Keep clematis looking their best

Trusty catkins will soon be at their f luffy, brightest best

BENTLEY will launch a new electric car in each of the five years from 2025, after which all models will be pure electric. The company spelled out its ‘Five-in Five’ plan this week as it announced a £2.5billion investment to transform its plant in Crewe into a high-tech green dream factory.

Bosses said its first fully electric car in 2025 will be ‘large, sporty and fast’ and introduce all-new body styles as part of its Beyond 100 strategy.

Bentley expects ‘massive expansion’ far beyond the present 10,000 cars a year. The 4,000-strong workforce will learn new high-tech skills needed for cars with greater autonomy. The shift began in its centenary year, 2019, when a prototype electric sports tourer, pictured, was unveiled. Boss Adrian Hallmark dubbed the plans the ‘biggest transformation in Bentley’s history’.

THERE’S a point in winter when things suddenly seem less grim. The sun creeps higher at noon, robins sing with more bravura ... and catkins appear in the hedgerows. Pussy willows will soon produce silverfurred catkins. Hazels will burst into life by roadsides and in woodlands. Both can be pretty in a garden. As spring arrives, catkins on male pussy willows expand, showing golden stamens. Pollen is airborne but early bees also feast on it giving flowers on female trees a double chance of being fertilised.

Hazels carry catkins and female flowers on the same plant. The latter are tiny red tufts, growing lower down on the branches. They make attractive garden shrubs. Hazel catkins lengthen as they mature, shedding pollen. