There might be fireworks in the skies this week, but unless your past self was very clever and planted all manner of jaunty things for autumn earlier in the year (I’m thinking of Cuphea cyanea, salvia, a Nerine or three, or some Hylotelephiums), chances are your garden is winding down.
In previous years I’ve succumbed to trays of pansies to cheer up tubs in November and December, but I’m moving away from short-lived plug plants – all that plastic, greenhouse heat and transport miles – and looking towards perennial solutions. For years I’ve contemplated planting autumn and winter-flowering clematis, and writing about them for you is probably the best accountability I could achieve.
Clematis plants are proper doers in the garden: they scramble and climb and bloom, demanding little more than a savage haircut every few years and a carefully considered planting spot. You can find a clematis blooming in every month of the year, and I know of gardeners who have filled their garden with dozens of them to make the most of that fact. We inherited an established C. Montana ‘Pink Perfection’ with the garden and it grew on me like it did our fence: vigorously. When I did finally prune it to the ground, because it was blooming more on the neighbour’s fence than ours and they gave it an unsympathetic haircut, it returned like a particularly dutiful golden retriever. I’m enormously fond of it.
Montana blooms in spring and sometimes gives a second flush in September, but there are varieties that add sparkle to greyer days. Start with Clematis cirrhosa, which is evergreen. Its dark green foliage acts as a backdrop to showier summer flowers, then it puts on its own show from November onwards. C. cirrhosa ‘Freckles’ is deep pink with suitably freckle-like markings; ‘Wisley Cream’ is an immaculate off-white and ‘Jingle Bells’ has large, pale cream flowers on pink stems. Clematis urophylla ‘Winter Beauty’ is the one I’ve been thinking of; with bell-like white flowers and flared petals, it is also evergreen and scented, giving you reason to get into the garden on the darkest days. Clematis vitalba, meanwhile, you may know as Old Man’s Beard – it comes into its own as its flowers transform into fluffy tendrils in the colder months, perfect for catching frost or bringing inside as part of an arrangement.
Clematis may grow fast and well, once established, but only in the right place: some prefer their roots to be in the shade, even if they are sun-lovers. Check the label and, if in doubt, ask the nursery who sold it to you. They are pot-friendly, but get the biggest container you can find. Finally, make sure it has something to grow up: a wall, fence, doorway or porch. Trellises can be easily outgrown; I prefer to string up wire with turnbuckle hooks, which are adjustable, unobtrusive and cheap.
