Clematis atragene Spiky

Clematis Spiky (‘Zospi’) is a spring-flowering climbing variety with unusual flowers in bluish-purple tones. Its nodding bells are bristling with long, slender, slightly twisted floral parts. This tousled structure explains its name. Very hardy, undemanding in terms of pruning and with manageable vigour, it can be grown on a medium-sized support or in the light branches of a shrub.

This variety belongs to the Ranunculaceae family and the Atragene group, which brings together woody clematis with early flowering. 'Zospi’ is its official cultivar name; SPIKY is its trade name. This Dutch introduction was registered in 2009. It is also listed under the name Clematis macropetala ‘Spiky’, but current horticultural classification places it more cautiously within the Atragene group. Its foliage is deciduous: the leaves appear in spring and then fall in autumn, on brown, woody stems that remain in place during winter. These climb using the leaf stalks (petioles), which twine around wires, twigs or the young shoots of a shrub. They cannot attach directly to a wall or fence. The plant reaches 2.50 to 3m in height with a spread of 1.50 to 2m. Its medium green leaves are compound, formed of several toothed leaflets, creating a fairly light canopy. In April and May, the nodding flower buds open into semi-double flowers 6 to 8cm in diameter. The four outer sepals are long, narrow and tipped with a slender point; other, shorter and more numerous parts occupy the centre of the flower. Their bluish-purple colour pales towards the base and can take on mauve to greyish hues in bright light. The flowers remain pendulous, but their sepals gradually spread, accentuating their bristly appearance. They are followed by decorative, silvery, feathery seed heads. A few new flowers may appear in September on new growth, but this second flowering is much less prolific than the spring one. Like other clematis in the Atragene group, Spiky flowers mainly on the previous year's stems. Systematic pruning in winter will compromise the following year's flowering. It is hardy down to –20 °C and is more sensitive to stagnant moisture than to cold.

Clematis Spiky can be grown on a trellis, a small arch or a wire mesh, alone or mixed with the similar variety Octopus, which has purplish-pink flowers. It can also weave its way through a rambling rose ‘Dentelle de Malines’, with white-pink flowers, blooming from May. On a neighbouring support, Clematis alpina ‘Willy’ will mingle its mauve-pink bells with its bluish-grey-purple flowers. At its base, you can plant a few clumps of Hosta ‘Halcyon’ with blue-grey foliage and Ajuga reptans ‘Burgundy Glow’, which forms a small groundcover variegated with cream, pink and purple, dotted with blue-violet spikes in spring. These two perennials appreciate moist soil and a position without scorching sun.