International
Clematis
Society
Welcome to all Clematis Lovers.
I.Cl.S. Webinars
We have managed to overcome the problems we had due to the popularity of our webinar videos and they are now available again for you to replay. Click on the link to your left to watch the recording of our last public webinar. Society members can watch all I.Cl.S. Webinar videos using the link published in the October 2020 and February 2021 newsletters.Website changes
The majority of people can ignore the following explanation and just be happy that we have now implemented a modern security facility. For the more technically minded, please read on. In line with modern security practice, we have implemented SSL on this website. SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, a security protocol that creates an encrypted link between a web server and a web browser. It authenticates a website's identity and enables an encrypted connection. You don't need to know about this and in most cases, it's use will be transparent. However, if you normally access the site using the URL call, "http://www.clematisinternational.com", you should now change to "https://www.clematisinternational.com". Note, you may need to clear your browser cache for this to be automatically invoked.In Memoriam
Possibly my most difficult, albeit important, responsibility is to inform you of members who have died. However I also try to make this task a celebration of their lives. This month I have to report on two members.
Richard Huff - 1928 to 2021
I am very sad to report the death, on 1st September 2021, of Richard Huff of the USA. Richard was 93 and by all accounts still very active within his community. Richard's wife, Mahala, died in 2017. I believe Richard and Mahala Huff joined the Society in 1998. For a number of years they both attended Society meetings, notably 2001 USA, 2004 UK, 2006 Ireland and 2008 Japan. From the outset they came across as kind, considerate, friendly, generous and caring. Richard was a Master Gardener and used this position to encourage others to grow clematis. In 2010 Richard was presented with a Golden Clematis Award by the Society services to the Society and for the promotion and publicity of clematis. I suggest reading the citation for this award at Golden Clematis Awards 2010. Richard and Mahala encouraged several friends and others to join the Society. I believe they sometimes did this by giving them gifts of clematis, to start their collections. The Society sends its sincere condolences to his family and friends around the world.Richard Huff in Japan - 2008
Richard Huff and his calendars, shortly after his 93rd birthday, May 2021
Karen Colini - 1958 to 2021
Two of the people that Richard and Mahala Huff gave a first Society membership to were Tony and Karen Colini. It was Tony who informed me about Richard, and in the same note he reported that Karen, his wife, had also died a few weeks previously. The following is an extract from her obituary. My thanks to Anna for assisting with this and also the great photo of Karen in her garden. "Karen Elizabeth Colini (nee Robbins), age 62, passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by family on August 6, 2021. Karen was born on August 27, 1958, graduated from East Liverpool High School in 1976 and received her Bachelor of Science degree in Horticulture from The Ohio State University in 1980. Married to Tony Colini; they had four children and fourteen grandchildren. A landscape designer, horticulturist, flower farmer and observer of nature, she was a member of the Chagrin Valley Herb Society, Design Network, Shaker Lakes Garden Club, Dahlia Society of Ohio, International Clematis Society, Holden Arboretum, and St. Joan of Arc Church. She had a deep appreciation for the diversity of nature and never missed an opportunity to share her love of the gardens." The Society sends its sincere condolences to Tony, their children - Anna (Steve) Kandra, Erin (Mitch) Salsbery, Mary (Paul) Suvak and Katie (Chuck) Cenkus - the rest of the family and all their friends.Karen Colini in her garden
C. ranunculoides or C. yuanjiangensis
The Society has revisited one of our Clematis of the Month descriptions, that of C. ranunculoides by Brewster Rogerson, and now believe he was actually looking and describing C. yuanjiangensis. Brewster wrote this description for December 2002, when very few people had even heard of C. yuanjiangensis. We believe Brewster thought the variation of his specimen in certain aspects was due to species variability. It's says much of the documention and records kept by Brewster and others and still available today that we've been able to verify our suspicions. If you're interested, please take a look at our Previous Clematis of the Month, by date, name or author.RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2021
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the Royal Horticultural Society cancelled the RHS Chelsea Flower Show last year, 2020. However, rather than do the same thing for a second time, they decided to defer this most prestigious flower show until September 2021. As I write these words, it is welcoming the garden-loving public. Whilst there are not quite so many exhibitors this year, there are all the usual beautiful show gardens, colourful plants stands and stunning displays. Of course, exhibitors have had the challenge of providing exhibition-worthy plants at a completely different time of the year to what they normally do. I am delighted to report that Raymond Evison, founder of this Society and long time exhibitor at Chelsea, has excelled himself this year. Not only has he been awarded his 31st Gold Chelsea Medal for his display, he has also won the prestigious "The President's Award". I understand that his display comprises over 2500 plants, with an estimated 20,000 - 30,000 blooms, achieved through judicial periods throughout this year of growth, pruning, more growing, more pruning, chilling and finally letting them wake up and bloom. The Society sends Raymond our heartiest congratulations at this achievement.
