Languinosa Group clematis

After a century of cultivation, this remains one of the best-known varieties of clematis. It is a distinctive colour - a soft eye-catching pink. The flowers have a darker band down each petal, and the colouring makes them a good choice to team with climbing roses over an arch or on a wall. This variety does not flower continuously all summer, but has two bursts of bloom, first in late spring and early summer, and again in late summer - early autumn. To prune, remove any dead or weak stems in late winter or early spring and cut remaining stems back to the highest pair of strong-growing buds. To encourage blooms to cover the whole plant, train the stems so that they are evenly spaced on their support. As new growth appears in mid-spring, train this to fill any gaps. The Royal Horticultural Society has given it its Award of Garden Merit (AGM).