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Add interest to your planting schemes, and grow better plants.
Plant Notebook provides the details that will help you choose new plants for your garden and site them where they will thrive. Our special features bring you plants for your garden that we know you will love
More bestgardening.com Plant Features
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Plant of the Moment
Plants that are looking good in our gardens, plants we should grow more, or simply appreciate more!
Clematis x durandii
Autumn is not the time we think of clematis in the garden, but the deep indigo of Clematis x durandii is the ultimate in luxurious late summer colour. A much tougher plant than it appears, this scrambling, rather than climbing, clematis appears in spring comes into flower and then is scarcely without a bloom all season in my Canterbury garden.
A hybrid between herbaceous Clematis integrifolia and C. ‘Jackmanii’, C. x durandii flowers on new season’s wood, pushing up new stems in spring and early summer, so it is ideal for covering dying spring-flowering bulb foliage. A perfect foil for roses, shrubs all it asks is a well drained soil and a cool, moist root run – so plant on the shady side of companion plants for best results. Without the clinging tendrils of climbing clematis, C. x durandii needs a host to clamber on, so provide a low shrub or frame to get the best results from this special plant.
Sources Specialist clematis nurseries and good garden centres and nurseries
Cultivation Good, moist but well-drained soils for best results. Plant 10-15cm (4-6in) below soil level, and dieback need not be fatal (see our Clematis pages for more). Avoid wet, waterlogged soils but keep the root run cool with a large stone or shade planting, say a hosta. Cut back old growth in late winter or very early spring, to about 10-15cm (4-6in), as new growth will come from this woody base as well as from new shoots.
Propagation Cuttings, taken in early summer and kept moist but not wet (see our Clematis pages for more). |
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