Having seen this display in the Trial Fields at RHs Wisley, my immediate intent was to produce a useful guide to the plants on show, and document the shape, colour and profusion of the cultivars on trial. I’ve been down this route before with the viticellas – and sweet peas, delphiniums and very likely more. I dutifully photographed the name tags, close-ups of each flower, a more general view and then the whole tower (to show vigour and degree of floriferousnous).
I’ve had to leave out all the useful stuff on account of the brilliance of the overhead sunshine which made capturing the colour – as it should be – almost impossible, and ditto any fine detail in the petals, which were bleached out almost completely. A dull day is needed, or a very early start – say 5am – to make any useful catalogue of the many cultivars being grown and so, without exception, I’ve left off the names and presented, well, just pretty pictures!
The trials will be going on for a few weeks yet and I do plan on returning in better conditions for photography, as there were many fine clematis on show – and others that were not so fine. A true catalogue of their varying flower forms and tints would be useful, but this was not the time to create it!
Sorry folks!
The Teddington Gardener 