Clematis ‘First Love’PBR

A Polish cultivar of charming, white, always semi-double flowers opening from June till August. Recommended for growing in domestic gardens and in large pots in balconies and terraces.

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE: Large flowers, 10–15 cm across, with 20–30 slightly wavy white sepals and staminodes and with stamens consisting of yellow anthers on white filaments. Pistils are light yellow. Blooms from mid-June till mid-August both on old and new shoots. Flower buds set from 1 m up from the base. Leaves light green, of smooth margins, simple, heart-shaped, trifoliate, consisting in elliptical, pointy leaflets.

HOW IT GROWS: A climber supporting itself with leaf tendrils. Reaches 2-2.5 m height.

WHERE TO PLANT: Best adapted to sun-lit but not hot sites. Prefers fertile, moderately moist, well-drained soil. Frost hardy (zone 4–9).

HOW TO PLANT AND MAINTAIN: Before planting immerse the plant container in water for 10-30 min. Place the plant in a 60 x 60 x 60 cm hole with a 10-cm layer of pebbles and gravel at the bottom. Cover the roots with a bucket of well-rotten manure or compost and fill up with fertile soil. Place the plant base 5–10 cm deeper than it was before. Plant at least 30 cm from walls or other plants. The base should be in a shade. Cover the ground around the new plants with bark mulch and for winter protection pile it up to 10 cm. Fertilize with Osmocote 5-6 M, water generously in vegetative season. At the end of February or the beginning of March remove dead shoots and prune the live ones moderately – in the first year around 30 cm from the base, above the stronger buds, in the second year – 70 cm from the base and in following seasons – at 150 cm.

HOW TO APPLY: Recommended for cultivation along trellises, obelisks and other garden supports. Looks pretty against dark background or when interlaces coniferous or deciduous shrubs

ORIGIN: Raised by Szczepan Marczyński, Poland 1999. Named in 2015, on the market from summer 2016.

PBR – unlicensed propagation prohibited