Although the words you see on the website are usually mine, all of this razzle-dazzle is made possible by Rick Meigs, dependable FRCC volunteer at the farm, and also a board member. Rick was in a serious motorcycle accident on Saturday, June 13, and is now beginning what will be a very long recovery, in a hospital ICU in Boise, ID. He may not be back to Portland for several weeks.

His injuries are too numerous and alarming to mention, but there is no brain trauma and no paralysis. We ask that you keep him in your thoughts as he gets through a few reconstructive surgeries before the very long ambulance ride from Boise to home.

On the upside, his spirits are good, and he has allowed his sisters to paint his toenails, clearly some Meigs sibling rivalry bubbling to the surface! We understand there are pictures of this, and will do our best to obtain them. In the meantime, we have sent word to him that we will not sweep the greenhouse again until he is back to give it his always meticulous attention… juuuust kidding!

Our garden tour event, while great fun and very successful, distracted me from posting who was blooming when. Inside the greenhouse, it is the “Raymond Evison” show, but some of the volunteers’ favorites, like VERSAILLES & BOURBON, have finished for now. Outside, the Historic Garden (HG) is dominated by the roses and peonies, but a few star performers, like ‘Lady Caroline Nevill’, are spectacular. In fact, she’s my pick of the week. In the Sorbus at the end of the chicken run, Clematis japonica is more subtle, but no less beautiful once you notice it.

Here’s the list. If it doesn’t say otherwise, assume the clematis named is a LFH (large-flowered hybrid). LFH-D means it is double. All-CAPS names are trade designations more commonly known than the cultivar names.

Inside the Greenhouse
‘Andrew’ (Magnus Johnson’s)
‘Andromeda’
ANGELIQUE
ARCTIC QUEEN LFH-D
‘Bagatelle’
BIJOU
‘Blue Eyes’
‘Broughton Star’ (Montana Group)
‘Burma Star’
‘Chalcedony’ LFH-D
‘Duchess of Waverly’
EMPRESS LFH-D
FRANZISKA MARIE (LFH-D, looking smashing here with PISTACHIO)
‘Girenas’ (new plant for us, thanks Joy Creek!)
‘Horn of Plenty’
JOSEPHINE LFH-D
‘June Pyne’
‘Kathleen Wheeler’
‘Killian Donahue’
KINGFISHER
‘Kiri te Kanawa’ LFH-D
‘Konigskind’ (syn. CLIMBADOR)
LIBERATION
montana var. wilsonii
‘Multi Blue’ LFH-D
‘Natascha’
PARISIENNE
‘Perrin’s Pride’
PICARDY
PISTACHIO (Florida Group)
‘Riviera’
‘Rosa Konigskind’
‘Serenata’
‘Special Occasion’
‘The Vagabond’
‘Thyrislund’ LFH-D
‘Twilight’
VIENETTA (Florida Group)
‘Violet Elizabeth’ LFH-D
‘Wilhelmina Tull’

Outside (these are clematis stored outside awaiting planting)
‘Arabella’ (Integrifolia Group)
‘Betty Corning’ (Viticella Group)
chiisanensis var. carunculosa (This is a disputed name, but Brewster bought this plant under this name, and it always blooms double, and a double-flowering chiisanensis is a plant that deserves a name.)
‘Esprit’ (Atragene Group)
‘General Sikorski’
‘Huvi’
‘Juuli’ (Integrifolia Group)
‘Louise Rowe’ (not double right now)
‘Marcelina’
‘Niobe’
C. patens ‘Yukiokoshi’ (LFH-D)
‘Rouge Cardinal’
‘Westerplatte’

Beech Tree’s Garden (the clematis here are all Japanese species and hybrids)
‘Andante’ (Integrifolia Group)
Fairy Blue LFH-D (syn. CRYSTAL FOUNTAIN) [yes, this plant was bred in Japan]
‘Hanajima’ (Integrifolia Group)
C. japonica
‘Kozo’
C. patens (lavender, grown from seed collected in Japan by Kozo Sugimoto)
C. patens (white, grown from seed collected in Japan by Kozo Sugimoto)
‘Sano-no-Murasaki’

Historic Garden

Bed A
‘John Gould Veitch’ LFH-D

Bed B
‘Fairy Queen’
‘Ramona’

Bed C
‘Colette Deville’
‘Lady Caroline Nevill’
‘Lasurstern’
‘W. E. Gladstone’

Bed D
‘Madame Julia Correvon’ (Viticella Group)
‘Ville de Lyon’ (also blooming in the home garden of our webmaster!)

