Robin, the clematis is referred to as viticella the species. It is the mother of quite a few viticellas. Mine is not flowering yet this season. I am sure it is doing its root development thing and also conserving its strength to deal with this heat wave and drought conditions we are experiencing.

I don't know if I can wait another year to find out if you have fallen in love with this species. I have been deliberating between Betty Corning and Viticella. It appears that the Viticella gets taller but have no idea if it has good second blooms as does Betty nor do I know how many to buy for this 8 foot area. Any thoughts on this one?

I grew a couple of species viticella plants from seed. They are only 3 years old so I am unsure how big they will get or how long they will bloom. Both of them bloomed this year. One had nodding dark blue bells and the
other one had a white midrib on it's sepals. I thought they were both very cute and nice plants. They grew about 8' tall and bloomed for 3-4 weeks in July for me. If you have an 8' flower bed I would plant both the viticella and the Betty Corning. The viticella has a dark bell and the
Betty has a light blue bell so the colors would look very nice together. I think you will like both of them. My BC is 4 years old now and is such a good bloomer, I really like it. This is the only picture I took of the viticella with the light colored midribs. It is not a very good picture and the sepals are actually darker than the photo shows. Karen

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Here's Betty

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They are both lovely!!..Jeanne

I agree flowerfan, both lovely. If I had to choose between the two however, I would chose Betty Corning for her fragrance. I would however look hard to find room for both.

Karen, the photos are lovely. Great shot of Betty. My only concern about BC is the size. Will it reach 10-12 feet? I also understand the BC can grow up to 12 feet wide. If this be the case then I would only have room for one. Where did you get your seeds? I would like to try some from seeds too.

Robin, it depends on your growing conditions once again. Mine has been in the ground 3 years and it shares a single support with 3 other clematis so it has never reached 12 feet tall and 12 feet wide.

Also, realize that although viticella the species should come true from seed since it a species clematis and not a hybrid, if there are any other clematis nearby that it could be cross-pollinated by the bees, wasps, etc, then what you get out of the resulting seeds will not be a plant that can be called viticella the species. The best way to get a true clone of any species clematis is to insure that the plant is self pollinated or by cuttings/layerings. For a hybrid, the only way to get a true clone or a hybrid is by cuttings or layerings.

Hi Robin, I received my seeds from other gardeners via the web. I checked my vines, but none of the flowers set seed or I would have sent you some. There are exchange forums on this site and the seed exchange on the gardenweb. I believe I got mine from some generous gardeners on the gardenbuddies website in their clematis forum. Some gardeners will send you their excess seed if you send them an envelope. I have received seeds to lots of different species clematis seeds and have had a lot of fun growing them. I have grown viticella, flammula, rehderiana, serratifolia, pitcheri, potaninii, sweet autumn clematis, and lots of clematis from hybid seed.

I am sure you can buy seeds and plants online from mail order nurseries. You could do a google search to see what's available. Here's a photo of my pitcheri.

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Another lovely photo Karen. How long after you planted the seeds did you have to wait for your first flowers? I think that it would be fun to try. I have had a cutting of Miss Bateman in a jar since early spring. She has some nice roots on her. Tried several other varieties but this is the only one that sprouted roots. I look forward to potting her up later this week.
Miguel, thanks for the additional info. I will have to decide in the next few days and get in my order so that I have 6 weeks for them to get established. I do appreciate the great photos and feedback from the both of you.

It takes 6 mo-1year for the seeds to germinate, and then 2-3 years before they bloom. If you would like flowers next year then buying a plant this fall is the way to go. Clematis are usually long lived plants so it takes awhile before they really start blooming profusely. In my garden it takes about 5 years before they really get large and produce a lot of blooms.

Miss Bateman is a very pretty clematis. It is a good bloomer for me. The plant blooms from top to bottom for me in the spring. I did have wilt on it the first year or two but it outgrew it and has been fine every since. I am sure you'll enjoy it. Here's mine this spring. Karen

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No problem Robin. Some clematis including the tanguiticas and integrifolias can take much less than 6 months to sprout from seed. These varieties can sprout in a month or less. The hybrids tend to take longer to germinate as do most of the american natives, although there is some evidence that pretreatment with Gibberellic acid can speed up the process significantly. However the thing to remember is that growing from seed can take patience as Karen pointed out and if you want a plant that is commercially available, then I would go that route unless you have extreme patience. Plants that are difficult to find or if you want to try your hand at hybridizing certain plants are typically ones that I would try to grow from seed.

Lovely picture of pitcheri Karen. I love the two plants of it that I have! Then again I love anything purple! :0

Oops meant to say I have two pitcheri plants and a pitcheri hybrid that Dan at Brushwood Nursery sells.
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Robin, I emailed you through GW email service. Let me know if you get the email!