Clematis 'Mrs Robert Brydon'

The clematis 'Mrs Robert Brydon' originated around 1935 in the garden of American gardener Elizabeth Prentiss in Cleveland, Ohio, as a spontaneous hybrid of Clematis tubulosa and Clematis virginiana. It was named after the wife of gardener Robert Brydon, who passed the plant on; it first appeared in the magazine Horticulture in 1939. Its numerous flowers, borne in clusters, open white to pale blue and are surrounded by striking creamy-white stamens.

With its non-climbing, trailing to scrambling stems, 'Mrs Robert Brydon' grows slowly at first, then puts on vigorous growth from midsummer onwards, reaching stems up to 300 cm long. From July to October it produces a profusion of flowers at the shoot tips and upper leaf axils. The variety works beautifully as ground cover, for covering old tree stumps, or, trained onto a trellis or support, as a late-flowering feature in the border. It prefers a sunny, sheltered position with the roots in shade and well-drained, evenly moist soil.

'Mrs Robert Brydon' is reliably hardy (zone 5, down to around -28.8 to -23.4 °C) and belongs to pruning group 3: cut the stems back to about 25 cm in March, and the plant will reliably resprout from the old wood or rootstock. After planting, allow one to two years for it to establish and reach its full vigour.