The Clematises of Squirrelhaven

June is the best month for Clematis here at Squirrelhaven. The Early Large Flowered Hybrids (Type II Clematis) start the month off continuing their show from May, while the Late Large Flowered Hybrids and small flowered hybrids (all Type III) begin their show. We'll take the tour starting at the bed nearest the street, where my newest Clematis, a Raymond Evison hybrid, 'Evisix' (Petit Faucon) is set off quite nicely by Cotinus 'Ancot' (Golden Spirit).It is an Integrefolia hybrid, which means it doesn't twine, but tends to scramble a bit. It will eventually be growing through the Smokebush.

At the top of the driveway is one of my favorite Clematises, 'Viola,' a Late Large Flowering hybrid (Type III).It is hard to capture the beauty of this flower, as the petals have such a velvety texture and the color is such a dark purple. I have it climbing the Magnolia rather than on a trellis or obelisk.

Around the back, by the patio is the best performing Clematis at Squirrelhaven, the small flowering Type III 'Betty Corning.'According to most sources, 'Betty Corning' starts blooming in July, but it has started blooming around the beginning of June this year and last year. (I planted it in the fall of 2007.) It is the longest blooming of the Clematises here, from June 8 to August 30 last year. It has small but abundant blooms and, occasionally, when the weather is just right, I can detect a faint scent. 'Betty' is such an easy and undemanding Clematis. As shown above (blooming with a pink Aquilegia vulgaris), it's growing against a chimney in partial shade at the top of a slope. Two small trellises and a length of chickenwire support it. It doesn't get as much moisture at it probably wants, but it puts on a good show regardless.

Growing near it is my darkest blue Clematis, 'Rhapsody,' which sources can't agree on whether it is a Type II or a Type III large flowered hybrid.Unlike 'Betty Corning,' 'Rhapsody' is suffering from its location at the bottom of the slope next to the chimney. I had thought it would be more moist there and a better location, but clearly this plant needs special coddling, as it is suffering from wilt again this year.

In the raised bed against the east wall are two Type II Clematises. 'Vyvyan Pennell' was rated highly in the Chicago Botanic Garden trials about 10 years ago, so I planted it two years ago. Thus far, I'm not impressed with its performance.Sure, it has lovely blue-lilac double flowers, but only three this year. Last year there was no rebloom in the fall. If there is none this fall either, 'Vyvyan' will be removed and stuffed into a less prominant location.

Blooming early, longer, in more shade and much more profusely is its companion in the raised bed, 'Natascha.' I didn't research this Clematis and plan its purchase. This was an impulse buy at the Boy Scouts plant sale two years ago. This year, 'Natascha' started blooming on May 23, and the petals fell from the last bloom yesterday. 'Natascha' gets to stay.

Another of my newer Clematises will hopefully cover a trellis screen at the front of the woodland garden. This is the Viticella 'Venosa Violacea.'It has larger blooms than most Viticellas.

Growing on an obelisk in shade in the woodland garden is another Evison Clematis, 'Evipo 023' (Cezanne). It is lightly fragrant. By that I mean you have to practically inhale pollen, but there is always a bit of a scent. It looked great for a long time, but the overabundance of rain has resulted in serious slug damage to the blooms, and the recent heat without rain has caused forming buds to shrivel. It generally reblooms in the fall.

The small blue Clematis on the arch is another Evison plant, Clematis 'Evipo 31' (Bonanza). There is a closeup of it further down. It has lots of smaller bluish blooms. This is its second year in the garden. On the opposite side of the arch are two Type III Clematises, the Viticella hybrid 'Madame Julia Correvon'

and the Late Large Flowering hybrid 'Comtesse de Bouchaud.'
They are also fairly new to the garden. Once they mature, I expect them to twine together.

