Clematis Species, Pitcher's Leather Flower, Bluebill

This beautiful, delicate flowering vine grows along fencerows close to the Sabanna River and the Leon River in Comanche County, TX. The l...Read Moreast time I saw it was in 2007 when we had very heavy spring and summer rains. It has not appeared since then because of much drier conditions.

I have this growing on my land in partial shade on the north bank of the Colorado River in East Austin. It's very pretty.

Mine grows in full sun, but the base is protected by a shrub. Digging up for dividing is easy but oh my! it sulks for a long time befor...Read Moree it recovers.

UPDATE June 2018: still in my garden. Doubt it’ll ever leave despite abject neglect. Unsure as to why bell shaped flowers never fully open as I’ve seen in pictures. It has a musky, rather unpleasant smell.

Clematis pitcheri is a delicate native Texas vine that grows naturally in the moist woods, forest margins and stream banks throughout the...Read More eastern half of the state. The flowers appear from June through August and are followed by fruits with silky tails. This is the most cold hardy of Texas's native clematis, although its herbaceous stems will die back each year. Height is 12-15' and blooms in the summer purple to dark red and prefers full shade in my garden.

Another variety of Clematis pitcheri, C. pitcheri var. dictyota (formerly classified as Clematis filifera, or C. pitcheri var. filifera) grows in the Trans-Pecos area of Texas at elevations of over 4000 feet.