Raymond's display at Chelsea 2021
Chelsea Gold Medal and The President's Award
Raymond's display at Chelsea 2021
Clematis of the Month
I am delighted to tell you that this month we celebrate the 300th Clematis of the Month article. It is also 25 years to the month from the publication of the very first article, published in October 1996. Our band of writers has been generating descriptions of clematis over that time and there is an archive of all the Previous Clematis of the Month articles available, providing a lot of useful information for all clematis enthusiasts. Please click here or on the "Clematis of the Month" tab at the left hand side of your screen to read this month’s COTM, which is Clematis ‘Burford Bell’ by Richard Hodson. Clicking here or on the "Previous Clematis of the Month" tab will give you access to all the past 299 COTM articles and these are indexed by date, type of clematis, author and an alphabetic index.Webinars
Unfortunately we had had to temporarily withdraw the webinar playback facility as it's popularity has generated excessive use of bandwidth on our shared web server. The Society is currently testing a solution which, if successful, we should be able to implement by the end of October and possibly earlier.Clematis International 2021
The Society journal for this year, Clematis International 2021, was posted in early August to all members of the Society, provided of course you've remembered to renew your membership. Emails and letters were sent for a third and final time to all members who were yet to renew their membership for 2021. If you wish to get your copy of the journal, please check now to make sure you've paid. Renewing is particularly easy if you use our PayPal facility, just go to the Paying by PayPal page. It has come to our attention that some members within the European Union have been charged a customs fee before receiving their copy. This seems to be quite common though not consistent. The Society is trying to understand exactly why this is happening and whether the fee can be avoided, possibly by using a different postage designation. Unfortunately there seems to be a lack of information about this at the moment. We are investigating. Please let us know if you have received a copy of the journal, if you were charged and how much you had to pay. Please email our secretary, Fiona Woolfenden.COVID-19 Pandemic
The Society sends our best wishes to clematis lovers all round the world, to their families and their friends. Please take care and stay safe. We salute all those in the essential services, especially health services, for their dedication to duty, often at risk to their own health. Whilst some countries are beginning to relax some restrictions on socializing, travel, etc., we must not forget that this is not true everywhere. There are still many countries where COVID-19 is still taking many lives. No one should allow themselves to be complacent.Clematis in the press
There have been a couple of interesting articles about clematis written recently that you might be interested to read. They are both available online. The first is an article written by Adrian Higgins, garden writer for The Washington Post (Washington, DC, that is). Adrian contacted Jeff Jabco, our President, recently about this and he interviewed Dan Long, Vice President, and Jeff for the article. To read it, please click here. My thanks also to Roy Nunn, Treasurer, who told me about the second one, Clematis for your Algarve Mediterranean garden by Portuguese resident, Rosie Peddle. It includes some very good photos.2021 Seed Exchange
The latest version, which has an issue date of 13/6/2021 at the bottom of each page, is now available at 2021 Seed Exchange List. Our thanks to Benedikt Herian for managing the Seed Exchange and to all members who have donated seeds.2021 Denmark Meeting
As announced a while ago, this event, which was originally planned for July 2020 and was postponed until 2021, has now been deferred until July 2022. The COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to place severe restrictions on people and travel. Brightwater Holidays and the Society jointly agreed this was the only sensible action to take. An email detailing this decision, and the options current attendees have, was sent to all attendees. One upside of this is that bookings for this event is open once again, so anyone who now wishes to join should contact our secretary, Fiona Woolfenden.The International Clematis Registrar, and the International Clematis Register and Checklist
The International Clematis Register and Checklist 2002, which went out of print some time ago, is available in electronic format. One benefit of this is that it allows text searching. Details for The Register and all six supplements can be found via the RHS website at https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/plantsmanship/plant-registration/Clematis-registration/Clematis. However because of the file size of the Register itself, approximately 25 Mbytes, it cannot be downloaded from the RHS web site in the same way that the supplements can. To help the RHS and reduce their workload, Society members wanting a copy should email Ken Woolfenden, I.Cl.S. Webperson and Editor, at icls editor, who will return a download link. The Society fully endorses the work of the International Clematis Registrar, The International Clematis Register and Checklist 2002 and the six supplements published so far. We recommend all clematis lovers use the standards they describe. There is, of course, still a need for all Clematis breeders, both professionals and amateurs, to register your Clematis cultivars with the Registrar to continue to keep the International Clematis Register up to date. If you want a copy of the form, information about it is available at the Clematis Registration Form.General Data Protection Regulation - GDPR
This Regulation applies to all organizations, large and small, that store personal data of EU and UK citizens electronically. A draft Privacy Policy was drawn up and discussed at a previous Council Meeting. We are still working on modifications and amendments. Once completed and the resulting document is agreed by your Council, it will be released to all members and posted in this website. The Society is committed to complying with this regulation. Should any member have any questions or concerns regarding it, please contact our designated Data Controller, Ken Woolfenden.International Clematis Society on Facebook
Don't forget to visit our Facebook page for updates on what's happening in our garden, as well as clematis news from other members. All you need do is clickor use the button to your left.
