Happiness is a vine that takes root and grows within the heart, never outside it. ~Khalil Gibran
I couldn’t resist the play on words here…vying for happiness. My clematis that gets afternoon sun is just starting to bloom. Every spring I watch it climb 8 feet or higher. We have to drape it over the outside light as it far exceeds the trellis it uses for support.
Then as spring progresses, it starts to put out little curvy stems with a tear drop bud that covers the top two-thirds of the vine. Each of those stems fatten as summer approaches and then overnight they just start bursting out of their buds. I can pretty much set my seasonal calendar by the blooming of this plant.
The flowers open slowly showing a greenish white color with purple edges. Eventually when they open completely, the flowers stretch back and become somewhat curvy and sport a deeper purple color. This plant is called Clematis Chacewater. I have only seen it for sale in one place in the US, Brushwood Nursery.
They say it is named for the town in Cornwall, England where the breeder’s nursery is located. It is a viticella hybrid so it’s easy to grow and has loads of flowers. I do not prune it. Winter usually kills it back to the ground where it starts growing again each early spring.
Clematis do need the right conditions in which to grow. I find most of mine liked part shade best. This one takes morning shade and afternoon sun although its roots do remain somewhat shaded all day. It is hardy from zones 4-11 and I find it putting out flowers into the fall. It is deer resistant although the rabbits had to be kept away when I first planted it. They eat everything when you first plant it.
I wanted to cut some of the vine with flowers just opening and with buds and place it in a vase that it can spill over.
I had some philodendron stems I had cut to root for a neighbor. So I put the clematis vines in with them to get a bit more contrast.
With this week’s lovely vase, I am linking in to the wonderful meme, In A Vase On Monday, at Rambling in the Garden.
All the pictures shared in this post were taken with my Nikon Coolpix or iPhone camera, and manipulated on my iPhone using the apps, Pixlr and Prisma. You can follow my progress with #the100dayproject in my Instagram and Facebook feed.
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