What's not to like?

Choose the right spot and cultivar of Clematis montana and you will be rewarded with long stems of pink or white clusters of flowers, often scented with vanilla or chocolate. Charles Quest-Ritson visits the National Collection

- Charles Quest-Ritson

CLEMATIS is one of the most useful and widely grown garden plants. Botanists tell us that there are about 300 Clematis species—some say the true number is nearer to 400—and that's before you start counting the many ornamental hybrids that add so much beauty and versatility to our gardens. The RHS Plant Finder divides the genus into 15 distinct groups and lists more than 800 species and hybrids, which is a measure not only of their diversity, but also of their popularity.

Clematis is a member of the Ranuncu-laceae family, which means that the plants have no petals because the four sepals do duty for them. The Montana Group is one of the best known—some garden-lovers consider it the most graceful and floriferous of all. All its members descend from a Chinese or Himalayan species called Clematis montana, which was discovered by Francis Buchanan in Nepal in 1802 and first flowered in London after his return to England in 1805. The typical C. montana that grows in the wild is variable in height, usually reaching 20ft, although there are several immensely vigorous forms, capable of clambering up trees and over rocks to 40ft. They cannot match the summer-flowering clematis for flower-size, nor the Viticella cultivars for elegance and diversity of colour, but the Montanas flower in clusters all along last year’s growths, so that their stems are usually wreathed in pink and white garlands many feet long. They are rampant ‘good do-ers’—most large gardens have at least one or two kinds, apparently thriving on neglect.

The flowers of