On the way back trellis are two Clematises that got moved out of the prime position in the raised bed. 'Asao,' a Type II Clematis, got moved because it blooms for only a short time in late spring.
I'm starting to rethink my decision, however, as its foliage is chartreuse at bloom time. 'Asao' is the first Clematis to bloom at Squirrelhaven, starting around the middle of May. It is still trying to recover from it's moving experience three years ago. The other Clematis simply outgrew the available space and needed a bigger trellis. This is what I believe is 'Henryi,' which is also a Type II.
He was mismarked as 'Ramona,' which I still don't have and may never get now. 'Henryi' doesn't like growing in shade, throwing out only a few large blooms, but he's doing the job on the trellis of providing screening for my compost area.

Out of the shade and down the long border to an area that has become full sun only this year, is a neat little Clematis, 'Evipo 038' (Crystal Fairy).It is a Type II Clematis, and reblooms well in fall. In my June Bloom Day post, I showed it in its "puffball" stage, when the tepals fall, leaving only the staminoids. I have it on an obelisk, but I hope it will someday branch out into the Calycanthus floridus 'Athens' growing next to it. I think this might be the only Clematis that gets full sun, and it shows its appreciation with lots of blooms.

The last Clematis was another impulse purchase from the Boy Scout sale several years ago, but what a find it is.Clematis 'Silver Moon,' a Type II Clematis with very large flowers, blooms profusely in partial shade. This plant is virtually (and almost literally) smothered in blooms. (See top photo, in bud and in bloom.) I have it growing on a trellis on the northside of the fence. I'm going to have to limb up the Heptacodium miconiodes to provide a better view the Clematis, but not this year, as 'Silver Moon' has started climbing the tree. My only reservation about this plant is that it does not rebloom in fall as it is reported to do.
A few days ago, all my Clematises, save one ('Asao'), were in bloom. It lasted for only a day, so I was able to do a size comparison, using a bloom from 'Betty Corning' as the standard.

'Betty Corning' with 'Evisix' (Petit Faucon)

with 'Viola'

with 'Rhapsody'

with 'Vyvyan Pennell'

with Natascha'

with 'Venosa Violacea'

with 'Evipo 023' (Cezanne)

with 'Evipo 31' (Bonanza)

with 'Mdme. Julia Correvon'

with 'Comtesse de Bouchaud'

with 'Henryi'

with 'Evipo038' (Crystal Fountain)

with 'Silver Moon'

It is often difficult to tell the size of a Clematis bloom from a photograph, so I hope this comparison helps. It also provides a useful color comparison.
Making this post of my Clematises, I realize that I truly don't have that many, and I definitely need some more. With so many great plants now, and new ones being introduced all the time, it's so hard to choose. The extreme heat must have gotten to my brain the other day, when I walked away from a new Clematis with navy blue blooms, 'Cleminov 51' (Saphyra Indigo). Who couldn't use a long-blooming, navy blue Clematis?

GBDW: Green Mustache Update & A Corner Front Garden

The last time Gardening Gone Wild chose to feature front gardens as part of Garden Bloggers' Design Workshop, I confessed to the world that my house had a Green Mustache. After much hard work, we've eliminated the Mustache, raised the level of the bed, and installed a retaining wall. The retaining wall isn't quite finished. After I add more gravel and more topsoil, I'll put on the top layer of recycled concrete. I've decided to reduce my anxiety level when work needs to be done on the house, such as painting the window frames, by designing a catwalk so that my plants will not get stepped on or broken by those focused on the task at hand. The catwalk is paved in gravel to slow down the flow of rainwater to allow the soil to absorb it all, as I learned to do from Marcus de la fleur's Pilot Project. The garden also needs more larger rocks for the top layer.

I think I'm going to install a few raingarden plants in this area, something that can be trampled a bit. The fountain has been installed, but we still have to put the pump in it. I placed it on a thing I found in the back corner of the back garden. I don't know what it is, but it feels like porcelain. We had to have an outlet installed on the front of the house, which was done this week.

