clematis do not have petals

if you love clems, you probably know that they do not have "petals". the beautiful colored things we think of as petals are actually "sepals".
what's the difference?
a sepal is a protective outer leave that covers the bud and then stays at the bottom of the flower. Turn a rose over, and see the tiny green "leaves" at the bottom of the flower......those are the sepals of the rose.
turnover a clem and you will notice no traditional little sepals......the "petals"are actually the sepal. this is what distinguishes the genus and puts some unlikelys as delphinium, hellebores, buttercups, and the rest of the group together as a family. if this unlikely family group of the genus interests you, do a little research to see the whole family.......the distinguishing factor of the group is ....no petals! the petals are really sepals!
with clematis beauty like we have all come to appreciate, "who cares" may be your response...and i won't disagree with you. but one of the things i like most about my hellebores and delphiniums is that they are in the same family as my beloved clems!

Very interesting. Thanks for that information.

It was very interesting....something I never really thought about before...

Niobe you are just too darn cute!!!!

the mary toomey encyclopedia of clematis is a great resource. of course now so much info os available on line. when i started in clems about 7 years ago i bought the book and put my first 20 types in in the same season.
and having been lucky enough to hear mary lecture a few times when she has been in northern califorinia really kept me motivated as i waited out the first few years of slow growth, failures and etc.

Niobe...which clematis is that in the picture?

It is 4 year old rouge cardinal, with a delphinium to the right of it it getting ready to bloom. and the bushes at the bottom are single lactiflora peonies that had already bloomed out. (photo from 2008)
dreaming of spring for sure. maybe the snow will melt this weekend. i predict an early spring in my area...or maybe that is wishful thinking.

We're due for temperatures in the 50's for a few days. Now if the sun would just shine!

Well the sun is out in my little part of the world but for how long who knows. We are suppose to be getting a few warmer days now for a bit ,just hope it stays too!!!

I think we are all hoping for an early spring.....I am now officially tired of snow. I just can't wait to get my hands dirty again....

I was beginning to believe that we wouldn't ever see the bare ground again.LOL Thank goodness our snow is gone.

What is the difference between sepals and bracts? I think it's pointsettias that have bracts, if that is the term. So in this pic , is the sepal the outer ring of large "petals" and the inner puff the actual petals?

Poinsettias colorful "flowers" are, as you said, bracts.

I'm just guessing the outer ring are sepals and inner are "modified" somethings but Niobe will tell us, I hope.

Gorgeous photo, Louise!

Thanks Pirl. That is a clematis that needs a trellis. I just realized that this instant. More Home Depot for me!

Yeah!

well there is more interest on this topic than i thought there would be.
start with this...
clematis do not have petals
sepals are the outermost layers that protect the reproductive part of a plant.
brachts are a very protective, more " leathery" petal like layer around the flower (the poinsetta's center is actually the flower). when these center flowers actual mature and open , the leathery brachts are unslightly and by then have served their purpose. i think we enjoy the poinsetta in a unripe stage and consider the bracht a beautiful petal.
with clematis (the ranaculaae genus) what we call the "petal" is a sepal , but is also commonly called a "tepal"......so whether you call it a tepal or a sepal, it is not a petal.....the differentiating factor is the absence of a sepal if you turn the flower over and look at the place where it connects with the stem. turn over a hellebore bloom in a few weeks and you will see the absence of the little protective green things that have initially protected the bud.......let's keep this a secret so as not to discourage people further from clems, seeing how complicated the planting, pruning and identifying of types is.......
join the american clematis society to support the growth and info on clems and settle in for a good read with anything by mary toomey if you are so inclined. but do that now cause soon we will all be out getting dirty and celebrating the joy of spring and the unbelievable hardiness, beauty and learning opportunity of clematis.

If a tepal is not a petal and petal is not a tepal, why did they use the same letters?!?

Good one, Louise!

I think a person could get confused this way LOL !!!!!!!!!!!!

well, what about clems is not confusing?

One of the things I love so much about them is that if I cut Ernest Markham way back in April it won't bloom on time but will bloom, fairly reliably, on June 17th. That's good for me because in back of it is a large azalea and the spent ugly blooms show up in the photos. Allowing it to bloom later gives me a nice green background.

I couldn't do that with irises!

i'm with you on that pirl. this spring i plan to do a good bit of that nipping and ticking to get my main flush of blooms a little later than ususal. this is because of some visitors form out of state and wanting to have as many blooming as i can when they are visiting.

this is one reason i like bloom tracking, so that i can look back and see when blooms are expected and how i can tweak that bloom time. or prune back before blooms are finished as they are waning to get an earlier, more vigorous, second bloom period.

clems are an obsessive journey......

I always say I'll trim back half of one of them to have more continuous bloom. Some day I just might do it.

Long ago, in the days before we all had computers, I tracked my daylilies by FFO - First Flower Open date. It's SO much easier keeping track with photos on the computer!

Ok Niobe and Pirl you are both obssessed little girls LOL

Don't worry though - I love you that way! LOL

So the question is....if you cuyt half of the stems back in April will half of the plant bloom early and h alf bloom later?

Yes. I'll try to do it this year but we all know how tangled the vines get.

I will too. Though at this time my clematis have yet to really take off. For most of them th is will be their third year.

to cut half of the stems. go to the base, a node or two above the ground, and cut half of them thu.... very low early in spring, don't worry about removing the part above the cut. by the time the plant gets vigorous any dead stems will be hidden, or you can pick them out and snip them later when it is obvious which ones you have cut off and killed. they will be brownand the others will be green!
this is better than damaging the canes you are not cutting. much less work too.
on a nice big vigorous plant this gives a longer bloom time and can help keep the plant in check if it does not have unlimited space to spread into or up.

I just don't like seeing the old wood. I do leave it on the obelisk since there are so many clematis on it.

I learned that lesson also last year. The early blommers got cut in half... they bloomed again, and seemed really invigorated

Great advice Niobe

thanks KY! will have to take some of it myself when i hit the garden this spring. i will not be able to get out too much in march due to weather and business committments......by the time it gets warm i will be in for some deep work.
with over 300 varieties ( and lots of dupes..so many many clem plants) the general areas and paths get deep mulching with larger wood chips etc over landscape mat. then around the clems i do a deep compost/fine mulch with some granular fertilizer.
of course there will be some who need immediate clean up/pruning and some to nip winter damage away.

our last frost date is actually mid may, so getting out there in april is early enough. and over the years i have tamed down that spring energy and do not plant anything until mid may. this gives time for taking care of everything before planting time.

just walking around relishing in the growth and enjoying the emergence of spring will take hours and hours.
i put in a lot of plants last fall with the chalk hill sale and some other piggy ordering. so those till need thought to structure and permanent labeling. not to mention the 25 other ones i ordered for spring delivery. oink oink.

but it is a big joy every year to get back out there and be taking care of them. i try to be discplined and do all one task in one day such as labeling. or fertilizing . or planting. or mulching works better for me than doing multi task in one area.

Yes what a joy. I wlked around my garden today in the sun shine and 60 degree weather. ( of course I first had to cut up the limbs that fell from our old silver maple tree). The buds on the clematis are swelling and it looks like most have made it. I started one in my basement this past fall and it has been there all along. Its just holding on. Our usual alst frost here is considered Derby day which is the first Saturday in May. I uncovered a Half gallon milk jug that I had put in my cold frame this past summer and I may have some seedlings coming up though the plants are too small to identify at this time.

In the meantime the sun is shining here and there is no more ice storms in sight.