Thursday, July 26, 2012

A Nice Surprise

One of my favorite native flowers is Fremont's clematis, but when I first got a plant, I ended up planting it at church, and not at home.  Since figuring out how much I like it, I have found they are hard to find, and difficult to grow from seeds.  The flower bed it's in is surrounded by cement, and gets very little water.  I have tried planting its seeds here without success.  Last year, our local arboretum got some more, after not having them for a few years.  The ones I got are still small, and I was even wondering if they really are Fremont's clematis, because the leaves don't look quite the same to me.

This spring, I found some at Finke Garden's and Nursery that were nice sized, along with a nice sized price tag.  The man, who I think is one of the owners told me he grew them from the plants out front, and it takes awhile for them to get to that size.  Well, I splurged, knowing how hard it is to find these.  The plant at church has long been finished blooming for the season, so I was not expecting this one to bloom this year.   I was a little loud with my excitement this evening, just before a downpour of rain, but I managed to get a few photos taken, and wanted to put a couple in a post.  I may even go put a link on Gail's Wildflower Wednesday post, even though I already did one.

These plants stay in a short, bushy clump.


This may be a plant that looks better in person, but I think this is a sweet little bloom.  I hope my other ones get big enough to bloom next year.



I am thankful we ended up with half an inch of rain in our gauge between last night's tiny bit, and this evening's sudden arrival and departure.  There was even some small hail that I wasn't happy about.  Hey, and it is now 74 degrees, and is supposed to get down to 64!  A couple nights ago, it was still 90ish at this time.  I hope the cooler temps bring some relief to the farmers.  We still need more rain, though.

Have a great weekend!   We're going to a family reunion Saturday, a couple hours away.  After I garden in the morning, I need to come in and put together some food to take.  I got our kitchen floor swept and scrubbed today, after a yogurt container fell out and made a mess. 

Oh, and I just went to label this, and found I had done a couple posts on trying to grow it.  The leaves on the photo I had included in the first one are a little different from these, but it could be age of the plant, or growing conditions.  Here's a link to those posts.

13 comments:

  1. Congratulations for being so happy with your plant. I hope you get the rain soon. We now get an average of 10mm as per the TV weatherman's report. But of course our temperature is still higher than yours, we are still the tropics even if it'r raining.

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  2. Sometimes, it's worth it to splurge on a special plant. I'm glad you found the one you were looking for. Hopefully, YOu'll have years of enjoyment out of it.

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  3. I love the special joy we receive from plants at times. I'm glad this one has given you a happy jolt.

    Have a great weekend ~ FlowerLady

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  4. Wow, what a neat find. I love it. You had asked me what zone I am in. I am in zone 4. Thanks for the visit!

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  5. I really like your bush clematis Sue. The blooms are so pretty. May have to try that one. LOL! Glad to hear you got some rain too. Have a great week.

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  6. That is a sweet little bloom--I can see why you would want to include it in Wildflower Wednesday. I'm happy for you! I hope the family reunion is fun!

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  7. That is one sweet bloom. I hope you get tons more. More rain too.

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  8. Sometimes it is worth paying the hefty price, and it looks like it has paid off for you. I have never seen that clematis before - its a keeper!

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  9. I struggle with clematis, all clematis. Oh well..

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  10. What a lovely little flower - I can see one of Cecily Mary Barker's "flower fairies" wearing a hat made from one of those blooms :-)

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  11. Well good for you for persevering with a plant you really wanted. I hope the little guy settles in and gives you years of pleasure. Interesting bloom - very bell-like. Very different from other clematis I've seen.

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  12. The clematis is so cute. I am glad you got rain and am hoping it falls on my part of the world soon. Thank you for joining WW!

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