Canadian Gardening: Anyone growing Sweet Autumn Clematis?, 1 by woodyoak

woodyoak wrote:
They will certainly grow here and I haven't found mine to be invasive. They can get quite big though so a study support is necessary. I grow mine on the chainlink fence on the north side of the property. I found it was slow to get big if I cut it back completely in the spring. It shares the fence with honeysuckle. Now I leave the main fraework of the oldest stems and just trim back growth that encroaches too much on the honeysuckle.

On the opposite fence I have what appears to be Summer Snow a.k.a. Paul Farges (I've lost the tag but I'm pretty sure that's what it is...) It looks much like SAC and is also sweetly scented but blooms for me in July. It is considered by most clematis sites to be a hard prune one like SAC but mine didn't bloom until I stopped pruning it back! I later found one botanical garden site that said it blooms better with light pruning, which is what I do.

Growing both SAC and Summer Snow gives me a long season of scented, small-flowered white clematis.

The SAC in early September: