You can find a clematis flowering in an English garden most months of the year. This popular garden plant in addition to providing colour in a garden has several other uses for example.
Clematis armandii can be used for screening in areas of full sun and some shade. An evergreen quick-growing clematis with spectacular flowers in May it can be a useful screening plant, especially when grown on a trellis or a garden fence or building.
clematis jackmanii can be planted with existing shrubs such as ceanothus and hypericum Hidcote to grow through the shrub flowering later in the season after the shrub has flowered in the spring or early summer. clematis jackmanii have very light foliage and so will not smother the shrub they are planted with.
Not all clematis are the same clematis montana although having a fantastic show of flowers in the summer can quickly become woody and in the winter once the leaves have dropped look more of a thicket than and attractive plants so regular hard pruning is essential to keep the stem you and maintain the size and flowers.
Traditionally clematis is grown with stones placed around the base of the stem to provide shady and cool conditions around the roots. Clematis have evolved to grow in shady positions often at the base of trees and other plants growing through the tree or shrub to flower in the sunny position at the top of the plant.
To create the ideal conditions for clematis and advice on pruning contact your MyGardenTeam advisor
Recommended Clematis and flowering months
January/February
clematis cirrhosa vars, eg clematis var. purpurascens ‘Freckles’ and ‘Wisley Cream’
March
clematis armandii ‘Enham Star’ and ‘Apple Blossom’
clematis var. purpurascens ‘Freckles’ and ‘Wisley Cream’
April
clematis alpina ‘Frances Rivis’, ‘Constance’, ‘Ruby’ or ‘Pamela Jackman’
clematis macropetala varieties, eg ‘Lagoon’
clematis armandii ‘Enham Star’ and ‘Apple Blossom’
clematis cartmannii ‘Joe’
May
clematis macropetala vars, eg ‘Lagoon’
clematis montana var. wilsonii
clematis montana var. rubens ‘Tetrarose’
June
clematis montana var. wilsonii (early June)
clematis ‘Carnaby’, ‘Miss Bateman’, ‘Guernsey Cream’, ‘Proteus’
July
clematis orientalis ‘Bill MacKenzie’, tangutica vars
clematis uncinata
‘Perle d’Azure’
‘Prince Charles’
Viticellas, eg ‘Madame Julia Correvon’, ‘Étoile Violette’, ‘Royal Velours’
August
clematis orientalis (or tangutica varieties) ‘Bill MacKenzie’
clematis rehderiana
clematis texensis hybrids, eg ‘Gravetye Beauty’
clematis uncinata
clematis x triternata ‘Rubromarginata’
Viticellas, eg ‘Madame Julia Correvon’
September
clematis rehderiana
clematis orientalis ‘Bill MacKenzie’ or tangutica vars
clematis x triternata ‘Rubromarginata’
October
clematis orientalis ‘Bill MacKenzie’, tangutica vars
clematis rehderiana
November
clematis orientalis ‘Bill MacKenzie’ seed heads;
clematis tangutica vars.
December
clematis cirrhosa varieties, eg clematis clematis var. purpurascens ‘Freckles’ and ‘Wisley Cream’
