The whimsical clematis with all its meandering stems happily twirling around a hazel obelisk. Deep in the cutting garden, little does she know we’re watching and noting all her growing habits, trialling her flowering, visual composition and resilience to see if she makes it onto our list of brilliant blooms for cutting garden growing.
Take a look inside The Cutting Garden Clematis Trials.
Clematis often have short stems and finding a variety which also makes a good cut-flower poses a curious test. Whilst researching clematis to trial this year in the cutting garden we searched, in particular, for varieties with longer stems and prolific flowering; favouring a large open bloom to weave amongst blousy roses and peonies, as well as more frothy, wild summer companions in a vase.
Once cut, we look for the buds that open well in the vase, so no to lose out on stems are laden with burgeoning buds. Once open, we record resilience in the blooms.
To make it into our cutting garden planting schemes, flowers must stand up to a diverse range of conditions, that can be encountered when they are brought into the home and placed in vases. Varieties that make the cut must last well in different environments from cooler rooms (favoured amongst cut-flowers) to warmer spaces, drier spaces to more humid atmospheres. Keeping a log of the number of days a variety stays looking fresh under various conditions allows us to pick the very best of the best.
So, far this longer-stemmed lovely is scoring well, lasting 7 days under most conditions, and holding its own beautifully when arranged both with big voluptuous blooms and more rustic, untamed flowers.
We’ll be revealing some of this year’s winners from The Cutting Garden Trials soon, so check back to find out which flowers we’ll be introducing to productive planting schemes ready to provide vases of sweet scented pleasure to homes over coming seasons.
Hankering after a cutting garden of your own? Find out more about our soft landscaping and planting design services here.
