Tube Clematis
Clematis heracleifolia
(KLEM-uh-tiss) (hair-uh-klee-ih-FOH-lee-uh)

This is a quick post before I head off to work to see what the heavy weekend rains did to the gardens that I take of. We returned from our trip to Martha’s Vineyard and I must say that there were a lot of things of botanical interest on the island. I visited the Polly Hill Arboretum in West Tisbury and it was a wonderful collection of some of my favorites and some nice oddballs. Since it is a lot warmer there in the winter there were a few things that I didn’t recognize. It would be better to tour this garden during Azalea time, as there were some very interesting variations of Rhododendron and Azalea. We also visited a beautiful private garden. Everything, especially annuals seem to grow very well.

I took this picture at the Arboretum. Tube Clematis is a shrubby type, which is different than the traditional vines. You can see the flower is a shaped a little differently. It had a lovely appearance of a kind of sprawly sub-shrub. It is hardy to Zone 5 (USDA rating) and can reseed itself. There appears to be several cultivars available.