Clematis 'Zomibel' MIENIE BELLE

Clematis of the Month for September 2026

Described by Linda Beutler

Clematis 'Zomibel' MIENIE BELLE

There are those who associate pink with romance. We see this every Valentine's Day, with the colour triumvirate Red + White + Pink reigning supreme throughout the floral industry's biggest day. In the clematis world, some of the most popular pinks are found in the Texensis Horticultural Group, in C. 'Princess Diana' and C. 'Duchess of Albany'. Both of these could be said to be a little too sharp, a little too vivid. For a more blend-able, tender pink, one need look no further than C. 'Zomibel' MIENIE BELLE.

At the Rogerson Clematis Garden we have thrown C. 'Zomibel' MIENIE BELLE into the maelstrom of our Modern Garden's Row 9, populated by C. viticella and C. texensis post WWII hybrids, big, boisterous plants in a sunny location. Although not getting as large as C. 'Zoprika' PRINCESS KATE or some of the Charlie Pridham “viticellas” from Cornwall, C. 'Zomibel' MIENIE BELLE reaches two meters and winds its way into its neighbors with starry-eyed effect. Maybe this is more noticeable because this C. texensis hybrid boasts six sepals rather than four, and these separate from each other to give this softer tint of pink more presence.

In addition to looking dreamy against our Northwest Oregon summer skies, we like this gentle color and shape facing up and out in contrast to its near neighbors, such as the pagoda-roof bells of C. 'Little Bas' and C. 'Piskey'. They are both light purple on the exterior, so the saturation of color is the same as that of C. 'Zomibel' MIENIE BELLE. No one is upstaged.

C. 'Zomibel' MIENIE BELLE in August 2021

But does the romance go deeper than just a pretty shade of pink? It does! C. 'Zomibel' MIENIE BELLE was bred by Wim Snoeijer in The Netherlands. When fellow breeder Jan Fopma saw it, he requested it be named after his wife, Mienie Fopma-Maten, or so the story goes. Everything about this clematis does suggest someone lovely and feminine. Since we don't know the exact breeding of C. 'Zomibel' MIENIE BELLE, it is possible it may have some genetics from an earlier clematis hybrid, C. 'Jan Fopma', also selected and named by Wim Snoeijer from seedlings from Fopma's earlier breeding work (see Roy Nunn's clematis of the month article on C. 'Jan Fopma'). This could also be a fancy of my over-active imagination. It wouldn't be the first time.

Be that as it may, look for C. 'Zomibel' MIENIE BELLE, which seems to be widely available in the UK and Europe, and pops up randomly from US sources. It will want full sun and hard pruning in the winter to bring on a swoon-worthy summer mass of flowers, far less fragile than it looks. It is truly a nod to enduring romance.