Clematis ‘Etoile Violette’ and ‘Polish Spirit’
* Common name: Clematis ‘Etoile Violette’ and ‘Polish Spirit’
Clematis ‘Etoile Violette’ in bloom, trained up George’s arbor.
* Botanical name: Clematis viticella
* What it is: Clematis is a popular and showy perennial twining vine, but its main Achilles’ heel is a wilt disease that can make the whole plant look like it was attacked with a blow torch shortly after blooming.
The varieties ‘Etoile Violette’ and ‘Polish Spirit’ are two particularly attractive purple-blooming members of the viticella family of this woody vine. That family is one of the most resistant to the wilt disease.
Both of these varieties are at their best in June, when the climbing plants are half to two-thirds covered from the midsection up in three- to four-inch wide purple blooms. They’re not quite as big-flowered and full as some other hybrid clematis varieties you might see, but the worthy tradeoff is fewer disease troubles. Flowers usually last through August.
* Size: With support, ‘Etoile Violette’ and ‘Polish Spirit’ will twine eight to 10 feet. Space four to five feet apart if you’re planting more than one on a large trellis.
* Where to use: Grow up trellises along a patio for privacy and color both. These are also nice growing up an obelisk as a garden centerpiece, up a trellis between house windows, or on lattices along a property line. Plant in full sun to part shade for best flowering, and ideally, with roots in a cool spot or shaded by nearby plants or groundcovers.
* Care: Scatter a balanced, organic granular fertilizer around the base of vines in March. Cut vines to about eight inches in late March or early April to just above live buds (or any time after the leaves turn brown in fall). Viticella clematis varieties flower only on new wood that grows in the current season.
Keep damp the first season, then water needed only in very dry spells. Maintain two- to three-inch mulch layer over the roots.
* Great partners: Underplant with pink-blooming short perennials or groundcovers, such as astilbe, creeping phlox, dianthus, penstemon, or gaura. Or plant pink annuals to color-coordinate, such as petunias, begonias, vinca, geraniums, or Sunpatiens. Clematis also interplant nicely with climbing roses.