Clematis Terniflora

Heavenly Fragrance and Profuse Fall Blooms.

With a fuller habit and myriad small white flowers, this is a clematis with a difference.

Few Clematis bloom in fall and even fewer are fragrant! Add to this Sweet Autumn Clematis’s bushy-cascading 30-foot vining habit, and you have a distinctive, bounteous treasure for the garden.

Beginning in later summer and lasting into fall, thousands of small, 1-inch white blooms appear on this vine, richly scenting the air. The star-shaped blooms are followed by silver-sheened seedheads that make lovely winter arrangements. Give this eager-to-grow vine a sturdy support, such as a strong fence, wall, or even a low building, and watch it spread.

Clematis is easy to grow in a rich, porous, alkaline soil with plenty of room for the roots to spread. Best performace is when the tops are in full sunlight and the roots are shaded, so apply a generous mulch on 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. Sweet Autumn Clematis is in Group III of the pruning category, which means you should cut back the vine in early spring to just above the base of last year’s stems (about a foot from the ground).

Zones 5-9.