Growing up, I knew Clematis as mailbox plants. The gaudy, colorful saucers adorn the post at the end of many driveways.
But, once I did my internship at The Scott Arboretum in 2008, my world of Clematis was blown wide open. I had no idea that there were so many forms and that there were so many great native species as well. Here, they lost their mailbox supports; I found many species and cultivars rambling into shrubs and tree boughs.
My favorite from that summer was Clematis texensis, the scarlet or Texas clematis. I remember the first time I ever saw this central Texas native. It had threaded itself through the glaucous blue foliage of a low hanging Cedrus branch right by the arboretum’s main office. This pastel dyad of blue and red made the Clematis flowers pop. When I see the flowers, I think of pink hot-air-balloons, even if they are turned or upside down. They aren’t the size of the mailbox blooms. No, the urn-shaped blossoms are smaller and more delicate, but I can still see them from 100 feet away. So can Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.
Who needs a mailbox? The boughs of a Cedrus are the perfect trellis for Clematis texensis!
I loved it so that I got a plant from Dan Long at Brushwood Nursery in 2014. For a few years, this member of the buttercup family grew in a container on my patio and did quite well pot-bound in a large terra-cotta planter. My only recommendation if you go this route is to make sure it has a stable trellis.
Can you see the hot air balloon?
Once we moved to our house, I relocated it from pot into firmament on the southside of my vegetable patch. The fleshy roots survived the transplanting just fine. Along the fence I’m building a collection of native and interesting clematis species, and Clematis texensis has started the show by coming into bloom this last part of April.
Clematis texensis climbs up the fence surrounding our vegetable patch.
If you don’t have a fence, consider having it grow at the base of an open shrub or tree. You’ll find that it will clamber up through it with the help of leafy tendrils that will curl around anything these appendages can find.
Nice crosses have been made with Clematis texensis to produce ‘Duchess of Albany’ and ‘Gravetye Beauty’. I still prefer the pure species, but all three deserve wider use in gardens. That means on your mailbox or anywhere else you see fit.