I think that's the way they are supposed to be. Both Brushwood Nursery and Klehm's Song Sparrow photos show it as pale lavender. Klehm's says among other things "Sweetly fragrant bell shaped flowers are a lovely pale violet blue, blooming July through September."

I've been in discussions about true blue clematis, saved some photos, but they can be deceiving both by the way the camera captures colors and in catalogs.

I'm not convinced there is a true blue one yet; if I become so, I will order one. My C. Rooguchi is almost dark blue but has a little purple in it.

Pale violet blue explain mine to the button. I bought mine from Wayside and they were advertised blue. Oh well that's Wayside,been burnt twice from them. If I do find blue ones I'll be sure to post it.
Thank you for the follow up post.

Wayside sucks. They Photoshop their photos and grossly overcharge for small plants.

Betty Corning is lavender not blue. Some people are more anal about colors than others are. I'm very anal. Twenty years of being a florist doing a ton of weddings will do that to a person. Some are bluer than others but I've never seen a true blue Clematis.

Betty is a wonderful Clemmie though even if she isn't blue.

Please do not take this the wrong way, I despise Wayside as much as the next! The nursery I bought her from had her growing in a lot of shade & w/o the sun on her she did look silvery blue. Upon closer inspection she was definitely more lavender, escpecially the inside of the flower. The illusion of light. I think she'd make a great moon garden plant! We'll see, it looks like she is going to start up in the next week :)

Wayside sucks. They Photoshop their photos and grossly overcharge for small plants.

So do some other places. We were talking about it on the iris forum, then someone was asking about which perennials were true blue, ended up with quite a list, correct, but don't remember any that bloomed all through the summer.

I photoshop some of my flower photos to make them a little more contrasty with curves, but try not to alter the basic colors. These are just my personal photos.

I ordered some iris then looked for regular photos on the web, nothing at all like what I thought I'd ordered. I think when you have paper catalogs printed, there is something about getting the calibration right, but I think some plants are seriously misrepresented. Same is true with preparing photos for the web and calibration from one computer to another. And I think a few places exaggerate and downright misrepresent at times.

If you mail order anything important, it's best to check an appropriate forum here and ask for photos and if people have actually seen them growing.

Thanks to the person who said they'd never seen a blue clematis. Didn't think so. There was one posted on our newspaper site, very bright, medium blue. I commented and asked about the color, haven't gotten an answer.

Yes, many companies photoshop their photos but Wayside is the worst for misrepresentation in my opinion. They are a huge rip off that makes money hand over fist and it sucks.

A blue vine that blooms all summer is 'Heavenly Blue' morning glories but I've had trouble with the seeds not being 'Heavenly Blue' two different brands, two different years, two different morning glories.....