29 March 2010

Armand's Clematis


A sure sign of spring in the south of France is Clematis Armandii. It's a very happy plant in this climate and I'm all for happy plants. It originated in central and southern China and was introduced to Europe by Ernest Wilson and named in honour of the French missionary, Père Armand David (1826-1900).

This Clematis Armandii is in the famous Hanbury Gardens at La Mortola, just over the border in Italy. I have one in my garden too but it's taken off and has climbed way, way up into a tree, instead of gently trailing along a fence as it was supposed to do. No matter. I admire it from a distance.

12 comments:

  1. Lovely to see and delicious to smell. If memory serves, you identified this flowering vine for me a couple weeks ago when I posted a photo of the one against the red brick of my neighbor's house.

    Happy Spring!

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  2. Chuck, you are right. I'd forgotten that. I photographed this in Italy a week ago so our climates must be so similar.

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  3. Beautiful flower....when will I see some here? Egads!

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  4. This is a beautiful vine. They are slow to grow here in Ohio but once established are just filled with colorful blooms.

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  5. Very nice! I love the white blossoms!
    Here many people have purple ones...
    Barbara from Germany

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  6. What a beautiful shot - my son and his wife has just landed in Nice airport. Good to see what they will see.

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  7. Long live to clematis, Jilly....even if it climb up instead of trailing along. Do you know what I would give to open my new painted WOODEN !! shutters seeing this ?

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  8. Clematis blooms are my favorite: delicate and aromatic!

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  9. Yessss!
    Not an easy shot technically and you did brilliantly!

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  10. Beautiful photograph, the way the light catches the flower is just lovely.

    Clematis armandii is one of my favourite plants!

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