Color on Deck

Last night I was standing in my kitchen, looking out the back windows, when I realized my rose colored clematis has finally come into its full glory!

Ann's rose colored Clematis 'Ernest Markham'

You should really be impressed, this plant has a story to go along with it. Probably 15 years ago, I paid $1.79 for a little box with a sprig of clematis in it. I purchased two of them, and planted both at the base of a dead tree.  This dead buckthorn was too much for me to cut down, so my plan was for it to become a trellis for the beautiful new clematis; in the back of my corner garden.

A little closer view of how it looks after an almost 20 year struggle.

The plan didn't work and years later, I purchased an electric saw to cut the tree up.  My neighbor helped me and realized that it could be pushed over onto the ground, and chopped up.  Then I saw it! There was a tiny little tendril struggling on the sunny side of the old tree, trying to live.  By this time it was probably only 4 feet long.

I dug it up, and planted it in a spot where it could climb up 5 feet up to our deck.  I tied together some long sticks to help it go up, then it could spread out across the railing. This is what it has done. "Clem" has been growing on the deck for 4 years now.  This year, I purchased an additional small trellis, so it could go even higher and just look at it, it's about 12 feet above ground. This morning as I was having my breakfast, a yellow swallowtail butterfly stopped for a few moments and sipped some of the nectar from the flowers.  Sorry, no photos.  It was a lovely moment.

Ann Fahl