Clematis

When we moved into our house, we had a small concrete patio flanked on one side by a garage wall (white aluminum siding) and on the other side by an interesting structure. I'm still not sure what it was--brick base, wood framing, and the bonus of termites.

Over the last few years, we've replaced the concrete patio and interesting structure with a large paver stone patio, and built up the landscaping. We use the garage wall as the edge of a flower bed, and have three black aluminum trellises where we grow clematis.

I have a jackmanji, which blooms in the spring, and is well established (i.e., it gets huge!).  A sweet autumn clematis, which blooms in the fall, and this one, which was advertised as blooming in the summer but actually starts ahead  of the jackmanji.  This one hasn't done great, but it's doing okay.  It may not have hit its stride yet.  I enjoy my flowers.  They're almost all perennials and pretty much do their own thing.  Lovely.

I can see them from my kitchen window, and I painted some of the flowers on the trellis.  Colors are quinacridone red, quinacridone purple, phthalo blue red scale, hansa yellow medium, and hooker's green deep.  300 lb Fabriano rough.  About 11x8 inches.

When I started, the flowers were a much lighter pink, but the edges were too hard,  so I went back in....the edges may still be too hard.  I'll have to think on it....

And a pic of the flowers--after a rain storm.