I know, I know. If you’ve been following along with the Daily Botanical this spring and summer, you’ll find that it is fast becoming The Year of the Clematis around here.

Blame Barry, a neighbour and new friend who has more clematis (clemati? clematises?) growing in his backyard than your average botanical garden. And Barry’s choices are anything but average. He has rather good taste, don’t you think?

I am yet to actually grow a clematis, but I am definitely getting a good education in them should I acquire more growing space someday.

According the Barry, both ‘Cassis’ and ‘Vienetta’ were bred for the potted plant market. His are currently growing together in a large container and one or both were rescued gift plants that someone had thrown out. And here I was stigmatizing clematis as rather bougie (bourgeoisie) plants when it turns out you can just pick them up off the curb if you keep your eyes peeled on garbage day!