The arrival of Spring at the Rogerson Clematis Collection coincides with the handsome donation of four stock plants of Clematis armandii ‘Hendersonii Rubra’ (syn. of C. ‘Hendersonii Rubra’) given by Bob Gutmann of Gutmann Nurseries. Bob and his wife Carol are C. armandii specialists, and they have grown and evaluated many forms to assess garden worthiness. After years of observation, the Gutmann’s feel that ‘Hendersonii Rubra’ is not significantly different from C. armandii ‘Apple Blossom’, so they will not be propagating it for resale. Last autumn, Bob and Carol donated their remaining gallon-sized plants of ‘Hendersonii Rubra’, which FRCC sold rapidly.

The history of ‘Hendersonii Rubra’ is rather vague. It is possible that it was originally found as a species variant in China by E.H. Wilson, which he would have called Clematis armandii ‘Rubra’, but this has not been verified. The plant resurfaced at Henderson’s Experimental Garden, in Clovis, CA, where it was given its current name, which, by the way, is not an acceptable name under the current rules of nomenclutter. Since the mid-1950s it has been nomenclaturally “illegal” to use Latin in cultivar names. If they had called it “Henderson’s Pink” or some such, they’d have been okay. An allowable name has not been chosen, but if documentation could prove that this is Wilson’s C. armandii ‘Rubra’, then the name ‘Hendersonii Rubra’ would be relegated to the status of synonym. (Now you know what garden curators are up against!)

FRCC has donated one of these plants to the City of Lake Oswego for placement in one of their parks (in exchange for some historic roses), and we will keep and plant the remaining three specimens, which are quite vigorous and ready to GO! We will attempt to divide these plants to develop stock plants of our own, but we imagine this will be a “collector’s plant” without a lot of demand. We will have plants of ‘Snowdrift’ and ‘Apple Blossom’ for sale at the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon’s spring plant sale, at the Portland Expo Center, April 12-13. See our link to HPSO for more information about this amazing plant sale.

As for the rest of the collection, our larger plants of Clematis cirrhosa ‘Jingle Bells’ are only now opening their last buds—they have had an amazing winter. Also, Clematis armandii (Chikuma form) has opened its white and dainty flowers in the greenhouse, although the plant installed in the garden last autumn is growing well but has chosen not to flower this year. Our recent influx of Helleborus x hybridus plants from Nancy Gronowski have well-survived their transplanting from her garden to ours, and Brewster’s modest Pulsatilla vulgaris collection is beginning to bloom on the front bank. So, although we don’t have any clematis quite in bloom in the display gardens yet, the family Ranunculaceae is well represented this Spring!

—Linda Beutler, curator, Rogerson Clematis Collection

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