CLEMATIS 'GILLIAN BLADES'

I added the white flowered Clematis 'Gillian Blades' to my garden yesterday.  Although I like the coloured clematis flowers, I do tend to favour the whites.  Many gardeners will be aware just how wonderful and invaluable white flowers are at dusk when the light is low.  Coloured flowers fade to invisibility and white flowers remain alone, able to reflect whatever light remains.  Just look at the exquisite crinkled detail on the petals.  'Gillian Blades' flowers late May to June and also can flower in August. It is compact, of medium height (up to 2.5 metres - 8ft).  It requires alkaline to neutral soil but in my case will have to adapt to my slightly acid soil or go the way of the roses!  It can tolerate north or south facing aspects and sheltered or exposed positions, which is a good thing in my rather windy garden.  Wish it luck!  I shall be planting it on the south-facing fence.

Clematis 'Gillian Blades' - pretty as a picture

I know that clematis like their heads in the sun and feet in the shade and that is something that I can easily accommodate.  I also grow the white, double-flowered clematis 'Arctic Queen' which I relocated last year.  She wasn't so happy in several positions in my garden but seems to like being in a large terracotta pot, within the recess of my home's front door, facing south-west, and I have put wood chips and flat stones on the surface of the pot to ward off direct sun on the roots.  It seems happy enough, so far.  As Gillian Blades flowers May to June, it belongs to the Pruning Group 2, as does Arctic Queen.  This means that you should prune in late winter or early spring (February), and following the first flowers in summer, to avoid baldness at the base.  The following is a Royal Horticultural Society link, explaining in full how to prune clematis group 2. 

Clematis 'Gillian Blades'

Funnily enough, clematis belong to the Ranunculaceae family (same as buttercups). 



Recently I have been getting rid of many of the roses in my back garden and the other day I cut down 3 climbing roses (Compassion, Golden Showers, and Aloha).  It's a ruthless and sad task but the latter two were straggly and weak on the north-facing fence with barely a flower last year; and the beautiful flowering Compassion, facing south, simply didn't look how I wanted it to look.  It was very strong and looked wrong.  I had never expected that the north-facing fence would look better then the south-facing fence but it does.  The Jasminum officinale, Wild Eve rose, New Dawn rose, and the honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum Scentsation) look terrific as they clamber and twine together, looking lovely even before they flower.  That is the look I now want to achieve on my south-facing fence.  Wish me luck!