Broken Color Splotches on Bees Jubilee

This is Bees Jubilee. There are 4 open blooms on the plant today. This is the only one with the strange coloring. Any ideas what this may mean? Virus? Potential sport? Nothing at all, just an anomaly? Naturally, I'm hoping for the sport. I actually rather like the dots and dashes.

I should admit that I had a bout of that nasty tulip/lily virus several years ago. I removed all infected plants that year and sent them to the landfill. I haven't seen any damage on any of my remaining lilies since then. Does anyone know if clematis are susceptible to this virus? I have tons of other clems, none of which have shown any sign of problems or of color changes. Many of the others are in the area where the effected lilies were found, while this clem is on the other side of the yard quite some distance away.

I planted this clematis maybe 4 years ago from a plant I bought in a tiny 2-3in pot.

Edited for clarity

This message was edited Apr 13, 2009 1:55 PM

look down at the bottom of the plant carefully and make sure it is not another plant that seeded...i love this coloration as it looks like it has a bit of Tie Dye...
however, assuming it is the same plant it can be weather, or just genetics in there. The parentage of Bees Jubilee is unknown, so maybe just cool throw back to the parents!

Hi ClematisGuru,

I don't have Tie Dye, so it isn't anything that crossed with Tie Dye - at least not while in my garden. Also, note that the blooms are on the large side. I would estimate 5-6in, maybe a litte more. (Tie Dye blooms look smaller to me.) The existence of Tie Dye with its broken coloring gave me hope that the gene for that sort of thing must exist w/in clematis.

While I have lots of clems in my backyard (w/in 6ft privacy fence), this one is in the front yard in an 'experimental' area (testing to see how they do here). There are only 3 clematis in this area, 2 bees jubilees and 1 countess of loveless. They are 10ft or more apart. All 3 of these plants were planted 3-4yrs ago as tiny slips that were only about 6in tall at the time. This is the 1st time this one has ever bloomed. I mention this because it seems most unlikely under these circumstances that seeds of another clem or of this one crossed with another would have had time or opportunity to plant themselves in the area.

A few years ago one branch of Sunshine Blue blue mist shrub developed the most gorgeous 'variegation' with random sections of yellow-green and dk green on the leaves. I was so hopeful that this might be the beginning of a new sport, but in time the leaves reverted to the normal solid yellow-green.

Since this is the only flower with this coloration on the plant right now, there is a very good chance that it's just an anomaly that won't happen again, but one can hope. I like the coloring, too, and would love to see it continue to produce these uniquely colored blooms. Fingers crossed.

yes, keep an eye on it probably just first flower attempt of plant...tie dye was a sport of jackmanii. bees j is unknown, as i mentioned but may have jackmanii in background.
would be cool if the variation continues and gets more pronounced. but probably won't.
love these mysterys!

do you have tie dye? it is so amazing. here i am dragging out a 08 pic. my clems are underway but some time away form this type display!

Oh, how lovely!

No, I don't have Tie Dye. I was excited about it when I 1st saw it in the catalogs, but I haven't been able to do much in the garden the past 3 or 4 yrs due to illness, so I haven't bought any new clematis lately.

That's how I know this strange flower color is not due to an accidental cross with Tie Dye - unless it happened at the growers site. I'm starting to think about buying some new ones, but I really need to do some garden maintenance before I add new things.

yes love tie dye.
just get some new clems and put them next to your other clems and get so vigorous they cover up what is not done!
tie dye is the kind of clem that looks lke the photo form year 2 and people only notice her, not the undone stuff!

"Tie Dye" is putting a beautiful floral display! That is one very unique Clematis and everyone should grow in their gardens!

TieDye i s beautiful and I see it s a 3. Have to look for that one.

tie dye is a great clem. bred in the USA too!
i just put some perennial geraninum in front of mine....Splish Splash of course. will either be a winning combo or i will more the Splish Splash if it drives me crazy!

I had Splish Splash several years ago - pulled it out after a couple of years - too tall and sprawly for me!

all the perennial geraniums are like that . best in full sun. and cut them back, whack them 2 times before they bloom. then you get a more compact plant as it will get the message and bloom smaller. but they can be a PIA. i haven't had for years, and ordered a lot varieties to go between clems in a sunny area this year, but i will be merciless with early season whackings.

I have quite a few that are much smaller and tidier and they seem to prefer part shade here. I never thought to 'whack' them before they bloomed - must try that.

the more the shade the leggier they get, they are stretching for sun. more sun, more compact plant, but still needs whacking before bloom time.
they can be PIA for sure. but for value and fill in in sunny spots, they are amazing. and you can divide them in the early fall of the first year and stick some roots in for more next year.they are nice at base on clems.

Oh my goodness I just love the photo of Tie Dye I wish I had one or two of them growing here on my place. All I have are a couple of Bee's Jubilee and some I don't recall the names of.
Here's a picture of BJ a couple of days ago.
Happy Gardening, Marian

another photo that I don't know the ID of. The blooms on this one are as big as my hand and bigger.

share shade, sun level and pic of back of clem as well as age of plant. then jeanne can tell u what it is, you tx gals gotta stick together!

The two Clematis I have pictured above I got from Lowe's on the clearence racks last year for $2. each. I think I bought 10 of them. They were regularly $20 something dollars each. I bought all they had left. (grin)

Anyway I planted them on both side of the little homemade arbor and thought I was planting the same kind of both sides. Unfortunately I mixed them all up and they have both kinds growing on the arbor thingy.

I don't know much about them but they sure do bloom their little heads off. I just dug a hole and told them to grow or die one. As you can see they decided they wanted to live and took off very well.

This makes the 1st Spring/Summer I've had them and I have no ideal how old they are. They were in big pots with a trellis in them when I bought them.

Anyway for only having $2 in each one I'd say I'm getting more than my money worth out of them.
Happy Gardening, Marian

Marian,

They are very lovely and, yes, you certainly did make a very good buy. I paid between $10-$20 ea for most of mine.

Today while out surveying and photographing plants I noticed that there ARE splotches on several of the other flowers on the bees jubilee now. I like the splotches; however, I do agree that more would be better. Here are some pics from today. Note the small flecks and streaks on several of the flowers.

Just to clarify, I'm posting this photo to show the uncharacteristic, broken color 'scribbles' on the flowers. This is not about the beauty (or lack thereof) of the flowers. My garden has suffered considerable neglect since my knee injury several years ago, and this plant is no exception. I'm going to try to get out there tomorrow to do some weeding. But I just couldn't resist this opportunity to show all of you this unexpected behavior of my Bee's Jubilee.

Another pic. Note that 3 of the flowers have visible (although small) streaks, and the newly opened one top left appears to have some faint streaking w/in the normal stripes.

Another. Close up of a bloom with the stippling effect. This one was not shown in the original picture at the top of the thread. Note some streaking on the adjacent flower lower left. (and try to ignore the evidence of neglect such as weeds and blackspot.)

love those splotches. must be the same genes that gave us tie dye. so glad you shared this with us.

Thanks. Now I'm just hoping it will continue to display these characteristics. If it does, then perhaps someone will be able through selective 'breeding' to increase the number of streaks.

totallly cool!