may – We are out in the garden …

The late spring Clematis are beginning to flower beautifully. Some scramble with enormous vigour whilst others are more moderate in their growth. All are lovely however and exploit the vertical dimension of the garden to great effect. Striking combinations of these delicate flowers with complementary foliage and flowers makes them really shine. Here are my six for this week.

One: Clematis montana ‘Odorata’

This delightful pink clematis has a a strong vanilla scent that fills the air in the garden behind the house. Located close to one of our garden seats it is a lovely place to drink our morning coffee in the sun.

Two: Clematis montana ‘Tetrarose’

This clematis grows close to the house on a trellis in the patio garden. It produces masses of simple pink flowers in late spring.

Three: Clematis montana

This plant is extremely vigorous and needs a lot of maintenance to stop it overwhelming other trees. It grows amongst a white lilac and a red leaved Prunus and it is this combination with the mass of pink flowers of the Clematis montana that creates a wonderful show at this time of year.

Four: Clematis ‘Daniel Daronda’

One of the first blue clematis of the year. We have two of these plants and they do not seem to grow with any great vigour. However, they are very reliable returning without fail each year.

Five: Clematis ‘Nelly Moser’

‘Nelly Moser’ seems to be very happy growing on a north facing wall with very little direct sun. Its large flowers, some 6-8 inches across, brighten up the shaded patio area behind the kitchen. It also has attractive seed heads in the autumn that have a golden sheen.

Six: Clematis ‘Guernsey Cream’

This large flowered early clematis grows in part-shade and is really striking against the dark ivy leaves that cover the trellis. It seems to be very reliable returning without fail each year.

The Six on Saturday meme is hosted by The Propagator. Click on the link to see what other plant lovers are chatting about.

May is a time for blue and white in the garden. The tall bluebell coloured spikes of Camassia leichtlinii can be relied upon to make a stunning show every year and have established themselves throughout the old rose garden.

A native of North America, these hardy perennials stand majestically some 3 feet high on strong sturdy stems. They grow well in damp, heavy, fertile ground in full sun or partial shade (damp ground seems to be a reoccurring theme in our garden (see Snake’s Head Fritillary) but this is not a challenge if you choose your plants wisely).

Companion planting

Camassia are able to establish themselves well in rough grassland as long as the moisture levels are right. In the last couple of years we have started to plant bulbs amongst an area of long grass and white cow parsley (Anthriscus syvestris) and I am delighted to see that they are establishing well. The blue and white should look wonderful together when they bulk up.

Camassia establishing well amongst the Cow Parsley

It is important to remember that the leaves should not be cut or strimmed until the bulbs die back naturally (about July) or the bulbs will not be able to build up effectively to over winter and multiply. The large bulbs (daffodil sized) do seem to move quite easily if you can plant them immediately.. Do not let them dry out.

In the herbaceous borders we have found Camassia works well when planted with tulips in contrasting colours surrounded and anchored to the ground with low growing forget-me-nots. Strictly speaking you could argue that Camassia and tulips need different growing conditions but they seem perfectly happy together.

Tulips Merlot, Marilyn and Pretty Woman amongst a sea of camassia — Tulips ‘Merlot’, ‘Marilyn’ and ‘Pretty Woman’ amongst a sea of Camassia

Cutting and conditioning

We have seen a trend towards a blue theme for wedding flowers this year ( Blues – this years’ wedding flower trend? ) and these flowers are certainly invaluable at this time of year. The complementary white ‘alba’ variety is also available.

The flower heads of Camassia open steadily from the bottom so you need to cut them early to get a long high quality flower stem. However, it is possible to pinch off the bottom-most flowers as they go over and use the remaining stem.

Conditioning is straight forward, simply cut and immediately place in cool water to condition for at least a couple of hours or overnight. Camassia are strongly geotropic so keep them upright and tied or they will soon bend upwards at the tips and look rather odd. Not a flower to be used horizontally in wide table arrangements.

One word of warning as we have found that the flowers do seem to stain other materials. We have an interesting blue pattern on a painted wall now!

Pest and diseases

From our experience they are not really attacked by slugs or other pests and remain relatively disease free. Good quality blooms are therefore easy to achieve if picked at the right time.

Hardiness: Fully hardy bulbous perennial

Origin: North America (Camassia quamash is reported by Anna Pavord to have been an important food plant for native Americans of the north west who dried the bulbs over their fires and stored them to eat in the winter ¹)

Family: Asparagaceae ²

Flowering time: May

Further reading

¹ “Bulb” by Anna Pavord (ISBN 978-1-84533-415-4)

² Royal Horticultural Society

Tag: may

Six on Saturday – May Clematis

Camassia – the blue spires of May