'Belle of Woking' Clematis of Jackman's Nursery

Alice Joyce proved that it is worth persevering when it comes to getting the best out of your plants.

In a recent blog post, she explained that only on the third attempt did her Clematis 'Belle of Woking' actually start to thrive - Alice said:

"Thinking that 'Belle' was doomed, I uprooted her one last time, placing the scraggly remains in a large glazed container of black bamboo at the rear of the garden. Here, the rare beauty did, in fact, flourish".

I love history associated with plants and people and it was with more than a little interest that I noted Woking in the title.

Woking was on the very edge of my patch during my time running my business.

There are a lot of nurseries in the area and when we had large planting jobs on I would order up what I needed from the various locations and take an afternoon - or sometimes the day - to round everything up.

I hated the drive mind - Woking is now the most congested and sprawling place but there is evidence everywhere of a much more salubrious past - even the Brookwood mental hospital was a Victorian architectural show piece.

Many of the villages have joined together now but reading through the history of St Johns, I realised that there was once a vast common in Woking of over two thousand three hundred acres before the land was bought by London Necropolis & National Mausoleum Company to build what it now known as the Brookwood Cemetery.

Jackman's Nursery, from where the Clematis 'Belle of Woking' would have originated, was started in 1810 by William Jackman on fifty acres at St Johns Hill.

George Jackman took over the nursery with his brother Henry after the death of their father but George was soon to go it alone and build the world famous Jackman's nursery which at its height spanned three hundred acres.

George Jackman - the son of George Jackman - can be attributed with producing 'Belle of Woking' - other Clematis that plant lovers will be familiar with that are renowned worldwide are 'Beauty of Surrey' and of course Clematis jackmanii.

Image courtesy of Alice Joyce