I don’t recall clematis featuring in my parents’ garden when I was growing up. The hedgerows along the country lanes were festooned with wild Clematis vitalba (old man’s beard), but not a single cultivated vine graced our yard. That is a real shame because they would have been incredibly happy there.
It wasn’t until I had my own garden in London back in the 1980s that I truly fell in love with them. I grew plenty of clematis in that long, thin plot—including C. ‘Elizabeth’, C. armandii, ‘Nelly Moser’, ‘Niobe’, and C. jackmanii. Despite the 30-odd years that have passed since we left that house, I can recall each vibrant bloom clearly. Clematis is memorable, visually stunning, and absolutely deserves a place in every single garden.
- ☀️ The Golden Rule: “Warm tops, cool roots.” They love full sun on their leaves but require shaded, cool, and moist soil over their roots.
- 🧗♂️ Support Needed: They climb by wrapping their leaf stems, meaning they need thin supports (like twine, wire, or thin trellis) less than 1/2″ in diameter.
- ✂️ Pruning: Don’t stress the exact pruning groups. Leave old growth until mid-spring, then cut away anything that is dead and failing to leaf out.
- ❄️ Hardiness: Incredibly hardy perennials, with most varieties easily surviving temperatures down to -30°F.
How to Plant and Care for Clematis
I suspect that what restrains many people from growing clematis is the assumption that they absolutely must have a large brick wall or expensive fence to climb. This simply isn’t true. We use them almost exclusively within our garden borders, training them up simple DIY wigwams made of wooden bean poles. This adds stunning vertical height and 3D structure to a flat flower border.
Bare Root vs. Potted Plants
When shopping, you will encounter bare-root plants (often sold in bags or boxes) and potted nursery plants. Bare-root flowers are usually stressed during shelving and can be much more difficult to transplant successfully. It typically requires three full years for a bare-root clematis to establish and produce full blossoms.
A potted plant will cost slightly more, but it offers a significantly higher chance of transplant success and immediate gratification. If you want to jumpstart your garden’s vertical color, I highly recommend starting with a container-grown plant that is at least a year or two old.
Planting and Soil Requirements
Clematis want damp, well-drained soil that is neutral to slightly alkaline. If your land is highly acidic, sweeten it with a little wood ash. Dig a deep hole, working in plenty of rich compost and a granular organic fertilizer.
Be very gentle when transferring the plant to its new home; the roots and emerging crown are easily broken. Position the plant slightly deeper than it was growing in the nursery pot so that the first pair of leaves is just under the soil surface. Mulch heavily around the base to keep the roots cool, and water deeply every week during the first season.
8 Perfect Clematis Varieties for Every Garden Spot
Whether you have a massive pergola or just a small patio pot, there is a clematis designed perfectly for your space. Here are 8 of my all-time favorites and where to plant them:
1. To Cover a Fence Panel: ‘Romantika’
Features wonderfully rich, deep-purple flowers that measure nearly 6 inches across. The petals are elegantly spaced on blooms that are produced profusely in late summer.
2. Up Into a Tree: C. Montana (‘Rubens’)
This is the absolute heftiest of all the clematis family. It is so vigorous it is capable of covering a cathedral! The soft pink flowers of the ‘Rubens’ variety are a particular spring treat as they cascade down from tree branches.
3. Scrambling Through a Shrub: ‘Purpurea Plena Elegans’
One of my all-time favorites. It produces fully double rosettes of purplish-crimson flowers in late summer. It looks incredible when trained to run through an established spring-blooming shrub to extend the season of interest.
4. For Shady Areas: ‘Nelly Moser’
Known as the “pajama-striped” clematis, it features pale-lavender flowers in May and June with a wide central stripe of bright pink. The blooms fade quickly in full, scorching sun, making it the perfect candidate to plant against a shady north-facing wall.
5. On a Garden Obelisk: ‘Princess Diana’
This is a wonderfully elegant clematis that produces striking, starry, tulip-shaped trumpets of vibrant pink flowers in late summer and early autumn. It behaves perfectly when trained up a structured metal obelisk.
6. Over an Arch or Pergola: C. Tangutica
The yellow, waxy, bell-shaped flowers carried on this vigorous scrambler are absolutely perfect for pergolas in late summer. The flowers are followed by fascinating, silky seedheads that look beautiful well into the winter.
7. To Cover a Large Wall: ‘Perle d’Azur’
If you have ever seen the large, curved brick wall in the garden at Sissinghurst Castle, you have seen ‘Perle d’Azur’ in its full glory. Plant several of these light-blue beauties side-by-side to cover a wide, boring expanse of brick or siding.
8. In a Patio Pot: ‘Fujimusume’
Don’t have a large yard? No problem. This is a compact “patio” summer clematis that produces a perfect, striking blue flower. It only grows to around 3 feet (1m) tall and is incredibly easy to train over a small tripod of bamboo canes in a container.
Final Thoughts
Along with its vigorous climbing qualities, the clematis is valued because of its sheer abundance of showy blossoms. Whether you want tubular bells, massive wide-open disks, or delicate starry trumpets, there is a variety that fits your aesthetic perfectly.
Because different varieties bloom at different times, planting two or three different types in your yard will provide a consistent, breathtaking vertical display of color from early spring all the way through the first autumn frost. Don’t let your fences and walls stay bare—plant a clematis!
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