Clematis recta was once a staple of the June florist trade—i.e., for weddings. Here's why:


1. It blooms then (duh!).

2. The small starry flowers (like autumn clematis) are in large loose clusters, perfect for bouquet filler.

3. As important, Clematis recta doesn't climb or even cling. And the stems sprout up from the roots afresh each Spring. So the long willowy stems (surprisingly strong too) are easy to cut by the armful. Clematis that climb—which is the norm for this huge family—do so via elongated little tendrils off the ends of the leaves. The tendrils wrap around anything in reach, including nearby leaves and stems of the clematis itself. So it's impossible to cut a climbing clematis flower with any amount of stem on it, let alone cut stems by the armful: You'd have to excise each stem leaf-by-leaf. No bride, not for any money, is worth that amount of tedium.


Clematis recta also looks great just growing in the ground, but—and it's a big but—because the stems aren't self-clinging, they get up to about three feet and, if there's nothing around to lean on or grow through, they flop open gracelessly. So grow Clematis recta through a high peony hoop, or near taller shrubs and perennials that can provide casual elbows and shoulders to prop it up. Or have shorter shrubs in front of it over which it can sprawl with enthusiasm; just make them shade-tolerant, because Clematis recta can be a thick and heavy clump. I'd vote for skimmia or low spreading yews.


So far so good. But there's more: Clematis recta very happily mutated so that the new foliage was, for a time at least, deep purple. By the time the flowers come out, the foliage has faded to green. So it's a vine with two cutting options, then: Cut stems earlier in the Spring for the purple foliage, or let the foliage mature to green and then cut stems for the flowers.
Better still, when you cut the stems—or cut the whole clump down to the ground—it grows another crop! And yes, it's purple (for a time) too. My pair of Clem. recta's are so mature that I think I can stand to experiment: I'll cut them to the ground the moment they begin to waver, to get that second crop of stems. If I'm quick with the clippers in high Summer, could I get yet a third crop? I'd be cutting way before the stems were ever old enough to bloom, but for my money the purple foliage is even more interesting than the lovely flowers.


Especially because my cultivar, Midnight Masquerade, is supposed to be even darker and longer-darker than the generic purple strains. We'll see.


Here it is is a week ago or so, still short and bushy and self-supporting. That's purple smoke-bush behind it, whose foliage stays purple all season long.


So no matter what happens with the Clematis—even if, heaven forbid, I let it go straight through to green, to flowering—I'll always have purple foliage in this bed.