Clematis Wilt A Review of the Literature The Plantsman

Raymond Evison has been fascinated with clematis for more than than l years, and he believes there is still more work to be washed with the found.

He raised his beginning new clematis cultivar when he was 18 years former. He named information technology Edith, afterwards his mother. Now seventy, the legendary British breeder is showing no signs of slowing. Over the summer, he won his 26th aureate medal at the Royal Horticulture Society's almanac Chelsea Bloom Prove, and visited several U.S. garden centers on a mission to help retailers amend understand the flowering clematis with the distinctive bluish label.

"I believe we offer some of the best new clematis that come to market," he says. "Then, we're really there to concur our customers' and our customers' customers' hands to make certain they do a good job on the retailing."

The business of convenance

Evison'south breeding really took off in 1992, when he formed a joint venture with the Poulsen Rosa Company from Kingdom of denmark. Poulsen Rosa was known for rose convenance, and Evison hoped to leverage that knowledge, as well as the company'due south feel with institute patenting, with his knowledge of clematis.

"We decided that we wanted to produce more than compact clematis, because we knew people would be using smaller gardens," he says. "Nosotros wanted clematis that were more costless-flowering and producing more flowers, and were much more compact in their addiction."

Serious clematis breeding started in the early on- to mid-1800s. Despite growing to eight- or nine-feet tall, many of the varieties from that era take just one, single large blossom at the end of a growing stem. There were about 500 cultivars listed by the beginning of the 20th century, Evison says. Many of those have been lost, only Evison still grows about fifty of them.

"We and so listed upwardly x to fifteen criteria that we wanted our mother plants to have," he says. "Many of the ones that we actually used in that early on convenance programme were cultivars from the early 1800s."

As function of the articulation venture, Evison licensed growers around the world to propagate his plants under the brand proper name Raymond Evison Clematis. Of course, Evison's own Guernsey Clematis Nursery is one of the licensees. Located on 8½ acres in Guernsey, a pocket-sized island in the English Channel, the nursery produces nigh three million clematis plants annually and has near 90 employees during superlative times. Evison estimates that his nursery produces most 20 percent of the world market for young clematis plants.

Select North American growers that are licensed to abound Raymond Evison brand clematis receive a few cultivars every year to add to their range.

After the nurseries take grown the plants for two years, they sell them to retailers. If those garden centers participate in the Evison-branded found plan, then they are listed on the brand's website. Evison has almost 800 garden centers in Due north America and the U.Chiliad. that are brand retailers.

Though this is the final yr of Evison and Poulsen'due south system, Evison's breeding volition continue.

"They wanted to practice other things, and so we haven't fallen out or anything like that," he says.

When Evison and Poulsen had their plan running at full-speed every bit it were, they would do almost 2,500 crosses a twelvemonth. That would generate 35,000-40,000 seeds, which would generate about 10,000 seedlings. Later a four- to v-year evaluation and selection procedure, only v or half dozen of those seedlings get in to market place. It takes almost ten years from the time of pollination to actually putting a new clematis on the marketplace.

"The breeding piece of work that my team and I are doing this year, I'm going to be lxxx earlier those are on the market," Evison says. "I think the consumer thinks these things happen overnight, but we really need to do the evaluation process and be certain that the plants don't succumb to mildew. We're very rigorous with our selection work."

Before Evison sends a plant to market place, its strength and constitution is tested. It won't succumb to mildew unless information technology is placed in ideal conditions for breeding mildew.

"With the very rigorous pick procedure, anything – fifty-fifty if it's a fantastic color intermission in the plant – and the found doesn't accept a good constitution, and then I'm afraid it gets thrown away in the skip," he says.

Clematis wilt too affects clematis in gardens, but Evison says he hasn't seen that in his nursery for many years.

Breeding a better clematis

Evison's clematis selection process is very detailed. The first evaluation is during a one-year menses. New cultivars are selected in the bound. In the summer, the plants are cutting down and then re-flowered. And then, they are examined again in mid-summer to early autumn. Evison says that seeing the plant at different times of the year is of import.

Evison looks for plants that are "free-flowering." In the context of clematis, that means they will produce a lot of flowers upwards along their stems. The older clematis cultivars have a stalk, a stalk, and one flower at the top. Some of the cultivars Evison has developed take v, six or even vii leaf axle nodes that produce flowering buds, every bit well. And those flowering buds produce second flowering buds. That trait is valuable in a clematis, and that is ane area Evison focuses on in option.

