A montana will completely engulf the crape myrtle and smother it in no time........that I would NOT recommend!!

Macropetalas in my climate are in bloom about 3-4 weeks depending on the weather. Not all buds open at the same time so that extends the bloom period slightly.

Thank you garden gal. I'll skip the Montana then. I've always wanted to grow one! The only other thing I have for it is this hideous holly that is as tall as my two story deck. What do you think of that ? Actually it's only hideous bc I don't like them. Very nice shape but covered in flies in the spring .

Do you have a favorite macropetala type ?

Since I prefer any species clematis to the large flowering hybrids, I like any of the macs! But I am not a big fan of pink flowers (regardless of the plant), so lean more towards the blues. And I really like Sedgwick's Gold - you have the gold foliage accenting the support shrub as well as bright blue flowers.

I posted a thread last year on the size potential for C. montana......you should check it out :-)) I really like this vine as it blooms very heavily and often with a scent but you need lots of room!!

Stolwijk Gold I think GG48 meant. I really like that one as well and have also Purple Spider and a mauve one called Joe Zary. I had a double white that the voles ate, but it bloomed really profusely. I haven't grown any of the pinks. I like the silvery seedheads, too, and they last for quite a while and are more prominent than some of the other cultivars.

I am absolutely unable to get a good photo of both the bloom color and foliage color together on Clematis alpina 'Stolwijk Gold', but here is a photo that is reasonable on foliage color and tells you the shape of the flowers. They are a steely blue to my eye in reality without much in the way of pink tones at all.

Here is another photo that includes the seed heads and just a few late flowers.

Here is the white one, C. 'Albina Plena', I think, and you can see a blue macropetala type in the background, though the color is too pink.

I will look to see if I took photos of any of the other atragene group clematis that I have. They typically bloom in May and early June in my yard and last for 3-4 weeks (you would be much earlier), though some types throw a few blooms periodically all season. We tend to go from cold to hot temperatures fairly quickly, so a few hot days can shorten the bloom time.

Oh my gosh those are beautiful! I love the bright green foliage. It loooks like this will be the perfect type for my tree. Is a whiskey barrel ok for it ya think ? I just worry about root competition between the two.

I've only grown these in the ground, so I am not sure about a whiskey barrel. I do know that they have somewhat different roots, more fibrous and shallow, and so they don't like being planted at extra depth as many of the Clematis do. My climate is really too harsh for growing plants in containers year round; most things die when the container freezes solid.