This year it's Clematis

Every year I seem to focus on adding one plant species or genus to the garden: groundcover thymes one year, mints another, bamboo for a couple of years. It never happens due to careful planning, usually starting with an idea for a single plant in winter or early spring -- then I get obsessive and buy several varieties.

I never intend for this to happen, but it invariably does. I wondered what this year's plant focus would be, and I found out about a month ago: Clematis vines.

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I'm really not sure why I haven't been growing Clematis for years. Actually, I should say purposefully growing it, as I have the one Sweet Autumn Clematis that grew as a volunteer several years ago. There are lots of houses in the neighborhood with one of these vines growing on mailbox posts -- why don't I have any in my garden? I certainly love flowering vines.

I started looking into Clematis vines late this winter, and by the time March rolled around I was determined to add a couple to my garden.

Although I did find a few bargains in the greenhouses of local nurseries (more on that later), I did the majority of my investigation at Brushwood Nursery, where they have a large selection of perennial vines of all kinds.

My order arrived this week!

As you already know, I love getting plants delivered to me. Even when I know exactly what the box will contain, it's always exciting opening those cardboard flaps!

The advantage of ordering plants from distant specialty nurseries is variety -- there's such a wider selection compared to local nurseries (usually). The disadvantage is size -- you typically get smaller plants than you'd find locally (but not always). These plants were on the small side, but certainly healthy-looking.

I wasn't expecting to see a bloom either!

Beautiful!

For my own records (since this blog is partially a diary of what I do in the garden, and I'm terrible with keeping records of what plants I get) here are the varieties I received:

As mentioned, I did find a couple of bargains locally too:

The jackmanii is so common, but I have no problem with growing common plants when they really work in the garden, and this one should be spectacular!

The 'Niobe' may be another common one, but I couldn't resist the price. Those $19.95 tags were wrong -- these were $9.95 each! The plants appear to be a year older than the ones from Brushwood too -- so big!

So I've got five Clematis to plant now -- wait, six! I forgot that I also ordered a Sweet Summer Love from a local nursery, but it won't be in stock for a couple more weeks.

I'll be getting these into the ground soon. I can't wait!


Are you growing any Clematis? What varieties do you like?

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