Thanks, I've looked at it on line and wondered if it was any good. I've got a lot of clematis books. Have you read it?

I want that one and Linda Beutler's.

Very tempting.

I have not read Evison's book yet but I did buy it. I have flipped through it several times locally but didn't want to pay full price.

I have Linda Beutler's. My only complaint is that she talks on and on about growing Clematis through trees and shrubs but almost all of the photos are flower close ups. I still don't quite understand how to get them growing up through trees and shrubs. I've planted them to but they don't cooperate.

I've had varying amounts of success with that. I can't get them to cling on a dwarf arctic willow, but do have them growing up crabapples, yews, shadblow, forsythia, and mockorange. For me, they do some damage to the underlying plant, though. I've moved some of them off the plants and on to rebar pyramids in front of the plants for that reason. In fact, I have a Huldine climbing on a crabapple which I'm starting to worry about. I think I maybe should have given the crab more of a head start. I have already killed one crabapple with a clematis and don't want to kill another. Having said all that, though, what I did was loosely circle the trunk with some of that green mesh, which the clemmie climbs until it can reach the lowest branches. Then it just takes off.

I planted Inspiration behind a ten year old Miss Kim lilac and wanted it to climb up and through to the front but it keeps running around behind in the shade. I thought it would grow up and through towards the sun.

I've used copper tubing to get Bill MacKenzie and Grace up two fifteen year old fruit trees but Bill MacKenzie just wants to sprawl all over wide and not growing up. Grace is cooperating beautifully up the tubing but not doing much in the actual tree. I won't cut either down to the ground next year.

I let Durandii sprawl and it looked stiff and ungainly but when I put it in an obelisk it didn't look right either. It sprawled out the top and bent over. I need a tall tee pee I think.

Yep, that is where I purchased the book several months ago after gardengal mentioned it was published. Not a great deal of new information about clematis culture that you can't find in other books. Seems to be more of a advertisement for the Evison clematis than an authoritative book on clematis culture. The picture were nice though!

You can sometimes find similar if not better deals on www.half.com.

As long as were are discussing books...

I recently purchased Timber Press Guide to Clematis, by Mary Toomey, with Everett Leeds and Charles Chesshire. The back cover states that it "describes a broad selection of garden worthy plants" and is a "valuable compliment to Mary Toomey's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Clematis". I agree.

It has nice photos with mostly good descriptions. While it might not be a book that would appeal to the collector, it is full of information to help make buying decisions for the rest of us.

That is one book on clematis that I don't have yet Janet. One thing that I have noticed however is that recommendations made by English authors can often not give results that are similar to what one sees here in the US except for perhaps those living in the PNW whose weather mimics that of England more than any other place in the US.

I know what you mean. I am very careful of the gardening books I buy now. I only buy those specific to my area, but the eye-candy factor of clematis books are too much to resist. Besides, it's important for us to test "gardening worthiness" in the US considering most information on clematis comes from Europe.

Totally agree on both counts Janet. I am a sucker for any books on clematis as much for the pictures as anything else. I also like figuring out what works here versus in Europe, and England specifically since that is where so many of the clematis experts have been raising clematis for years and the ones who have written most of the books on them.