This new dwarf clematis really is the genuine article. My golden clematis (
Clematis tangutica) was probably the most vigorous plant in the garden, reaching the top of an old 6m apple tree in three years. Supposedly dwarf forms of golden clematis introduced in recent years, such as ‘Helios’, have been hugely disappointing: shorter, maybe, but not dwarf.
Clematis Little Lemons ('Zo14100') reaches about 50cm in a garden border, sometimes less in a pot or a hanging basket.
In mid-May the first flowers appear and blooming continues through the summer. Flowers may be sparse in high summer, if so cut back a little then feed with liquid tomato food and flowering will pick up.
The nodding flowers with their reflexed sepal tips are 2-3cm across, in the usual
C. tangutica style, but open a burnished yellow soon maturing to a fresh pale yellow rather than a deeper orange-yellow shade of many forms of
C. tangutica. The flowers are popular with bees and are followed by sterile silvery seed heads.
Little Lemons was developed in The Netherlands by clematis breeder Wim Snoeijer at J van Zoest Clematis as part of a continuing breeding programme and was selected in 2014.
You can order
Clematis Little Lemons ('Zo14100') from
RHS Plants and from
Taylors Clematis and from
Thompson & Morgan.
*Please note, the contents of this blog reflect the views of its author, which are not necessarily those of the RHS
