Clematis, also known as travellers joy and woodbine, brings a lovely picture to the mind.

These lovely plants can be had in flower nearly every month of the year, in a range of colours from white to pink, blue to purple and shades in between, you can even get a yellow variety.

They can be grown on fences, trellises, sheds and even be allowed to trail over the ground.

Clematis come in three groups, early flowering, normally species, early large flowered and late large flowered. They are pruned according to their group, earlies are pruned after flowering to allow new growth to ripen for the following years flowers, early large are pruned before the new growth starts as they flower on the current years growth, late large flowered are pruned the same as early large flowered both groups in early spring.

In the early flowerers you can get such beauties as, Montana Rubens which is pale pink and smells of vanilla, Montana which is white, Alpina whgich has lantern shaped blue flowers and fluffy silver seedheads in summer. Montanas are very vigorous and will happily cover a large shed or tree, make sure the tree is sound before planting though.

In the second group there are one like, Proteus which is a double pale purple, Vyvyan Pennel which is a double purple and Beauty of Worcester which is semi double mid purple, and Nelly Moser which is pale pink with a darker pink stripe.

In the third group there is, Jackmanii which is a rich purple, Seiboldii which is white with a fluffy purple centre, and Orientalis which has yellow lantern shaped flowers.

All clematis should be planted with their roots in the shade and their heads in the sun. these are all very pretty plants and can rival the most vigorous climber but are of course much nicer and more garden friendly.