- Author: Jenni Dodini
Those of you who know me know that I have a thing about birthdays, especially mine.
For those of you who don't, here is a little background.
Having worked in a union environment for most of my career, I developed an appreciation for the rule about being able to take one's birthday holiday anywhere in the period of 30 days before to 30 days after the actual date. Sometime around my 40th birthday, I decided that one should celebrate one's birthday for 30 days before and 30 days after. This is a tradition that I encourage others to embrace as well.
Anyway, I must get to the point. (Eventually I always do.)
For my birthday this year, Toni took me for a surprise outing to the Sunset Gardens in Sonoma. I know that there have been several blogs about the gardens, but this IS different. Aside from the oohs and aahhs which others have described, I was distressed that there was no nursery for my birthday shopping pleasure. I was lured in by an unknown in the clematis garden. I should have had a clue as I was IN the clematis garden. Eventually, we found our way to the head groundskeeper who quickly identified the pictures below as Rooguchi clematis. She said that there is also a white colored variety which blooms later in the summer.
I went to The Sunset Western Garden Book and looked up Clematis, and there is a good deal of information on the 3 pages about this plant group. Nothing about this one though. So, off to the Internet. This particular variety is native to Japan, and like the rest of the "family", is a deciduous evergreen vine. It likes full sun to partial shade and zones 5-11. Unlike the rest of the "family", if left to grow on its own, it will grow along the ground and weave itself into other ground level plants. If one wants it to be on a trellis, it must be assisted up the trellis. If trellised, it can be pruned back to the current year's wood during the winter. This plant is also suitable to grow in containers. On a very positive note, hummingbirds and bees are attracted to these beautiful bell shaped flowers.
The other thing about birthdays, it is a good excuse to buy oneself a present. I guess that you can figure out what I will buy for myself this year!