Rosa 'Leander'- Clematis 'Taiga' 18 May 2021

In our former Kerrisdale corner garden Rosemary and I had the space to put just about any plant we wanted. We had around 30 hydrangeas including many species of them. I grew over 600 hostas and Rosemary and I finally had about 85 roses, most of them being Old Garden Roses. When we moved almost five years ago I was depressed about leaving some of our plants (and all the trees) behind. I was not aware how much harder it hit Rosemary.

We ended up being able to grow about 45 roses in our present Kitsilano garden. Most are in largish clay pots. We came up with the idea, that with space being restricting to our many plants taste, to try putting companion plants with the potted roses and hostas. One of the experiments that seems to have paid off is the use of the clematis as a rose companion.

Rosemary adored all clematis so we have somewhere around 25 different ones.

The combination here is with that other fave of Rosemary’s, the English Rose Rosa ‘Leander’.