Among the plants we brought with us when we moved here, were several clematis. Unfortunately, most haven’t done well, in fact of the 10 or so varieties we brought only 3 have thrived and prospered.

Vyvyan Pennell who I’ve mentioned previously, a deep purple one that scrambles through the hedge by the road, whose name escapes me, and Bill MacKenzie.

He grows through the hedge between the drive and the vegetable garden and is a bit of a thug. He’s vigorous has lovely, waxy, yellow flowers, and has a long flowering season. Even after the flowers are gone the silver seed heads are quite spectacular set against a blue autumn sky.

He’s definitely a favourite and so I’ve been trying to get new plants from him. He self seeds quite freely, but I’ve had limited success at transplanting these young plants, in fact I think I’ve only had 2 successes. One I planted under one of the old apple trees so it can climb up through the branches, the other I gave to my sister. I think it’s the trauma caused to the roots by this process that is the problem.

I really would like him climbing up the front of the house or over the pergola by the pond, but so far most of my attempts have failed. So last Autumn when we were cutting him back, I decided to peg down 4 of his stems into little pots buried in the ground. In this way I’m hoping the stems will put down roots into the pots to make new little plants and eventually I will be able to cut them free from the main plant and relocate them with minimum root disturbance. Watch this space.

billmackenzie