Clematis fusca

Clematis fusca is a wild species of clematis with a very wide natural range across East Asia – from China, Japan and Korea to Mongolia and eastern Siberia. Its 3 to 4 cm flowers appear from the leaf axils of the current year's shoots: narrow sepals drawn together into an urn shape, in various shades of purple, covered on the outside with a fine brownish down that partly obscures the underlying colour – hence the species name 'fusca', Latin for dark or brownish. Inside, the sepals show a lighter, creamy to greenish tone, with pale yellow stamens.

At around 200 cm in height, 'fusca' stays pleasantly compact, making it well suited to smaller trellises, obelisks and large containers on a patio or balcony. From June to September it produces a steady succession of new flowers at the shoot tips, bringing its distinctive, nodding blooms into the garden all summer long – a sunny to partly shaded spot with a cool root run suits this wild species best.

'fusca' is reliably hardy (zone 6, down to about -23 °C) and belongs to pruning group 3: since flowers form on the current year's growth, cut the plant back hard to around 25 cm in March. It will then readily resprout in spring and develop its characteristic, velvety-haired flowers again by late summer.