Clematis x viticella Glorious Surprise

Clematis viticella Glorious® Surprise ('Zo24010') offers a long, bicolour, well contrasted yet light and airy summer flowering. This small climbing plant will add great charm to pergolas, trellises, railings, or bushes. Its growth allows it to quickly cover any support provided. This is a perfectly hardy variety, undemanding regarding soil and resistant to diseases.

Belonging to the Ranunculaceae family, this clematis from the viticella group is a cultivar selected by J. van Zoest Beheer B.V. in Boskoop (Netherlands); it is distinguished by semi-double to single flowers depending on the season, 8–10 cm in diameter, with narrow, wavy tepals, a bright pink border and an almost white centre, with a cluster of yellowish stamens. The flowering renews itself from June to September.
Its stems cling using the petioles of the leaves, which are transformed into tendrils. Its annual growth is rapid, with the plant reforming each spring; the year's stems reach 2.50 m to 3 m in length. In a pot, expect around 1.50 m to 2 m. The deciduous foliage is composed of opposite leaves with 3–7, 1.5 to 7 cm leaflets. The solitary flowers show 4 to 6 main tepals, accompanied by a small inner ruff. 
This cultivar belongs to the recent "Glorious" series (alongside ‘Glorious Day’, ‘Glorious Red’, ‘Glorious Cloud’), which shows good resistance to clematis wilt. Their hardiness is excellent, down to −20/−25 °C.

This moderately-sized clematis thrives on a terrace in a pot with a stake or a small structure. But it is also an excellent, robust and trouble-free variety for the garden. Let it climb on wire netting, a trellis, or into a bush (Elder Black Lace, Fargesia nitida Black Pearl, Photinia fraseri Carré Rouge, Weigela Alexandra...). It will go very well with a large shrub rose with single flowers like Rush, Smarty or Nevada.

The botanical species C. viticella is native to southern Europe and western Asia (from Italy to Iran, including Asia Minor and the Caucasus), where it is found in thickets, hedges, and woodland edges; the epithet "viticella" means "little vine", in reference to its climbing habit.