right incidentally, are reasonback in winter to a ably easily propagated by ground-level cluster of fat, seed or by cuttings of red buds. The annual young shoots in spring.