Flowering Months | June - September |
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Pruning Group | Hard |
Spread & Height (feet) | 5-7 |
Facing Aspect | North, South, East, West |
Aspect | Any, Full Shade, Partial Shade, Sunny |
Flower Diameter (Inches) | 2-3 |
RHS Award Garden Merit | Yes |
Habit | Herbaceous |
Scented | No |
Suitable for pot growing | Yes |
Category | Diversifolia |
Clematis 'Alionushka' has beautiful deep mauve-pink nodding bell-shaped flowers. Semi-herbaceous, non-clinging, semi-climber or scrambler. Awarded the RHS Award of Garden Merit.
Bred in the Crimea in 1961 by A.H. Volosenko-Valensis and M. A. Beskaravajnaja this clematis is a very hardy plant indeed, meaning that it is popular across the whole of Europe and very much at home in an English garden.
'Alionushka' is classified as part of the Diversifolia family of clematis, these have been crossed between a climbing clematis and integrifolia, meaning that the leaf petiol (leaf stem) does not cling or wrap around things like they do on most other clematis. Therefore 'Alionushka' and other Diversifolia scramble around unless they are given a support and are trained onto it, for example an obelisk.
Another attribute that you will notice is the almost herbaceous nature of ‘Alionushka’, where the new shoots come from the crown or very lowest woody stems. In spring there is a profusion of new pink shoots at the base of the plant, quickly growing up to give a mass of lush new stems which will eventually reach as much as 5-7 feet depending on the soil type.
Pruning is best carried out in the mid spring each year, cutting all the stems down to around 4-8 inches from the soil, just above a new shoot. If you like to tidy the garden for winter, you can prune it back to around 3 feet in the late autumn once it is dormant to tidy it up but avoid cutting it too short particularly in harsher climates.
I have particularly fond memories of a plant of 'Alionushka' at the nursery which grew inside a large iron obelisk on a bank of earth next to a wonderful hazel tree. They were not too close together but near enough that the flowers of 'Alionushka' shone out against the dark leaf of the nut tree, a wonderful sight from my grandmother’s sitting room chair.
The question is... How will you use your clematis 'Alionushka'?
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