Color is another important factor. Evison aims for colors that don't fade, unless that fade creates an attractive, eye-catching look.

"We're certainly looking for dissimilar colors, color breaks, and nosotros're looking for really strong colors," he says. "There's too a market for the pale pinks and the whites. We also look for if the bloom has a adept shape. Peradventure the shape is very, very different, so nosotros're not always looking for round-shaped flowers or things that take pointed sepals, but we're looking for a constitute that volition say to the consumer, 'Pick me up and buy me.'"

Evison too has focused on breeding and developing more fully double-flowered clematis because of how much those resonate with the consumer.

The North American market has been challenging for clematis breeders because of the severe winters in much of the country. There'due south a lot of winter kill with the single big-flowered clematis in that market, and all the summit rows get killed down to ground level. Many of the older varieties of double clematis raised in the 1800s and early 1900s will not produce any double flowers afterwards winter impale, because the double or the semi-double flowers come from the previous season's ripened stems. This is a problem that Evison has been working to solve.

"The advantage of our clematis is that even if they are early flowering and fifty-fifty if it has been a astringent winter, they will flower still quite early on in the season. If you had an former fashioned 'Nelly Moser' – they're still a skillful clematis – and they got killed downward to ground level, you probably wouldn't see any flowers until near August or so. Our new varieties we've selected flower very profusely on the old wood or the new growth."

Evison's most pop cultivar is clematis 'Rebecca.' Named later his eldest girl, its calling bill of fare is its dramatic, big red flowers.

One cultivar that stateside growers should sentry for is clematis 'Samaritan Jo.' It is new for 2014 in the U.S. It has a silverish-pink centre and darker purple coloring on its edges. Evison says information technology's very free flowering and ideal for growing up into roses. It also works well in containers. 'Parisienne' is another cultivar that excels in containers due to its meaty nature. Information technology boasts violet flowers with a dark red center, and has been 1 of Evison's best sellers since its introduction in 2005.

Evison has even worked with British royalty on some of his cultivars. "If you have a shady deck or patio, then 'The Countess of Wessex' is very good," Evison says. "We launched that with the countess in Chelsea in 2012."

A misunderstood plant

Evison breaks downwardly his new cultivars into several groups. The Regal drove are double-flowered clematis that tin be grown in pots and containers or walls or trellises. The Boulevard collection is made upwardly of meaty plants that are ideal for smaller pots and gardens.

"You lot don't have to have a six-foot wall to grow clematis," Evison says. "I'm very groovy that clematis are grown with other constitute fabric and non just on a evidently trellis."

In fact, Evison'southward virtually contempo book, "Clematis for Small Spaces," details 150 of the best clematis cultivars for patios and balconies. He wants to make sure today's consumers are educated about the found, which he says is often misunderstood.

"They've read in books or magazines what complicated plants they are," Evison says. "This is i matter that I would similar to stress from our convenance betoken of view and specially from the garden middle point of view. With our new clematis – the Evison-Poulson clematis – for the singles and the doubles quite but, reduce their elevation growth by one-third every spring. That's at the stop of winter just earlier bud pause. With all of our other single ones, we've simply introduced a technique called 'the ponytail cutting.' You grab the growth and yous chop it off 6 to nine inches higher up soil level. That can utilise to all varieties that are not double or semi-double. That, over again, you practise in the winter or early on spring. It's really simple. People haven't got to become their reference books out knowing what bit to cut out and what scrap to exit and all the rest of it. Every bit we've adult these clematis, you can be pretty ruthless. Chop off the acme growth and away they abound and flower."

In the future, Evison wants to breed cultivars with improved common cold hardiness. He's working with the idea of producing more fibrous roots that could withstand colder winters without needing to take the establish indoors.

Every trivial improvement he makes demonstrates the value of breeding. He believes growers and consumers shouldn't shy abroad from paying more for the better mildew tolerance, double flowering, and easier pruning available with his branded clematis.

"Nurserymen and the consumer should not be thinking purely about price," Evison says. "They should be thinking of the quality of the plants. Sometimes people will say, 'I don't want to buy that. It's got a royalty on information technology. It'southward too expensive.' I recall the consumer and the nursery industry need to consider that a lot of time goes into the breeding and developing of new plants. That has to be rewarded with royalty collection. Some of the old varieties are however very, very skillful, but they do not perform in the way that our new ones perform."

For more than: www.raymondevisonclematis.com

butlerhouble.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.nurserymag.com/article/nm1014-breeding-perfect-clematis/