It is whatever the supplier and sellers of clematis call things to make you want to buy them thinking that the plants will flower a lot over the entire growing season! LOL There is no technical definition of free flowering since what flowers a lot in one garden may not flower as much in another garden.

To me it means a clematis that flowers off and on for most of the growing season. The one in my garden that best fits that description is Petit Faucon which has some flowers on it from late April to late August, even later sometimes depending on the weather. A lot of the integrifolias do that also. This is unlike most of the type IIs and IIIs that flower mainly once in the season and then send off other flowers intermittently the rest of the year. Of course, there are exceptions to that and individual variations in how much any one plant will flower. That does not of course take into account your trimming your type IIs and IIIs back to get one or two more flowering cycles out of them.

Thanks Miguel.

Many of Raymond Evison clematises claim to be free flowering. So is that mean, I will see only few blooms hear and there between spring and fall flushes?

I kind of assumed Clematis was like rose, two big flushes and still plenty of flowers in between.

FJ

FJ, I am very leery of any one who touts their own clematis as free flowering. They are trying to sell something so caveat emptor. One's gardening zone and growing conditions can affect how floriferous any clematis can be so attempting to sell something that freely flowers all growing season in all zones is a bit much for me to believe. Experimentation with various clematis in your garden will unfold the truth of which bloom the longest for you.

Clematis hybridizers have all sorts of motivations as to why they do what they do and how they go about approaching their intended goal. I'd venture to say that in the past most focused on floral effect - the size, shape and color of the flower and its associated parts - and left the development of the vine itself and its growing habit as a secondary byproduct. The Evison breeding program approaches clematis hybridization a bit differently. One of their intents was to develop very compact vines that display an ability to develop flowers all along the length of the vine rather than at the terminal growing points as most vines tend to do. Combining the genes of vines that bloom on both old and new wood is only one of the methods they employ (and I am not sophisticated enough in the specifics of clematis genes and the mechanics of hybridization to offer a better explanation). The results so far have produced a varied selection of smaller vines that tend not to develop the 'bare legs' of their taller growing cousins but rather produce growth points and lateral stems all along the length of the vine and each of these laterals has the ability to produce flowers in the same manner that the top growth does on more conventional clematis vines. And each of these flowering points has been developed to produce multiple (5-7+) flowers per stem. Hence the designation of "free-flowering". One of the corresponding characteristics of these newer vines is that they tend not to fit easily into any recognized pruning group, but are treated more as one does the herbaceous clematis, removing all growth down to a rather low level (even to the base) at the start of each season.

Not all of the new Evison introductions have been bred for this attribute but my experience with several of those that have - 'Harlow Carr' and those of the Boulevard series (previously marketed as "patio" clematis) like 'Picardy' and 'Cezanne' - is that they do live up to the label of "free-flowering", producing continual blooms from midspring to frost. I've not even really noticed any 'flushes' - just a continuation of the initial bloom cycle throughout the growing season.

As Miguel very validly points out, how long and how well any clematis will bloom for you has much to do with where and how its planted, the care it receives and your specific climate but some of these newer introductions do have - at least in my limited experience - a remarkable ability to produce a profusion of flowers virtually nonstop throughout the season. I think even Miguel would agree with me on 'Harlow Carr's powerful blooming capacity, irrespective of any hybridizer marketing hype :-)
YMMV

Yep, I definitely would say that Harlow Carr blooms quite a bit over the growing season, but nowhere as much as Petit Faucon does in my garden gardengal. It is still a hands down winner in my book and I don't think it has ever been touted as being free flowering in the literature or by the hybridizer.

LOL! 'Petit Faucon' IS an Evison introduction and I'll grant you it is a powerhouse bloomer. But it is herbaceous with a lot of integrifolia parentage and its habit and manner of growth is quite a bit different from the compact LFH's that are more typically described as "free flowering". In fact, I'd venture to say that ALL integrifolias are very free flowering or at least all of those I've grown, as they all bloom continuously all summer.

Didn't know that GG since I don't keep up with who introduces what although with the Evison plants, they do tend to have trade names that are quite indicative of who introduced the plants. The thing about Petit Faucon is that it, to my knowledge, has never been touted as a free flowering plant like the newer compact ones by Evison have. According to COTW it was introduced into the trade in 1989 and is a well established clematis with a proven track record compared to the newer varieties, some of which have gotten mixed reviews here by people who have grown them. With newer introductions, you never know how much testing there was prior to their introduction into the mass market. Case in point is Embers, an introduction by Fretwell which was touted as the first true red integrifolia. In my garden it is dark pink at best and nowhere near what I would consider red.

I do agree however that most of the integrifolias are quite the bloomers in my garden, some moreso than others.

Miguel..how much sun would you say your integrifolia "Petite Faucon" is getting?..Mine has been in for 3 year and while it does bloom alot..never seems to grow more than 2-3 feet long...Jeanne
ps...Mine is getting full sun from sunup until about 3pm

Jeanne, mine gets full sun from sun up until about 4 or 5pm. It grows up through a wire spiral topiary form and might top out at 3.5 feet. According to COTW, its max height is 1-1.5 meters which translates into 3.28 feet to 4.92 feet.