Clematis ‘Miss Bateman’

A Magnificent Rebloomer.

Winner of the Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticulture Society.

One of the first Clematis to bloom in late spring — and then generously repeating at season’s end! — ‘Miss Bateman’ is a rare delight for garden or container. Compact, very heavy-flowered, and boasting charming silvery seedheads in addition to the huge white blooms, it’s a showpiece of a plant you’ll want for your finest containers and garden spots.

The blooms are a full 6 inches wide, with symmetrically-held white petals and showy red anthers. When they pass, they’re replaced by delightful seedpods that can be cut and dried for indoor arrangements or left on the plant for several additional weeks of beauty. This compact, free-flowering plant is such a marvel in the garden that it was given the Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticulture Society, and has been a mainstay ever since.

Complementing every other color in the garden, ‘Miss Bateman’ is a fine choice for growing through evergreen shrubs as well as gracing containers. Its extra season of bloom keeps you in color at the beginning and end of summer, yet at just 6 to 8 feet high, it’s easy to manage and never gets rangy.

Clematis is easy to grow in a rich, porous, alkaline soil with plenty of room for the roots to spread. Best performance is when the tops are in full sunlight and the roots are shaded, so apply a generous mulch or a shallow-rooted ground cover near the base of the vine. Very reliable performers once established, they take a season or two to get going. ‘Miss Bateman’ is a Group II Clematis for pruning purposes. The first spring after planting, cut the plant back to about a foot from the ground. The second spring, cut it back to about 3½ feet. All subsequent springs, cut back all stems to the first pair of buds.

Zones 4-9.