Clematis The Bride - Clématite hybride à grandes fleurs The Bride

The clematis ‘The Bride’ is an old English heritage variety with very soft ivory-white flowers, highlighted by cream-yellow stamens. Initially somewhat cupped, the flowers flatten as they open and retain a more rounded than starry shape. Of medium size, they stand out from the more spectacular large-flowered white clematis. Its moderate growth is well suited to small gardens and container cultivation on a patio. It flowers mainly in early summer, then may produce new flowers on new shoots in late summer.

This woody, deciduous climbing plant belongs to the Ranunculaceae family. Its foliage falls in autumn, but the brown stems remain alive in winter and bear some of the following year's flowers. 'The Bride' is classified among the early large-flowered clematis, a group that combines the old Patens and Fortunei groups. It was created in England by the Jackman nurseries, but the exact date is unknown. This heritage variety had disappeared from English and European catalogues in the early 1960s. Considered lost, it was rediscovered in New Zealand by nurseryman Alister Keay, who brought it back to England and enabled its reintroduction into cultivation.
Its stems reach 2 to 2.50 m and attach to supports by the petioles of their leaves, which are capable of twisting. These curl around thin twigs, wires, or the crossbars of a trellis. The leaves, usually composed of three cordate leaflets, are medium to dark green and have a fairly firm texture. The flowers appear from June to August, first on the previous year's stems, then on new shoots. They measure 7.5 to 10 cm in diameter and have six to eight broad, rounded, slightly overlapping sepals. The corolla is hollow at first opening before opening further. The ivory-white sepals surround a cluster of stamens with cream filaments and pale yellow anthers. Light pruning after the first flowering encourages the formation of new floriferous shoots. This clematis is hardy down to –29 °C.

On a trellis leaning against an east- or west-facing wall, the white flowering of clematis ‘The Bride’ is more visible among dark colours. It can also climb into the rose ‘Zéphirine Drouhin’, with its almost thornless stems and deep pink flowers. Nearby, you can plant the Hydrangea serrata ‘Blue Bird’ with its large flat white heads with a blue or pink centre. The heuchera ‘Obsidian’, with its almost black foliage, or the Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’, with its silver leaves, will be decorative at the base of the other plants. In a container, a 1.50 m obelisk allows its stems to be spread without crowding them.