Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Clematis 'Duchess of Edinburgh'

Time, since our move to our present house in 1986 has softened the competition between us. In that beginning Rosemary had her garden and I had mine. She had her plants and I had mine. Curiously when I would become interested in plants she was interested in she would drop them like weeds. She was the one who introduced me to the wonders of roses and yet the roses of our garden are my roses.

There is one group of plants that I have never shown too much interest and this is the clematis a plant that is usually followed by the epithet “the Queen of Vines”. They are part of the ranunculus or buttercup family, which manifest that sterling quality of vigor. In plain language they are weeds!

Duchess of Edinburgh

I have never understood how an RRSP works. The idea of borrowing money that one can then in a future make money on it is alien to me. Just as alien is the complex structure on when to prune a clematis. Fortunately my Rosemary understands both concepts and I leave it up to her to invest and prune.

To me most clematis (because this work has a Greek origin there should be a stress on the first syllable just like in that other word the clitoris) are like all those so called wonderful roses with the names of celebrities that often have no scent. They are all show but do not deliver.

There are at least two exceptions to this no-scent rule and unfortunately in our years in our present garden both Clematis armandii (beautiful white flowers full of sweet scent) and Clematis Montana (light pink with the scent of sugar) have succumbed – the former to a rough winter the latter to very old age.

But there is one clematis in our garden that I absolutely love because of the complexity of its white and light-green colour and the shape of its flower. This is Clematis ‘Duchess of Edinburgh’. It was hybridized by George Jackman in 1874 and it was named after Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia (later Duchess of Edinburgh and Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha), 1853-1920.

The scans you see here are of the flower before it opens.

Art Bergmann & Clematis montana

Before my beloved (the scent reminded me of the sugar coating of Chiclets) Clematis montana died I managed to photograph two friends - one, Art Bergmann with the plant behind and the other Katheryn Petersen with some flowers on her wonderful chest.

The violet/blue clematis seen here is Clematis 'Bee Balm' one of Rosemary's favourites. It is full of blooms right now. In a recent past in overwhelmed and kiled one of my Rosa 'Constance Spry'.

Katheryn Petersen & Clematis montana

 
 

Clematis 'Bee Balm'