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Features
Medium sized (10cm diameter), 4 to 6 sepalled flowers which are deep purple/blue with golden centres. Textured, ovate, mid green leaves. After flowering it has decorative ’swirling’ seedheads.
What to use it for
Climbing up walls, trellises, arches, sheds, other plants etc.
How to look after it
The stems of clematis won’t twine around supports, so they need to be gently tied onto the support provided. The support can be, for example, horticultural wire nailed across a wall, a trellis or obelisk. Hard pruning is required each winter/early spring (see pruning information below).
How to prune it
Flowers are borne on new growth, so they need to be cut back hard regularly. Pruning should be done in late winter or early spring when the buds start to show signs of growth. Cut each stem back to 15-30cm above ground level, so each stem has a pair of strong buds left on it. Completely remove any stems which have become diseased or damaged (eg by frost) – new ones should develop from ground level.
How to propagate it
Softwood leaf-bud cuttings can be taken from spring to midsummer. Take approximately 5cm long internodal cuttings from the current season’s growth, choosing cuttings with strong bud growth in the leaf axils. Keep the cutting humid while rooting takes place (you can cut the leaflets in half to reduce moisture loss).
Clematis x durandii can also be propagated by layering from late winter to spring (the layers should root by the following summer). Alternatively, it can be apical-wedge grafted in late winter onto rootstock of Clematis vitalba. The grafted plant should be planted so the scion’s buds are level with the compost surface. The rootstock will sustain the plant until the scion produces its own roots and is self-supporting (known as a nurse graft).
Common problems
Young shoots may be targeted by aphids or caterpillars, and earwigs are partial to the petals.
Slime flux disease and clematis wilt can be a problem.
Other useful information
Has achieved the RHS Award of Garden Merit.
The name ‘clematis’ comes from the Greek for ‘vine’.
This clematis is a cross between Clematis x jackmanii and Clematis integrifolia. It is named after Théophile Alexis Durand, a Belgian botanist (1855 to 1912).
