Thanks for your reply, Kat. Now I feel more confident about pruning the Type 2s-- which is all I'm growing right now. I will confess I have been pruning mine right after blooming and they rebound beautifully and bloom again within a month. I recall mentioning mid-season pruning here on the forum back in 2005. My clems had bloomed and the vines were looking ratty and didn't look like they were going to bloom again. I mentioned that I'd become frustrated and cut the vines back to about 20" high. I was amazed at how quickly they regrew and bloomed. A couple of people suggested I was going to kill my clematis....which led to me feeling paranoid about pruning except in the spring. Plus most gardening books mention pruning clematis in the spring, but say little about pruning after bloom. After that, I was a bit nervous about trimming them. I have a feeling that most gardening books are written by people living in Connecticut. They have no idea what it's like here in the deep south or how things grow down here. All I know is that my large flowered hybrids seemed happy enough and after a haircut, the new foliage looked lush and beautiful and the plants sent up lots of new shoots after each pruning. I had them planted in the rose garden, so they got fed and watered generously on the same schedule as the roses.

Without a doubt, the best reference I know is Clematis on the Web, COTW, linked below. Richard and Ian keep the database updated as new varieties come on the market and anyone can submit pictures for inclusion in the listings. One does have to be careful with such info as bloom time since a lot of the info is from English and European sources. However, they also are conducting, in conjunction with the Hull University, an international survey on clematis to include such information as wilt resistance, true hardiness ratings, etc. To date no one has ever done this and the wealth of info they gather will add to the info available on clematis. The viticellas are a group of clematis that have the genetics of the species plant clematis viticella in their blood lines. These plants include the species viticella and a boatload of other 'viticellas' including Betty Corning, Kermesina, Polish Spirit, Tango, Minuet, Alba Luxurians, Etoile Violette, Abundance, etc. Others are listed in the article you provided the web addy for. Copy and paste this web addy into your browser and you will see info on the species plant clematis viticella on COTW. http://www.clematis.hull.ac.uk/new-clemdetail.cfm?dbkey=559 The link you provided does not show a picture of viticella Grandiflora Sanguinea, but rather just lists it in a general article on various types of viticellas. The picture is of Etoile Violette. Like I said, I have never seen a picture of viticella Grandiflora Sanguinea in any of my books nor have I ever seen it offered for sale. The fact that COTW doesn't have a picture of it speaks loads as to the fact that it is most probably not widely available, even in Europe. In fact, there are quite a few clematis available in Europe that are not listed for sale in the US. If anyone comes up with a picture of this one variety, I would love a link to it. May have to go off and see if I can Google it myself. Hope this helps. Here is a link that might be useful: COTW

I didnt want to make a new thread since there arent any palms in these pics, but I just wanted to mention that My Begonias actually survived the winter this year! Have anyone else had luck with having wax begonias come back? I always hear that they are tender annuals and they definitiely are not one of the hardy begonias. It was by one of my Trachys which means that it did get some heat on the coldest night, but still saw many hits to the 20s and even teens since I barely covered my trachys this winter (one of the trachys was completely uncovered all winter). Here are some pics of the begonias coming back! Here are a few other pics.... My Kramers Supreme Camellia is about to bloom! Very happy that it survived the winter with no protection (its much more tender than any of my other camellias) and the blooms are supposed to be really large and fragrant. The leaves alone are pretty nice! My Camellia "Arctic Rose" is a very cold hardy and a heavy bloomer too! This Lantana has seen temperatures into the upper 20s, but spent the worst of winter indoors. Now it's growing back and starting to bloom! Heres a pic of My favorite camellia bloom in my yard. Its a Camellia "Herme" and usually the flowers are very large and slightly fragrant (I dont think thats very common for camellias). Comparison in size between "Herme" and "Arctic Rose" Finally got a desert rose to survive a winter indoors, now its blooming too! I was happy to see a Monstera at a local grocery store, I have been looking for these at a good price for years now! Got some nice Tillisandias and didnt really know what to do so I made a hanging thing out of them and I think it looks pretty cool. Im declaring war with these opposums now. They dug up my crinum bulbs I just planted and some other bulbs also. I put these wired cages over the bulbs so hopefully this will work. I took some leaves off my oleander and put it under the wired cage because I'm hoping that the toxicity of the oleander will keep the animals away (oleanders are poisonous for opposums right?) Thanks for looking! -Alex

Thanks Keith! I'm glad my camellias encouraged you to get some of your own! I would plant it in the ground now only because Camellias can be finicky in pots because they can't dry out too much and they arent really crazy about being indoors. But if you give it really good soil and make sure to water it well then potting it up might be better. If you have an unheated garage that doesnt really get below freezing too much during the winter than you can put it in there. What kind of camellia is it? Once yours gets to be close to the height of the one in my pic (probably by next spring) you can plant it in the groun). Remember they really dont like sun! Thanks Mastiffhoo! The yard is already looking a lot fuller and its only been about 2 weeks since I took these pics so I cant wait to see what another 2 weeks will do! -Alex