An act of beautiful defiance

By naming plants after key figures of Polish history and the Church, the renowned clematis breeder Brother Stefan Franczak helped keep the spirit of his country alive.

- By Ursula Buchan

THIS MAY we commemorated the end of the Second World War in Europe. While I watched the footage of that day, 80 years ago, when ecstatic crowds celebrated the surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allies, I found my thoughts straying back to where the war began: in Poland, on 1 September 1939. The German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on a 200-strong force of the Polish 1st Armoured Brigade stationed on Westerplatte, a peninsula of land in the harbour channel close to the port city of Danzig (present-day Gdańsk). The garrison held out against German air and land forces for an astonishing seven days before surrendering, earning themselves the undying admiration of their countrymen.

I imagine that most gardeners will know the name 'Westerplatte' from the clematis that bears its name, which was introduced from Poland in the 1990s to honour that courageous stand against overwhelming odds - and it is flowering now in many British gardens. It is a handsome, large-flowered type with luminously deep maroon sepals (strictly speaking, tepals) and a reasonably compact habit, which makes it ideal for pairing with pillar roses. Its hardiness and ease of cultivation, as well as its intrinsic qualities, are the reasons why it has survived the vicissitudes of fashion for 30 years.