'Venosa Violacea'
Dwarf Clematis
"It is forbidden to live in a town which has no garden or greenery."
-Jerusalem Talmud,
Kiddushin 4:12; 66d
Kiddushin 4:12; 66d
'Venosa Violacea' is an heirloom clematis introduced by Victor & Marie Lemoine of France in 1883. It is a recipient of the Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticulatural Society.
It's small one & a half inch blossoms are in full sway by mid-July & sometimes start in June. It has an extended blossoming time that can last until September.
The bicolor flowers have a wide white stripe on each petal flanked by deep violet-purple edges. The anthers are purple. The blossoms are not of a uniform type, as they can have six petals or four petals. Our vine produces predominantly four-petalled flowers.
Also on ours the petals often remain rolled backwards lengthwise, rather like cigarette papers, but other of the blooms will unfold to a flat more normal-looking bloom. I've not seen anotehr 'Venosa Violacea' that bloomed in this manner so it's a bit of a mutant, & I selected it out of a great batch as having the oddest blooms.
All clematises of the viticella group have very small blooms & 'Venosa Violacea' are cute little blossoms as well. After being overwhelmed by the gigantic blooms of so many other types of clematis, the tininess of the flowers within the Vitacella group are miniature charmers of extreme contrast.
Though originating in southern Europe, from Italy to Turkey, they are very winter hardy down to zone 4, & Puget Sound (zone 8) is intensely to their liking.
The roots like to be in shade but the rest of the vine wants lots of sun, & will climb until it finds it. Vining ten to eighteen feet, its leaves & blooms are small enough that it will not block the sun from any shrub or small tree it is permitted to climb through.
Ours is planted near the dripline of a 'Loder's White' rhododendron, & long after the giant white blooms of the rhody are gone, the little purple & white blossoms of 'Venosa Violacea' add new color throughout the shrub, & can continue from there into the branches of a hornbeam tree.
It could alternatively be grown as a creeping, flowering groundcover. It should be hard-pruned late winter or early spring (February/March) to within a few inches of the ground to make room for new shoots, as it blooms on first-year growth & the previous year's growth will be dried out & dead.