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Clematis 'Prince Charles'

Medium to large blue flowers, ranging from very pale blue to mauve-blue with a slightly darker bar. Cream or yellow anthers. According to Robin Savill (1999) a chance seedling named by Alister Keay of New Zealand in 1975 and introduced into the UK by Jim Fisk in 1986. Brewster Rogerson (2001) tells a slightly different story - that what we now call 'Prince Charles' was an undocumented cultivar acquired by Alister Keay in the mid-1950s and that he, seeing its potential, started producing it commercially. This version of events allows the possibility that 'Prince Charles' is in fact C. 'Modesta' (raised in France by M. Modeste-Guérin in 1866) which was thought to have been lost to cultivation. Without a documented provenance this is unlikely ever to be proved one way or the other.


Group: Late large-flowered group
Approximate height:  1.5 - 3.0 metres
Flowering period(s):  Jul Aug Sep
Aspect: Any aspect
Pruning: Hard prune (Group 3)
Raised by: Alister Keay
Country of origin: New Zealand
Date raised:  n1975 i1976
Parentage:  Unknown
Other name(s): C. 'Modesta'? (see description); viticella 'Prince Charles'
Further detail: Flower diameter: (6-) 8-15cm
Tepals: 4-6, 6cm long, 3.5cm wide, obovate, deeply ribbed, pointed, gappy, margin wavy