Name: Clematis ‘Sweet Summer Love’

Type of Plant: Small vine that grows well in full sun to part shade. Flowers are small, and a reddish purple in color. The buds and seed heads are quite lovely too, so this plant looks good for a long period of time.

Why I Love/Hate this plant: I love the fact that this clematis has so many small flowers. (I like the larger flowering varieties too, don’t get me wrong!) I also like the fact that it will mix well with climbing roses, or scramble nicely in and around a shrub that has an open habit.

A Word to the Wise: This plant can grow 10 to 15 feet tall, but you can prune it back in the early spring if needed since if flowers on new growth. Like many Clematis, I found that mine took about two or three years to really “take off.”

The buds are pretty on this plant and the foliage is small enough so that you can combine it with roses on a trellis or arbor.

The flowers are a magenta-purple, so they mix well with many other colors.