Bed E
‘Edouard Desfosse’
C. integrifolia
‘Miss Cavell’
‘Mrs. Spencer Castle’ LFH-D

Bed F
‘Ramona’

Bed G
C. koreana (Hinkley collection)
‘Madame Julia Correvon’
‘Mrs. Cholmondeley’
‘Princess of Wales’
C. spooneri (Montana Group)

Bed H
‘Guiding Star’

Bed I
‘Edouard Desfosse’
‘Jackmanii Rubra’

The Front Bank
‘Coerulea’ (Integrifolia Group)
‘Gravetye Beauty’ (Texensis Group) [Prounounced “grave-tie”, not “gravity”)
‘Hendersonii’ (Integrifolia Group, of Snoeijer, not the old x diversifolia one)
C. integrifolia var. nana (as purchased from LaPorte Avenue Nursery, Ft. Collins. CO)
‘Little Belle’ (Integrifolia Group, a cross with C. socialis)
‘Lord Herschell’ (Integrifolia Group)
Siskiyou RPN Hybrid (Viorna Group, most resembles C. addisonii, but can climb a bit. RPN stands for Rare Plant Nursery. Comes 90% true from seed.)
‘Skylark’ (Integrifolia Group)
‘Sonnette’ (Texensis Group)
‘Tapestry’ (Integrifolia Group)
C. viorna (Viorna Group: who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb?)

The FRCC greenhouse is a fabulous place to be just now, with the Montana Group blooming so well this year and the large-flowered hybrids just coming into bloom. Outside, the Front bank is starting to wake up, and the Atragenes in the Historic Garden are all open. The New Zealand Group is waiting for more heat, I guess. They’re covered with buds and I honestly don’t know what they’re waiting for!

Historic Garden:

columbiana var. tenuiloba
koreana (Hinkley collected, magenta)
koreana (Hinkley collected, brownish-purple)
macropetala (Evison source)

Front Bank:

albicoma
fremontii
ochroleuca

Greenhouse:

Montana Group
‘Brewster’
‘Continuity’
‘Elizabeth’
‘Fragrant Spring’
‘Freda’
var. glabrescens
‘Gothenburg’
gracilifolia
montana subsp. montana ‘Grandiflora’
‘Picton’s Variety’
‘Pink Perfection’
‘Pleniflora’
‘Rubens Superba’
‘Tetrarose’
‘Tsunami Child’
‘Vera’
‘Warwickshire Rose’

LFH Group

‘Barbara Dibley’
‘Bees’ Jubilee’
‘Betty Risdon’
BLUE LIGHT
BOURBON
‘Candy Stripe’
CHANTILLY
CLAIRE DE LUNE
‘Corona’
‘C. W. Dowman’
‘Dawn’
‘Gladys Picard’
‘Guernsey Cream’
HYDE HALL
‘John Warren’
JOSEPHINE
‘Kathleen Wheeler’
‘Kjell’
‘Lady Londesborough’
LIBERATION
‘Lincoln Star’
‘Louise Rowe’
‘Moonlight’
‘Mrs. P. B. Truax’
‘Multi Blue’
‘Parasol’
PATRICIA ANN FRETWELL
‘Richard Pennell’
ROYAL VELVET
‘Ruby Glow’
‘Sally Cadge’
‘Saturn’
‘Silver Moon’
SPECIAL OCCASION
SUGAR CANDY
VERSAILLES
‘Vyvyan Pennell’

At least in the greenhouse the clematis are catching up to their usual schedule, and it is montana time! Our first indoor large-flowered hybrid (LFH) is ‘Guernsey Cream’, followed the very next day by ‘Ruby Glow’. ‘Guernsey Cream’ always wins the award for most aptly named clematis, but poor ‘Ruby Glow’ doesn’t even make it into the competition. It is not ruby, neither does it glow, although it is perfectly pretty. In the ground it isn’t much redder, and there is no sheen or particular luminescence.

The Montana Group greet the nose as soon as you enter the greenhouse, even in the chilly weather with the poli-sides rolled up (to admit the aphid-eating birds). Here’s the list of cultivars in bloom now:

Montana Group:
‘Alexander’
‘Brewster’
‘Fragrant Spring’
‘Freda’
‘Mayleen’
‘Picton’s Variety’
‘Pink Perfection’
‘Pleniflora’
subsp. ‘Grandiflora’
‘Tetrarose’
‘Tsunami Child’ (Thank-you to Dr. Mary Toomey and Murray Rosen for the donation of this charming plant.)
var. rubens ‘Rubens Superba’

In the Historic Garden, Clematis columbiana var. tenuiloba is the first clematis to bloom. On the front bank, Clematis albicoma is blooming facing away from the path, so assuming a strange position will be the only way to photograph it this year! Of course the folks using the public pathway are plenty used to seeing odd behavior from us by now. Several of the New Zealanders along the Terrace Walk are about to pop, and the Atragene Group in containers on the terrace will be the subject of their own post, hopefully this coming Wednesday! Here’s a teaser: ‘Wesselton’ is gorgeous, hope we can capture it for you. Ah, spring at last…