Autumn-flowering clematis offer more subtle pleasures and a much longer period of interest than the big, bright, brief show put on by their summer counterparts. Richard Hodson, of specialist grower Hawthornes Nursery, champions these late-season lovelies and recommends the best ones to try
WORDS LOUISE CURLEY PHOTOGRAPHS KAT WEATHERILL
While plant trends come and go, clematis enjoy enduring popularity among gardeners. They’re a member of the Ranunculaceae or buttercup family, and it’s the extravagant large blooms of those that flower in late spring and early summer that garner much of the attention. However, with 386 different species from a range of climates and habitats across the world, this is a wonderfully diverse group of plants, which includes a number that are at their best from late summer into autumn.
While clematis that bloom in spring tend to produce a spectacular but short-lived burst of colour, it’s those that bloom later in the year that provide the most long-lasting display. They can be vigorous, growing up to four metres, but others are compact and restrained in their habit, making them suitable for smaller spaces and even container growing. While they tend to be less showy than the larger flowered types, these late-flowering clematis have an understated beauty, whether it’s dainty bell-shaped blooms with recurved tips; open flowers with slender, crumpled petals (botanically the petals of clematis are known as ‘tepals’); or masses of starry blooms. Several, such as C. flammula and C. x triternata ‘Rubromarginata’ are fragrant, and some, particularly varieties of C. tangutica, such as ‘Bill Mackenzie’, have the added bonus of silvery, wispy seedheads that persist well into winter.
Richard Hodson and his wife, Irene, started Hawthornes Nursery, which specialises in late-flowering clematis, 35 years ago on reclaimed marshland on the west coast of Lancashire. “At our previous garden clematis didn’t grow very well for us, but when we moved here and started to develop the garden we discovered they thrived, so we grew more and more of them,” says Richard. “The more clematis I grew, the more I learnt about them. For instance, some clematis species – C. viorna and C. texensis – come from places such as Texas, Florida and Tennessee, places I would never have expected clematis to grow in the wild.
“The early-flowering clematis look a bit artificial to my eyes, whereas those that bloom later have a more natural appearance, which I find more attractive,
