The beauty of dwarf clematis for the smaller garden

They are known for climbing trellises, scrambling through shrubs and being great companions for roses – yet there are some clematis which will suit smaller settings.

This year award-winning Guernsey clematis breeder Raymond Evison Clematis is formally launching three new varieties at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, all of which will grow to between three to four feet tall, so are ideal for containers in a small space such as an urban garden.

C. Ithemba, produces white blooms with a delicate pink bar, C. ‘Eliza’ is a large flowered variety maturing from  pale blue to pure white and C. ‘Queens Nurse’ bears deep rosy pink flowers. Now available from the website, they will be will also be available from good garden centres from mid-April.

Grow them in pots

Even if you just have room for one large pot in a city garden, a smaller clematis could be the answer.

“They’re perfect for a small urban garden, because they’re only going to get to about four or five feet tall. Containers are perfect. You could have them against the back wall of your house or plant them in the garden as they don’t take up much horizonal space, it’s all vertical,” says Andy Jeanes, international sales and marketing director at Guernsey Clematis.

The beauty of the smaller varieties is that they produce flowers at the base of the plant all the way up, so you don’t end up with woody stems at the bottom and all the flowers just at the top, yet the flowers are equally as large as their taller big-bloomed relatives which burst into flower in spring and summer.

Other breeders offer unusual types such as the Dutch-bred Clematis tangutica ‘Little Lemons’,  a bushy plant which looks completely different to its larger cousins and is ideal for patios, rockeries, hanging baskets or larger windowboxes.

Planting advice

“For our clematis, we recommend a minimum-size container to be 18in/450cm cubed and the container needs to have drainage holes,” says Jeanes.

“Clematis hate to be wet over winter, so you’ll need plenty of drainage, good free-draining compost and underplant them with some bedding or trailing plants to go over the outside of the container.

“Water them moderately – never overwater. As soon as you see the first flower buds being produced, start feeding them with a high potash feed, something like a tomato feed, and continue to feed them until the first flowers are just about to open, then stop feeding.

“That will stress the plant even further, which will produce more blooms.”

Show them off in hanging baskets

In his book, Clematis For Small Spaces, Raymond Evison recommends compact varieties such as C ‘Bijou’ ‘Evipo030’, a soft violet blue which grows 30-60cm, will suit small to medium-sized containers and also window boxes and hanging baskets.

They will send out stems which will trail from the baskets and he recommends using other plants with grey foliage and mauve flowers to complement.

“They look fantastic in hanging baskets,” Jeanes agrees. “Instead of growing up, they cascade down.”

Provide support

Those growing vertically in a container will need some sort of support such as canes or a decorative frame.

“They are semi self-clinging, so they need some structure. They’ll hold on to a cane and twirl around it, no problem,” says Jeanes.

You may have to tie them in to a thick post, or attach thinner material like string for them to find their way up, he adds.

Mix them up in containers

You can tidy them up once they’ve finished flowering, deadheading them and treating like a rose, to promote further flowering.

They are best kept with their roots shaded, so in containers and baskets plant other plants around them to create a micro-climate, he advises.

“Mix planting in containers with foliage plants such as thyme, saxifraga or any similar ground cover or trailing plants, or bedding of any mix.”

If we get a hot summer, plants will go into summer dormancy when the temperature rises to above 27C, he observes.

“They’ll go a bit yellow on the foliage and look like they have a drought problem, but actually they’ve gone into dormancy. One of the biggest killers of clematis in the summer is people thinking that they’re too dry. So don’t overwater them.”

The only way to tell if the plant needs watering is to put your finger into the soil to check moisture levels, he says.

When the temperature starts to fall in late August and September, the clematis start growing again and you may well get a second flush of flowers.