How to Hybridise a Clematis

I bet, like me that you have dreamed of discovering or creating a plant which turns out to be something special?

Maybe we will not all get an opportunity like Peter Catt did when he discovered what he thought was just a rogue golden sport on the side of the Choisya ternata.

That sport, which he carefully removed, brought on and successfully reproduced several times to ensure its stability, went on to make him his fortune.

Today, the Choisya ternata 'Sundance' is in many many UK gardens and put Peter Catt and his diminutive Greatham nursery firmly on the map.

What about the amateur gardener? Sure, there is always the possibility that mother nature will throw out something truly sensational one day but in the meantime there are a number of possibilities for you in creating a new plant, cross or hybrid by a little intervention yourself.

I have come across one such amateur gardener and nurseryman who tells in quite detail how to hybridise Clematis.

Brian Collingwood's site is absolutely packed with information on Clematis and how to reproduce them and more importantly in detailed and well written instructions.

For a taster taster of the quality of the advice on Brian's site and here, on the British Clematis Society forum is evidence that if you follow Brian's fantastic advice you can produce some truly gorgeous Clematis: