Miguel, if that was my pot I would have a chain and an alarm on it.
Wonderful selection of clemmies.
The socialis leaves are very different and very attractive.

Glad you liked them Helen. The backyard is rather secluded so I don't have to worry about pots walking off. With that moisture holding soil in them, that adds further weight to them.

I tend to like the more obscure clematis as I know you do. There is life other than just your typical type IIs! :)

I believe the picture is ochroleuca - albicoma tends to hold its flowers below the top pair of leaves and ochroleuca tends to hold it above them. And I believe you have a fusca. Fuscas are straight up brown and the ianthinas are noticeably purple.

Nice little collection of small natives!

Those are beauties!
Are they better to be kept in pots? Will they get lost if planted out? DO not think I have seen any growing in the garden so am at loss. I have few various seedlings and am not sure how long they should stay in pots. Normally I will keep large flowered clems in pots for at least a season until they get to the one gal size roots.

Michael, thanks for the info about the ochroleuca. I knew it looked a lot like the previous one I had but hate to say one thing when it might be something else, especially since we have all experienced purchasing one thing only to find out it is something else. Also, so many of these natives have such slight differences between them that it almost takes someone with a key to positively identify anything.

As for the fusca, well I agree it does now look like fusca in bud but they started out this way last year and ended up looking like the following pictures as the buds matured and then finally opened up.
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Thanks Linda. I am sure they would do well in the garden if your garden mimics their natural habitats. I have never tried socialis in the ground. I have two fremontiis, one in the ground and one in a pot. The one in the pot is newere and has already come up and bloomed. The one in the ground has not emerged yet, but is still alive as I pulled the mulch back and saw the stems. Experimentation is the key to finding out how they do better for you.

The fusca/ianthina differences are apparently rather vague in terms of the flower. Certainly, the purple is more interesting than the plain brown at least!

Yes, I have seen that discussion about fusca/ianthina as well. I purchased two different plants one of which was supposed to be fusca and one of which was supposed to be ianthina. Either one died or the two are the same as I have never yet seen any differences in the final flower color. Being a purple freak, I don't mind having the purple flowers at all!

Miguel, your clematis looks very good! Thanks for posting the pictures! My fremontii and hirsutissima scotti have small buds but I think that it will be several weeks before they bloom. Albicoma was new this year and it bloomed in my kitchen window. It was very cute!!

I was also wondering about fusca. I don't have ianthina, so I can't compare the two, but I have seen lots of pictures of fusca and there appear to be a lot of variation within the species.

My fusca from last year.
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