Medium to large violet-blue flowers with lavender veining. White filaments and brown anthers. Raised by Cripps & Son before 1873. Confusingly, Cripps had given this name to an earlier cultivar (before 1866) which he later discarded. In 1912, William Robinson in his book 'The Virgin's Bower' lists this cultivar as "trusted to give lovely effects if culture and position be all [it] deserves."

It is widely held that this 'Guiding Star' is synonymous with 'Lilacina Floribunda', but the International Clematis Register and Checklist 2002 suggests that more likely there was confusion between Cripps's pre-1866 'Guiding Star' and his pre-1880 'Lilacina Floribunda'.