Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Clematis 'Belle of Woking'

On the subject of Clematis, with my 'Blotanical' cohorts in mind...

 Clematis 'Belle of Woking'


This belle proved to be very difficult to grow. Unaware of her reputation as being among the most fussy of clematis vines and not at all vigorous, I planted a specimen at the base of a stucco wall, where competition from other plants and too-dry soil resulted in minimal growth. Even after a move, she languished. 

Thinking that 'Belle' was doomed, I uprooted her one last time, placing the scraggly remains in a large glazed container of black bamboo at the rear of the garden. Here, the rare beauty did, in fact, flourish. 

Trained to climb up alongside the bamboo canes, Belle's stems weave upwards into the sunshine, where they meet up with a rustic grapevine trellis, spanning a 20-foot section along the top of the fence. The trellis supports a lavish thicket of Clematis montana 'Rubens,' along with the delicate stems of C. 'Belle of Woking.'

In the photo, one large bloom takes center stage in a shallow Japanese flower-arranging vessel. Strong winds easily damage the flowers and weak stems, so it seems best to bring the fully double blooms indoors as cut flowers to be enjoyed up-close. The plant's leaves are held out to the side in a way that beautifully frames the bloom.

The 'Belle of Woking' cultivar was developed in England in the late 1880s by George Jackman and Son. It's a deciduous, hardy clematis resulting from a cross between the species C. 'Fortunei' and C. 'Lanuginosa Candida.' Growing about 7 feet tall, plants produce blooms that resemble multipetaled antique roses.  Give 'Belle' loamy, well-drained, yet moisture-retentive soil, good air circulation, and full sun with its roots shaded, and she should thrive.

Flowering season in my area begins around late-May, and lasts several weeks. Happily, flowering often recurs in the fall on new stems. 

10 comments:

  1. Beautiful photo of a beautiful flower. I have Clematis 'Josephine' which is very similar except a bit more pink--and equally fussy. It definitely takes some trial and error to get these plants to thrive. But worth the effort!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very nice post, Alice! Problem with my clematis is a wilt. I suspect there is something wrong with the soil. The flower on your picture is gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
  3. That is really lovely both in form and colour.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That Clematis looks like an artichoke. It has almost more petals than strictly necessary.
    In the 1880s Woking was a rather charming village, sadly it is now bestraddled by Motorways and swamped by too many houses. Nothing much in the way of Belle about the place any more, I'm afraid.

    ReplyDelete
  5. James, perhaps that's why I was drawn to it! An artichoke was one of the first plants in the early days of my California garden. It then flowered, putting on a show against a Moroccan-blue stucco wall as a backdrop. Alice

    ReplyDelete
  6. Alice:
    What a gorgeous bloom! I have not tried many of the climbing members of the genus as I don't have the sun they want but I think I might have to look for this one... I am planning to install a trellis along the garage side of the house.... protected from winds and the most sun of the entire property.... and it seems my ears tingle when I hear the word, 'challenging!' Hope you are enjoying better weather this week! Here? Oh, we actually hit +2.... still lots of snow though!

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a lovely flower.

    What an awful name.

    Like James, I find the mention of Woking irresistable as comment material. I wish I knew of a town in the USA with which to compare it.

    I do like the flower though. Does it come in other colours?

    Esther Montgomery

    ReplyDelete
  8. Esther, the flower color is usually very pale, almost icy. I do not like anything mauve, and loathe lavender roses. Actually, the flowers rarely achieve the size in the photo, and they're generally not offensive to look at. That said, when these massive blooms opened a couple years ago, they were startling. Re: the color, you'll see it described as blue, which of course is not the case. I don't think there are other colors.
    Alice

    ReplyDelete
  9. What a beautiful clematis, and what an achievement to move it and then see it flourish.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Great bloom. When clematis look good, they look really good. Training it into the bamboo is a clever way to get bamboo to bloom.

    ReplyDelete