Yup....my favourite too.....covers my ugly rusty chain link fence.....

Yup....my favourite too.....covers my ugly rusty chain link fence.....

{{!gwi}}

I've always thought it's a perfect vine for a chain link fence. Perfect application. What is the hydrangea next to it?
Mine is just starting to pop. Interestingly, we don't usually have too many honey bees during the season, but as soon as the SAC starts blooming they come swarming in. Love to see them each year!

Ours is blooming now too - on a chainlink fence :-) Right plant; right place, and all that!

I've considered growing this vine, but some people say it reseeds like crazy, yes? I also have a dry garden and I wonder if it would tolerate that? I have a lot of part shade I could use it in, too.

Great photos rouge21 and iansgardener and such different settings, too!

I had it and liked it until I started to find those seedlings everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. It took a couple or three years to get rid of it, but it's gone. I think.

Kevin

This is beautiful but frankly I'm afraid to grow it! Instead I admire the one draping over the split rail fence at the local cider mill that I pass every day.

Beautiful photos! Ians_gardener, is that a Quickfire next to your clematis?

Dee

Beautiful pictures, really dresses up a chain link fence.
I also got rid of one and I'm still trying to kill off the seedling. Mine is an open dry garden, I think the seedlings love that.

I have had Sweet Autumn for 3 years now and have not found any seedlings.....That is a Quickfire hydrangea.....my favourite paniculata......so much so, I have two of them...

I just cut my monster back to the ground. It's finished blooming and easy enough to remove. Perhaps that is why I have no seedlings ever show up in the yard.
It doesn't matter much, I have so many various things including weeds from all the surrounding fields pop up everywhere that any seedling I didn't plant gets killed. The beauty of rural life!

I too have not noticed any seedlings in the 3 or 4 years we have had it but on one side of the fence is wild so some 'babies' may be there.

I just cut my monster back to the ground

I find SAC easier to handle than Paul Farges' SUMMER SNOW.

Mine will bloom for the first time this year and I wonder if it is going to over-take the other three varieties I have on the trellis? It is growing so quickly and the other varieties are done blooming. I really look forward to seeing it bloom --- it is covered with buds!

Is this the same as Virgin's Bower? We have that wild all over here, but I thought that SAC is a different plant?

aseedisapromise, "Virgin's Bower" is a different variety. VB is also know as Clematis "virginiana".

(In fact looking at pictures on the web it looks to me, very much like Paul Farges' SUMMER SNOW.)

Here is a link that might be useful: VB or Virginiana

Newbie gardener here, so please pardon my ignorance. Rouge21 and Bumblebeez, you say that you cut yours back to the ground. I can't wrap my head around how it can grow to such gigantic proportions after such a haircut. Why does that happen, but if I were to plant a brand new clematis, it would not happen right away? Is it something to do with the root system?

Like I said -- I'm brand new to gardnening, so I'm not always sure how things work. I will say that pruning anything scares me to death. I'm afraid that I'll kill it. LOL

Thanks, rouge. I guess they bloom earlier, at least the ones around here did.

OMG I was looking at hydrangeas due to ian's photo, and they get 8 ft. tall and wide! What will I do with the one I have? How come you never see photos of them at that size? They always look so cute in photos like ian's.

Does anyone have any SAC seeds they want to part with I have a huge area I would love to plant with them... SASE???

No need to apologize 'cathy'.

SAC is what we would call a very vigorous clematis!

It should be planted in a location that will permit such a large spread. Clearly a fence is a good prop for it.

If you planted one in the spring, you would very likely get flowers that first late summer and in year 2 it could be very impressive.

It is a type 3 clematis so it benefits from being pruned back significantly in the spring.

CathyChex - welcome newbie gardener! Clematis is divided into three distinct pruning groups--Type 1, Type 2 & Type 3--and each group has distinct (read different) growing habits & pruning requirements.

Sweet Autumn Clematis/Clematis ternifloria is vastly more prolific than other types in the clematis family and may be invasive in ideal growing conditions. I've always hesitated to grow it where I am for that reason--why invite trouble? I've always observed that planting is a one-shot task while yanking the results of that planting over the next decade or more is way more labor-intensive. Since I don't have a chain link fence, I've never been tempted to plant SAC.

As rouge21 posted above, C. ternifolia is a Type 3 clematis.

Thanks so much for the information!

My dad has a chain link fence and would love something like this, so I'll definitely suggest it to him.

I wish that I could remember the name of the clematis that I have. Looked at some pictures online and can't quite come up with the right one. I'm in zone 5 and it bloomed in late spring. LIght purple petals with a yellow center and darker purple stamen.