I wish I could say I've drawn up a design or planting plan for this garden, but I'm really a "by the seat of my pants" designer. I need to see how things look. I like the Wisteria macrostachys 'Blue Moon,' which I'm training into a standard, in the center.I also like the Hydrangea quercifolia 'Little Honey.' I'd like to add two more of those. It's turned out to be too shady for the Peonies, so they'll have to be moved.

The color scheme is ruby/chartreuse/purple. The plants installed so far are, in addition to the Hydrangea and Wisteria: Aquilegia 'Sunburst Ruby' seedlings, Viola 'Mars,' Heuchera 'Frosted Violet,' and for continuity from the garden across the walk, Phlox pilosa 'Eco Happy Traveler,' which has pink flowers, but they don't clash with the Aquilegia.

I don't know what to plant behind the fountain. There isn't room for a shrub. I'm thinking about moving the fountain towards the center of the garden to allow room for something larger to go on the left end, which is in full sun. The rest of the bed is in partial shade, with only a few hours of direct sunlight in the middle of the day. I'll be putting succulents into the retaining wall, and Callirhoe involucrata to spill over the edge. Beyond that, I have no clue what I'm going to do with it. I'm open to suggestions.

In the immortal words of Rocket J. Squirrel, "And now here's something we hope you'll really like." This is a garden in Barrington that Trudi Temple designed for her daughter's family, who have now moved to the East Coast.

As it is on a corner lot, it actually has two front gardens. I took these photos in May. Note the seating areas, the use of stone, and the interesting mix of conifers. Not your standard "Yew and a lawn" front yard.

There Will Be Mud

This is just a fraction of what was dug up and removed.

Some people are so lucky. When they go to plant something in the garden, they dig a hole and plant it. Others, such as Gail, Pam, or Layanee, are lucky, though they may not realize it. When they go to plant something, they encounter a chunk of limestone or granite. Lucky? you ask. How can that be lucky? Comparatively speaking they are. They could be digging up large chunks of concrete. I suspect the remains of a dairy barn were bulldozed and buried on my property.

A couple of weeks ago, it was a cloudy, cool morning with cloud cover forecasted for several days and then rain. Perfect weather for transplanting a Tricyrtis that wasn't happy and for dividing another one that was outgrowing its space. I thought how nice it would look to move them across the path, to an area that I had just cleared of Lamium maculatum. Here's the before shot. I started digging and heard that horrible thunk that signals a chunk of concrete lying beneath the surface like some horticultural land mine. It wasn't unexpected, as my brother-in-law and I had encountered quite a bit of concrete when he installed a small screen near the composting area, and I've been digging up sizable chunks of concrete for the past 15 years from all over the property. So I started digging. And digging. And digging. I had to keep digging because I realized that to remove the chunk that was where I wanted to put the plants, I had to remove several other chunks that were partially covering it. But to free those chunks, I had to remove even more chunks, and every time I pulled one out, I found three more. Call me Sisyphus.

I had to stop for the day, as it was time for dinner. Then I dug the next day. And the next. I ended up digging concrete by myself for three days, and one day with my Very Indulgent Spouse (VIS) helping me. Along the way, I sawed through major tree roots and moved concrete out front to create a retaining wall. Several recently planted things had to be dug up to get at a particularly large chunk of concrete. I could have entitled this post "There Will Be Blood," as VIS and I both ended up bleeding. (I also got a finger caught between two heavy chunks of concrete. It's still a bit tender.) Here are a couple of representative samples:

Finally, we decided that we needed to quit, as we could easily have dug up most of the back garden. The excavated area is about 10 feet by 4 feet across at the widest and about 3 feet in depth.

I bought topsoil to fill some of the hole. I would have liked to have allowed it time to settle completely, but several plants were sitting out on the ground and needed to be replanted as soon as possible. I'll have to dig them up again, put in more soil, and then replant them.

But at least I got this nifty retaining wall out of it. Did I mention that I have a new Geranium that I was going to plant?