Recommended Clematis
The Society's Clematis for Beginners List is now Recommended Clematis, reflecting the wider usefulness of this set of clematis cultivars for all clematis growers around the world. It was reviewed and revised during our meeting in Devon and Cornwall in 2015. It is available online and also as a downloadable version from our Recommended Clematis section, in Dutch, English, French, German and Swedish All the clematis on the list are easy to grow, easy to look after and resistant to common pests and diseases, and whilst there are no absolute guarantees where gardening is concerned, most people should have success with all of these. Because space is not so much of a problem, the online version of the list now contains more information about each clematis featured within it, along with a simple menu bar to let you see each group and then pick the clematis you're interested in. The downloadable version (no illustrations as yet, I'm afraid) is very suitable for taking with you when you visit your local nursery or garden centre!Journal Index of Clematis References
A reminder of a facility which I'm sure many of you will find most useful - an index of references to all the clematis mentioned in the journals of the Society, both in the text and as pictures. I am indebted to Ton Hannink for all the work he has put into producing the first issue of this index. The index currently covers the years 2005 - 2014 inclusive. Further years will be added as they are completed. Whilst it is quite a large document, some 29 pages, it is not a particularly large file to download should you wish, just under 220 Kbytes. You can find it by visiting the Previous Journals page.RHS Clematis Catalogue Collection
The Royal Horticultural Society of Great Britain holds a collection of Nursery Catalogues and have been keen to add to it. A number of years ago the Society was asked to canvas our members for any Clematis Nursery catalogues which they had and would donate to the collection, which we did. Quite a few have been donated so far. Whilst he was the International Clematis Registrar, Duncan Donald extracted a list of catalogues from Clematis Specialists which are currently within the collection and a list of catalogues which feature clematis, but under such headings as "climbing plants" or "climbers". You can find them at RHS Clematis Catalogue Collection and RHS Climbers and Climbing Plant Catalogue Collection. Links to both these files can also be found via the "Information, Answers and Questions" link on the left of this page. The Society has asked where further donated catalogues should be sent. As soon as we have this information it will be publish here.Clematis Nomenclatural Standards List by Wim Snoeijer
Wim Snoeijer has provided another update to this list, and added a few more images. You can find it at Clematis Nomenclatural Standards List. I've changed the format slightly and the images, instead of being embedded within the list which made it a little disjointed, are now available by clicking on the link to make them appear in a separate window. The list is also available as a downloadable .pdf file. Over the next few months I hope to add many more images, and at higher resolutions than currently displayed. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of Nomenclatural Standards you may wish to read the article by Wim Snoeijer that was published in Clematis International 2010.Nursery Membership
The Society offers a second category of membership - Nursery Membership. So far we have been very pleased with the support that many nurseries have given by renewing as Nursery Members. We thank them all. These Nursery Members can be found on a special Nursery Members page on this website. The Society hopes you will recognize that, as members of this Society, these Nursery Members have a particular interest, knowledge and love of clematis and can be expected to provide a range and quality of plants, and informed knowledge, not usually available in non-specialist outlets. Please check this page regularly for additions. Whilst it is now too late for your nursery details to be included in Clematis International 2011, any further Nursery Memberships will be published on this website as they are received and also in the List of Members when it is reissued at the beginning of next year.Trialing New Clematis
An example of a Clematis Trial contract, mentioned in the article in Clematis International 2008 about trialing new clematis by well-known clematis breeder, Wim Snoeijer, can be downloaded by visiting the A.O.B. (Any Other Business) page accessible from our Information, Answers and Questions section.How do you pronounce .....
If you're uncertain how to pronounce some clematis names, why not visit Clematis on the Web. A number of cultivar entries now have a helpful "how to say" feature. A classic example is probably C. 'Mrs Cholmondeley'. How do you pronounce this? Just take a look at Clematis on the Web - Mrs Cholmondeley, click on the loudspeaker icon and find out for yourself. This is an extreme example but I'm sure there are many others that people may be unsure of, but don't like to ask. Now you can find out in the privacy of your own home.And finally ....
The ethos of the Internet is to be an open forum for ideas, views and opinions. Sites should encourage visitors to link to other sites, it's a two-way process. So if you've got a few moments, why not look at our Clematis Links page and follow up one or two. You may find a lot more than you were expecting!For any non-members visiting this site, have you considered joining the Society? With plans for some very interesting meetings over the next few years there couldn't be a better time. For details, visit our How to Join page.
Last message - for any new visitors. If you cannot see a set of menu buttons down the left hand side of your screen your link to this site may be incorrect. Please re-visit by calling www.clematisinternational.com.
This site has been designed and built by me, Ken Woolfenden. I'm always interested in any comments or suggestions you have regarding this site. Please email me at
icls editor.
However, if you have a question please use the Question and Feedback Form.
All information contained at this site is personal to Ken Woolfenden and
does not represent the official view of the International Clematis Society.
@K.L.Woolfenden
