Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

A few weeks ago we talked about an “early Spring”, simply because I thought some of my plants were flowering a lot sooner than expected. Especially the Clematis paniculata one of the seven native species of Clematis in Aotearoa.  Picture taken on Sunday 25 August, 2024  This is one of my favourite Native, New Zealand Climbers, also known as puawānanga, (flower of the skies). It belongs to the Family Ranunculaceae, the buttercup family – it always surprises me how something like Clematis paniculata belongs to the buttercup group, but then again, our plant taxonomy often has little to do with “resemblance”.  I planted our Clematis some 6 years ago near the base of a dying old Birch tree. That birch literally karked it in the next six months, so it was the perfect tree for the climber to climb on.  “Flower of the skies” needs to grow into the light, that’s where the flower buds will develop. The more exposed to sunlight, the better the buds develop.  Another important consideration is that the roots of the Clema