Clematis Franziska Marie

Here is the baby picture of the Clematis Franziska Marie I planted this morning.



Raymond Evison named this cultivar after his youngest daughter. I apologize for not knowing who Raymond Evison is, but as I understand he is known for growing clematis. I bought this one from Wayside Nursery.

I am also sorry to admit to killing a couple clematis before finally having one that survived. My Clematis Jackmanii has survived two winters now and promises to bloom more than it did last year. So I am emboldened enough to try again. Hopefully, I will be able to do this beauty justice as well.

Here is what Franziska Marie is supposed to look like when it reaches maturity in, what, a couple of years.



This clematis is purported to be a very prolific bloomer. I love the beautiful lavender-blue, double flowers that should liven up a bare section of chain link fence near my compost pile.

Everything I have read about it says it blooms from early summer until well into autumn. My Clematis Jackmanii is supposed to bloom during that time as well but it didn’t this year for some reason that I still don’t understand. I have read that a clematis will bloom more fully each year so maybe this is just what is happening to this one. I am remaining patient, what else can I do, right?

As my experience in gardening grows I hope to be able to coax both of these two beautiful clematis into showing their fullest potential.

The Jackmanii, with its single, deep purple flowers that, in my humble opinion, epitomizes the beauty that this well known vine has to offer, remains my favorite.

The Franziska Marie promises to be another favorite. I read that it blooms on both old and new wood resulting in twice the buds of most other clematis. This sounds like my kind of flowering vine.

Both of these vines are in different pruning groups but that is not intimidating at all. They both are trimmed back to a pair of healthy buds or shoots each Spring, late February to early March. Franziska Marie does not get cut back as severely as the Jackmanii, which gets cut back to 6”-10” above the ground, and they both produce blooms on new wood.

Franziska Marie grows to only 5 foot tall whereas Jackmanii can grow up to 20’ long.

Clematis like to have their feet cool and everything else hot so our hot weather here in Utah is perfect for the top part and not so good for the feet. I plan on using some groundcover, possibly the white Aster Snowdrift depending on how its white flowers looks with the lavender-blue flowers. In the meantime, I copied what I did with Jackmanii and have placed some stones around the bottom.

The one thing that really scares me is that these vines are susceptible to wilt. If I can set a reminder to myself to use a systemic fungicide when I water for protection I might be able to overcome this problem.

I had already prepared the hole with composted steer manure and granulated 10-10-10 so hopefully the roots will be happy over this winter and bless us with some of its beautiful double flowers.

Wish us both luck.