second summer we were here, a General Sikorska, which gets large dark blue 3 1'2 inch flowers and a Ville de Lyon which has a bit smaller pink flowers. The General Sikorska grew much faster and more prolific, and had far more blossoms than the Ville de Lyon, altho Ville's pink blossoms were gorgeous! I thought it might have been because the General got a little more sun because of the trees nearby seemed to create more shade for Ville de Lyon, although they are both located in the same bed, up against the house on the south east side. The Ville de Lyon only lived for 2 years and last summer it did not make an appearance at all. What a disappointment!
I went to PJ's Plantation (a local greenhouse) looking for a replacement and ended up with a Jackmanii. I 'ran into' a little old lady there who raved about her Ville de Lyon! It seems she has had it for many years and it outperformed all the rest. But the greenhouse personal told me that Jackmanii is known to be hardy and grow well, so I thought that seemed like my best bet. It had a couple of dark purple blossoms on it at the time, but nothing very impressive. I planted Jackmanii in the same location as the Ville de Lyon had been in, up against the house facing south east.
General Sikorska on left, Jackmanii on right... early June 2010
This spring I was pleasantly surprised to see the Jackmanii burst from the ground first and grow like gangbusters up the trellis! It beat the General Sikorska coming out of the ground by 3 or 4 days and it is about 20 inches taller already than the top of the trellis! But the General does have a lot more shoots and many more leaves on it now and I think it will also get a lot more blossoms in the end.
I am a sucker for a little plant that needs some TLC and this week I fell for that again. I found a small Alba Luxuriana clematis which is supposed to get 3 inch white flowers (eventually). It looks like it will do well once it gets established. It has a lot of tiny healthy looking leaves and a couple of new shoots on it. I planted it in the space between the General and Jack. I'm looking forward to the day, a few years from now, when all three plants will grow together in a profusion of leaves and stems with blue, white and purple blossoms intertwined! :)
The bad news for my tall "Jack-in-a beanstalk" clematis is that I read on Alba's tag that the first summer you should cut back the clematis to the second set of strong shoots. So I am heading outside now with the scissors to do just that! The race goes to the strong, not to the swift Jackamanii!
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