Sweet Autumn Clematis Blooming

18 years ago

After three years, my sweet autumn clematis is finally blooming. It probably would have bloomed the other years too if I hadn't moved it so many times each year. Last year I finally planted it along my deck railing and left it there. I wanted scent in that spot, but now that it's blooming I have found out that I can't stand the scent. It's revolting to me. So I'll be moving it this fall to a place where I can't smell it. I am thinking about replacing it with either flame honeysuckle or confederate jasmine because I know I like the scent of them. I have a question about each one.

I have a confederate jasmine growing in a sheltered spot in my front yard, and it takes winter in stride. The deck is not sheltered and is on the southwest side of the house. Will confederate jasmine survive that location or will a southwest orientation give it too much exposure to alternating warm and cold days in winter?

When does flame honeysuckle bloom (or Alabama crimson or any of those native species)? Do they bloom just in spring or do some of them bloom throughout summer?

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Comments (14)

lindabeth
18 years ago
Our flame honeysuckle put on a real show earlier this year,and it is still blooming,just not as heavily...
girlgroupgirl
18 years ago
I have several honeysuckles. The red blooms only in spring, the yellow (I forget the cultivar name, but it is not flava) blooms two to three times per summer. BLanche sandiman blooms all summer long for me here, and then the lemonaid (for get the real name right now)only stops blooming in November-January. Rest of the time it is in bloom!!!

GGG
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amyta
18 years ago
I have a Confederate Jasmine planted on my mailbox (and so do 2 neighbors) and it is in a non-protected site. It grows so well that I have to keep cutting it back and so I miss the smell from the blooms. It was just too big a vine for a mailbox. It should do wonderfully for you.
sugarhill
Original Author
18 years ago
GGG, try to remember the name of the lemonade honeysuckle. It sounds perfect. Where do you find all these honeysuckles? I looked all over before I could find a flame one. Thanks too Amyta for the info about the Confederate jasmine. Now I have to decide which one to use. Maybe the jasmine for spring bloom and the lemonade for the rest of summer. Let them duke it out with each other.
cactusfreak
18 years ago
I have one and it's called 'Pink Lemonade' (Lonicera x heckrottii).
I think I got it at Pikes years ago.
gmom74
18 years ago
SugarHill, I predict you won't like all the seedlings coming up everywhere, either. I rue the day I planted Sweet Autumn Clematis many years ago. It comes up even in the grass and all over the empty lot next to us. I despise the stuff and I don't like the scent, either.
sugarhill
Original Author
18 years ago
My mother has had sweet autumn clematis growing on her tool shed for years and has never had seedlings, so I'm not to worried about that (knock wood). But oh the smell. Licorice with undertones of rotting flesh. Yech!
cactusfreak
18 years ago
I also have never had seedlings. The smell of mine is actually sweet. Maybe it's something in the soil that causes yours to smell bad.
I like mine so much I have two. But I bought both of them.
sugarhill
Original Author
18 years ago
I love your picture. Actually I love the looks of sweet autumn clematis - it has gorgeous leaves and cute flowers. I just need to move it away from my deck and kitchen window. It might be something in the soil. Guess I'll find out next year after I move it.
gmom74
18 years ago
I don't know the word is that I want, but perhaps there are different 'strains' of the clematis and I got one of the bad ones. I researched it and many of the sites say it is invasive. Some say it smells like vanilla. Mine doesn't. I'm curious to know if the good-smelling clematis doesn't seed.
sugarhill
Original Author
18 years ago
Sweet autumn clematis goes by many names. The one I have is celmatis terniflora, but the exact same plant - as far as I know - is also called clematis maximowicziana and clematis paniculata. I'm not sure why, but I know that several plants have gotten new sceintific names lately. Don't know which is the current name for my plant. I have heard people call other species (?) sweet autumn clematis, so you could have a different plant. If yours is evergreen, it's not terniflora (or all its many other names). Isn't there something called virginiana that's evergreen and an incredible spreader? Does anyone know?
nckvilledudes
18 years ago
Other clematis that look similar to C. terniflora and may be mistaken for it include C. flammula, C. virginiana, and ,as Gardengal pointed out previously, C. vitalba. Of the three, only C. vitalba is not described as having a sweet scent (remember that scents are subjective and what smells good to one person may smell bad to another). Could it be that someone has one of the other varieties which may not be as aggressive a seeder as others? Like I said previously, mine is definitely SAC ie. terniflora and it will reseed freely.
nckvilledudes
18 years ago
Sorry about the reference above to Gardengal. She posted a response to your query on the clematis forum and my first response was posted there as well. I posted this response thinking I was still there and will post it there as well. Sorry :)!!!!
gmom74
18 years ago
After 20 years I have no idea what the variety of mine is. But no matter, I still dislike it. I have learned over my many years of gardening that if a term like 'invasive' is used in the description, you'd better believe it.