Clematis have long been favourites as a traditional garden plant with their broad saucer shaped flowers often being displayed on vines that adorn garden trellis, archways or pergolas. Faced with a relatively static market situation the Guernsey Clematis Nursery Ltd. (GCN) in the Channel Islands has introduced a modern twist to this traditional plant that offers something new to both the garden and floriculture markets.

by Paul Ingrouille

After working in hunting, developing and introducing clematis varieties since the 1960s Raymond Evison, owner of Guernsey Clematis, started to combine his knowledge of the genus with the modern breeding techniques of the Danish rose specialist Poulsen Roser in 1995. The results of this joint venture (JV) have not only provided a series of more compact clematis suitable for smaller spaces, but also blurred the distinction between the more garden orientated and floral markets.
Traditionally popular forms of large flowered clematis generally fall into two groups: Early Large Flowering (ELF), which produce a flush of flowers in spring and sometimes again in autumn and Late Large Flowering (LLF), which flower from mid-summer onwards. The initial focus of the breeding program was towards more compact, free flowering clematis, more suitable for today’s smaller gardens and a move towards container growing. “We look for plants that flower readily on both the previous season’s and the current season’s growth. We are also looking for plants that are easier to care for with simple pruning requirements,” says Evison. These plants straddle the more traditional ELF and LLF forms of clematis and are able to flower almost continually from spring onwards. Evison adds, “Though consumer led, these features also offer the producers benefits, lending themselves to efficient production cycles to meet specific sales dates.” Furthermore, work with near-evergreen cultivars, which are very closely related to the Clematis florida species, has also produced a long flowering range for indoors that can also be planted out in sheltered positions.


Breeding patience
Chris Ozanne, cultural and breeding manager, refers to problems associated with breeding large flowered clematis, a long germination period being just one of the time consuming processes that means it is often 10 years from pollination to production: “Whilst there are well documented techniques for improving germination of late summer flowering varieties with smaller flowers, ELF clematis are closely related to the C. patens and C. lanuginosa species and germinate less readily with sometimes complex dormancy requirements. We try and remain focused, but as with any program we are always assessing many seedlings at one time (in this case over 10,000).”
The plants are assessed at three stages: first is the flower and flowering ability; the plants are then grown on to a stage where they can be assessed for their overall habit (compactness, time to flowering, foliage to flower balance); and thirdly, from a more commercial level they are assessed in terms of propagation and pest and disease resistance. The JV partnership has also allowed for hardiness to be tested in the Danish climate. At each stage less than 10% of the plants are selected and the remaining cultivars discarded so that at the end of an extensive testing and trialling period only about two to five varieties of the original 10,000 may ever reach commercial release.
The first round of crosses drew strongly on Evison's strong knowledge of the genus and the JV had early success with good, compact, free flowering forms in light blue and purple colours, e.g. Parisienne™ Evipo019(N). Evison comments, “Nearly 15 years into the program we are now getting good strongly coloured deeper blue and red forms with the desired habit and repeat flowering characteristics, e.g. recent introductions such as Ooh La La™ Evipo041(N), Fleuri™Evipo042(N) and Rebecca™ Evipo016(N). We are also placing increased importance on plants that produce multiple flowers early in the season without high energy inputs.”


Split distribution
Transport costs are one of the handicaps in operating from a small island, but GCN remains the largest producer of young plants as the hardy, deciduous nature of clematis means that young plants are able to be shipped worldwide as a bare root. Plants bound for Europe are sent as either liners or plugs. Investment in the propagation facilities has been stimulated via the contact with Poulsen Roser, this contact has also enabled knowledge transfer of modern techniques with some of the best producers in Denmark and Holland. For its main-line production GCN uses ebb and flood benching on one of its two 2 ha nurseries to produce 3.5-4 million young plants annually as either 3-4 month old rooted cuttings or as 8-9 month old liners. A low level of finished plant production is conducted to prove the performance of new introductions.
The company sees a difference between the demands of the garden centre market, which has more focus on individual varieties, and that of the international floral markets, which are more focused on flowering performance. The JV has subsequently adopted a split approach to distribution that relies on Poulsen's closer links with producers in the floral markets, and their management of the propagation licensing for growers worldwide. Clematis that are more suitable for the independent garden centre market, on the other hand, are distributed and marketed by GCN under the ‘Raymond Evison Clematis’ name, which is used in conjunction with consistent, branded, point of sale promotions.

The author is production manager at GCN, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .


Icon of Clematis
Born in the late 1940s, Raymond Evison started his horticultural career at the age of 15 in Shropshire, England. He has introduced over 100 clematis species cultivars and set up the Guernsey Clematis Nursery in 1985, taking advantage of the island’s milder climate and long growing season. His first book Making the Most of Clematis was issued in 1977 and is now in its third reprint. This was followed by The Gardeners Guide to Growing Clematis (1998), Clematis for Everyone (2000) and more recently Clematis for Small Spaces (2007).
Since the 1980s Evison has been a committed member of numerous horticultural bodies. After strong involvement in the International Plants Propagators Society (as a previous international president) and the National Council for Conservation of Plants and Gardens, he was the main driving force behind the formation of the International Clematis Society in 1984, of which he was president from 1989-1991 and is now an honorary fellow. He remains strongly involved in the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) as a Council Member. At a local level on Guernsey he chairs the Guernsey NCCPG group as well as being president of the Guernsey Botanic Trust for whom he is currently heading up a project targeting the restoration of a Victorian Walled Kitchen Garden. In 1995 he was awarded the RHS Victoria Medal of Honour for his outstanding service to British Horticulture, this was followed by an OBE in 2000 for his services to horticulture on Guernsey and more recently the RHS Reginald Cory Memorial Cup for his far-reaching work in breeding and developing new clematis cultivars. Over this period numerous gold medals have been awarded for exhibits at shows and exhibitions including Chelsea, Hampton Court, Philadelphia and Toronto.
Raymond Evison still lives in Guernsey with his wife Sarah but travels widely both for business and perhaps his main loves, plant hunting and lecture presentations on clematis.


Guernsey’s horticultural history
by Alan Dorey, president of the Guernsey Growers Association.
Whilst more recently recognised as a leading finance centre, the small island of Guernsey, situated between England and France in the English Channel, is proud of a horticultural history that dates back 200 years. The first heated glasshouse was built in 1792; it is still standing today in the Candie Gardens Public Park. Dessert grapes were the first major crop to be grown and exported from Guernsey, with records dating back to 1830. By 1915 grape exports peaked at 2,500 tons per year, however, production started to decline in the 1920s. Island holdings are still frequently referred to as ‘Vineries’ from the grape growing days.
Tomatoes were first grown on the Island in 1865, initially as a catch crop in the grape houses. Tomato exports peaked in the late 1950s early 1960s with more than 405 ha of glasshouses being devoted to their production. By the 1990s tomato culture had fallen to about 20 ha to be replaced by four main cut flower crops, freesias, carnations, roses and iris. Today, the main horticultural activities focus on growing specialist pot plants and edible crops with less than 57 ha of production.