Clematis ochotensis

This clematis has no common English name. It comes from Northeast Asia, around the Sea of Okhotsk. Clematis were used to be called forest vines and the clematis ochotensis also grows on the forest floor in its natural range, often climbing round bushes. The variety at Mustila comes from Kamchatka and it climbs 3–4 metres up the trunk of a very old Manchurian Walnut (Juglans mandshurica), flowering well.

The leaves look a fatter version of the Siberian Clematis (C. sibirica) because the individual leaflets are broader. The tepals of the flowers are also slightly broader and this makes the flowers rounder than those of the Siberian Clematis. The main flowering is in spring, but purple blooms continue to appear throughout the summer. The plant flowers on old wood. This means that if, for example, a mole has bitten off the stem, there will be no flowers the following season. In nursery conditions the first flowers may, however, appear at a height of 10 cms – in other words, as soon as wood has begun to form. The colour of the flowers varies from fairly light to dark purple, depending on the plant’s provenance.