Dependable For Late Season

It can grow more than 30 feet in a single season, climb and entwine on everything within its reach.  The UPS, FedEx and USPS people no longer drop shipments off on our patio since they are not sure they can go under the thick overhanging vine covering the walkway.  My fault!  I draped the young vine over the walkway without thinking of the resulting consequences.

I was describing our Sweet Autumn Clematis (Clematis terniflora).  It covers two sides of our patio, providing us with a green screen from summer to late fall.  Around late summer and early fall it is blanketed with small white, lightly fragrant flowers, lots of them.  The fragrance is much more pronounced when the temperature is on the cool side.  The flowers are so abundant that my neighbor thought I had covered part of our patio roof with a white cloth.  We sat outside enjoying the flowers and a little wine during the last full moon.  It was quite a show: a blanket of fragrant white flowers under the moonlight.  It was a wonderful way to unwind after a long day at work.

More pluses: It doesn’t require much care, just feed it and give it a good pruning once a year in spring.  The bees, butterflies and moths love it.   It also provides a hiding place for birds.  When there is not much else blooming late in the season, this clematis brings life as well as providing food.

There is a walkway to the patio, bottom left, that was reduced down to a four foot high gap.  This happened in just one season!