Clematis terniflora

Clematis terniflora is a robust wild species from East Asia, known in English as 'Sweet Autumn Clematis' for its late flowering and sweet fragrance. From August to October it covers itself in countless small, star-shaped flowers with four narrow white petals and cream-coloured stamens, borne in dense clusters and releasing a sweet scent reminiscent of hawthorn.

Growing to around 400 cm, 'terniflora' climbs vigorously and quickly over fences, walls or trellises, and works equally well as a dense ground cover – even in light partial shade. Its abundance of flowers makes it an impressive autumn feature for larger gardens, where it soon forms dense, fragrant carpets of bloom.

'terniflora' is reliably hardy (zone 7, down to around -17.7 °C) and needs little care: since it flowers on the current year's growth, cut it back hard to about 50 cm in March. It will then reshoot vigorously in spring and build up its characteristic mass of flowers again by late summer.