Digging deeperPlant Library

Sweet Summer Love Clematis flowers

(Photo courtesy of NetPS Plant Finder)

Description:

An abundantly-flowering selection that blooms over a long period from mid summer to fall; deep cranberry-purple blooms with butter-cream centers; a great repeat bloomer, perfect for arbors, containers and baskets

Ornamental Features

Sweet Summer Love Clematis is smothered in stunning lightly-scented plum purple star-shaped flowers with creamy white eyes at the ends of the branches from mid summer to early fall. It has green deciduous foliage. The compound leaves do not develop any appreciable fall color.

Landscape Attributes

Sweet Summer Love Clematis is a multi-stemmed deciduous woody vine with a twining and trailing habit of growth. Its average texture blends into the landscape, but can be balanced by one or two finer or coarser trees or shrubs for an effective composition.

This woody vine will require occasional maintenance and upkeep. It is a Type 3 clematis; each spring it should be pruned back to within a few inches of the ground, as it flowers on new wood of the season. It is a good choice for attracting hummingbirds to your yard. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Sweet Summer Love Clematis is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• Hedges/Screening
• General Garden Use
• Container Planting
• Hanging Baskets

Planting & Growing

Sweet Summer Love Clematis will grow to be about 10 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 24 inches. As a climbing vine, it tends to be leggy near the base and should be underplanted with low-growing facer plants. It should be planted near a fence, trellis or other landscape structure where it can be trained to grow upwards on it, or allowed to trail off a retaining wall or slope. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 20 years.

This woody vine should only be grown in full sunlight. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. Consider applying a thick mulch around the root zone in both summer and winter to conserve soil moisture and protect it in exposed locations or colder microclimates. This particular variety is an interspecific hybrid.

Sweet Summer Love Clematis makes a fine choice for the outdoor landscape, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor containers and hanging baskets. Because of its spreading habit of growth, it is ideally suited for use as a 'spiller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the edges where it can spill gracefully over the pot. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when grown in a container, it may not perform exactly as indicated on the tag - this is to be expected. Also note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.