Friday Fabulous Flower - Bush Clematis

Since TPP sort of dumped on a Clematis as a potential weed, it is only fair to highlight a pretty nicely behaved Clematis, a bush Clematis.  Yes, it's not a vine, and a quite handsome addition to almost any garden providing some late summer flowering.  First time TPP saw this plant it took awhile to figure out what it was although all the right things were there.  TPP has two such species of Clematis, but this bush Clematis, Clematis heracleifolia.  Shrub or bush, this species does have short sort of woody stems that get clipped back to the ground or nearly so each spring (look for the buds) and grows into a mound of leafy foliage. Seems quite hardy here in zone 5, but maybe not in zone 4. It can expand a bit with time as new shoots appear around the periphery,  our largest cllump was probably 4 feet by 4 feet before Mrs. Phactor got mad at it for being a bit aggressive with neighboring plants.  The foliage is a bit coarse, but it flowers nicely over a period of a few weeks. It handles some shade with no problems and some shade helps because it doesn't like drying out.  Ours has dark blue to purple tubular flowers that get to maybe an inch across, not large but in terminal clusters.  Dead-heading is a good idea to prevent seedlings.  While not popular, and sometimes hard to find in nurseries, it's a nice addition to biggish perennial gardens and border beds. 

Friday Fabulous Flower - A Shrubby Clematis

Not all Clematis are vines; quite a few species are herbaceous perennials with determinate aerial shoots that form upright clumps, sort of semi-woody shrubs. Until you know this, the first time you encounter such a beast, and you have the floral characters of Clematis firmly attached mentally to a viny growth form, it can be very confusing. The Phactor's particular favorite among these is Clematis heracleifolia, whose specific epithet combines the name of the mythological hero Heracles (Hercules) with a suffix meaning leaves, heroically strong leaves? Generally the flowers are at the small end of the scale in this genus at about 1 inch in diameter , but they are a handsome dark blue and borne inclusters in the axils of upper leaves blooming in the late summer and fall. Although a bit coarse the foliage remains a nice dark green even in hot and dry conditions. Looks can be deceiving and in just a couple of years the plant can form a substantial clump of shoots up to 4 feet in diameter, a nice addition to any perennial garden. Last year's aerial shoots should be removed each spring.