Several years ago, pmermakov posted lots of lovely pictures of her clematis combinations. I remember that she had a great photo of Emilia Plater growing with Ville de Lyon. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that any of her photos made the transfer from GardenWeb to Houzz. Here is a link to an old thread from 2012 that still has some photos to look at. Although none of pmermakov's photos can now be seen, it might be worth your while to read what her combinations are as I thought she seemed to be gifted in fantastic pairings. There still are some photos from others to be seen in this thread. ideas for fantastic clematis combos wanted

Ville de Lyon was one of my first clematis, and remains one of my favorites. It is a type 3 clematis, so pruning will be easiest if you plant it with one of the same pruning group. IMO it looks good with medium to light pink, blue/purple, and white so you have lots of choices. It is fairly vigorous, but not as large as monsters like Betty Corning or Sweet Autumn, so you want to find clematis that will grow to a similar size so one doesn't overwhelm the other. Mine doesn't have another clematis sharing its support - it grows through a Hydrangea - but here it is with a medium pink flower.

If you find some clematis you think might look good with Ville de Lyon, you can put one word of its name in the search page for Clematis on the Web and it will give you the height. For comparison, CotW says Ville de Lyon grows 2.5 to 5 meters, but mine hasn't grown longer that 3 or 3.5 meters in half day sun.

How pretty Babs.

I saved a picture of Ville de Lyon paired with Josephine (dbl). There were 2 blooms of Killian Donahue lower in the picture. It's one of my favorite combos, with or without Killian.

As lovely as they might look together, I wouldn't plant Josephine with Ville de Lyon since V de L is a large group 3 prune plant while Josephine is a group 2 and much smaller. Pruning would be difficult and Josephine might well get overwhelmed.

I just planted a combination of Ville De Lyon and Ramona last fall after researching pix here and info on various plant type/sizes. I liked photos of Ville and Prince Charles together here, but Prince Charles is not quite tall enough for my 10' trellis (under construction). Ramona is a 2, but I will just prune it as a 3.

Ramona

Ville De Lyon

Prince Charles

Would someone explain the pruning groups for clematis. This is the first time I've heard of it! Thanks in advance!

Here is an article on the Brushwood Nursery website that might be helpful. Scroll down the page toward the bottom to see the pruning guide and the three pruning groups explained.

How to grow clematis, including pruning groups

There's an FAQ in this forum that talks about pruning groups but the third part got chopped off in the transition from ivillage GW to houzz GW. I've let them know and hopefully it will be restored. Very basically, plants that bloom in spring (type 1 & 2) set buds the previous year and if pruned in winter or early spring they will lose or have delayed blooming. Any pruning needed should be done right after blooming,and for type 2 this may encourage new growth and a second bloom in the fall (though that never happens for me as with my short growing season.) Plant that bloom in summer should be pruned to one or two buds per stem in winter or early spring so that new growth where the blooms are low enough to be appreciated. For the most part Clematis will bloom even if they are unpruned, but proper pruning will maximize the bloom.

Thank you! Great information!