Press Release

First flowering of Clematis zemuensis for over 25 years

EXPERTS at a leading botanic garden are baffled by the first flowering in over twenty-five years of a plant most botanists didn't even know was in the country.

The Clematis zemuensis is in bloom on the wall of the Elizabethan mansion at Kew's country garden in West Sussex. But staff at Wakehurst Place have discovered that most botanists didn't know of its existence in cultivation.

Native to Bhutan, in the Himalayas, the plant was grown from seed planted back in 1971. It hasn’t flowered since 1979.

Horticulturalists at Wakehurst think the flowers’ appearance now may have been triggered by the prolonged hot weather. “It could be that conditions here now are as they would be in the Himalayas where this plant comes from”, said a spokesman. “And the dry winters and incredibly hot summers are causing this climbing plant to produce the delicate, white flowers.”

This is likely to be the only example of a Clematis zemuensis growing in Britain as none are recorded elsewhere by the British Clematis Society.

The plant can be seen daily during the Gardens' opening hours (10-6). Wakehurst Place is on the B2028 between Turners Hill and Ardingly. Tel 01444 894066. www.kew.org

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