I am a haphazard gardener, to my regret, but age is the main factor for me now. That said, I planted one blue-flowered clem decades ago. I now have a pink&white striped one, and several pure white ones, scattered hither & yon -- not purchased. So I do think that breeze-carried newcomers are the answer! Do birds eate clem seeds? If so, that may be another reason, but IMO it's the wind... =)

And why the color changes??? 'Tis a puzzlement.

Oops. lost the note I just wrote.

Thanks, Roxanna.

Oh, color changes probably because of just the genetic dice roll since the plants grew from seeds.

This one has probably been there for a year or so with no watering or purposeful care. Perhaps I should propagate it, transplant it, or take a cutting before my non-gardener DH decides to mow it. He should have a license to mow and chop anything.

All large flowered clematis are hybrids so any seedlings will be highly variable as to color and flower size. And the seeds are contained in a very fluffy, down-like substance so easily transported by wind.

Thanks, as well, Gardengal.

My DH was kind enough to snap some photos. I notice there is a red daylily nearby that I also did not intentionally plant there.

Looks like I have some serious weeding to do. The blackberry plants are wild (Burbank?) but delicious. The birds always beat me to them.

How lovely.

I once had a really beautiful creamy white one come up. A hard winter eventually took it out.

So beautiful, Nicole!

Large flowered clematis are fun to grow from seed, sometimes though not the most easy to germinate! Yes, variation among seedlings can be very wide, even from seeds having been self pollinated ... but, occasionally, these can come very similarity true to the parent, such as occurred for me with 'Omoshiro' ... the mother plant had up and died, though having produced two seedings and one being a dead ringer for mom, so close it is that I never bothered to replace it with the original.

NiCOZ5, your 'Jackmannii Superba' is very nice, just imagine when it becomes fully established!

"NiCOZ5, your 'Jackmannii Superba' is very nice, just imagine when it becomes fully established! "

@FrozeBudd_z3/4....In my Colorado climate, 4'-5' IS AN established Clematis. It's eight years old. The Winters are harsh, we're at 7600' high altitude, hail/wind/pocket gophers eating the roots...clematis die back to the ground.

NiCOZ5 ... a few winters ago had plummeted to -45 F here on the Canadian prairies, the only saving grace being the "generally" consistent snow cover and as well I protect the base of the large flowered types growing in open ground. Most thankfully, I do have good native soil that tends to stay light and fluffy that clematis roots can penetrate way down and for the large flowered beauties, I dig and amend very DEEPLY!

Here's a three year old 'Pernille' ...

Beautiful, FrozeBudd.

Thanks petalique ... I like 'Pernille', though is a variety that requires a companion to be paired up with, 'Perle d'Azur' had unfortunately perished alongside it last year, time to find another partner!