The Colorful Clematis Plant

The first time I saw a clematis was in a photo.  The flowers were so beautiful, but my next thought was, "How do you pronounce it???"  Later I found out that both KLEM-ah-tis and kle-MAT-is are correct, but since KLEM-ah-tis is listed first in the dictionary it is considered "more correct."

Clematis love at least five to six hours of sun every day, and thrive in USDA zones 4 to 9.  If you're adventuresome, you can even try growing them in the warmer zones of ten and eleven.  (Check for your local area on this zone map.)

As with most other plants they like regular watering and feeding.  Watering should be done year round, but they don't like to be too wet, especially in the winter.  And go heavy on the feeding.  It takes a lot of food to produce all those blooms, like these beauties below: 

Being climbers, clematis plants need something to grow on for support.  They grow well on arbors, trellises, expandable lattice, fences, obelisks, on shrubs or up trees.  They even do well as a container plant.  Just be sure it's a large container (at least 18" x 18" x 18") that has room for a support structure for the vine to grow up.  

Can't you just see billows of clematis blooms cascading from a trellis placed in one of these lovely, large containers just outside your door or on your patio...  

Be sure to watch this video of...

The Many Colors of the Clematis Plant

I thought you might also enjoy this cute video of a cat climbing through a huge, white clematis plant. 

Resources:

Clematis in Wedding Arrangements

The Definitive Guide to Gardening (book plus audio)

back to the Plant Directory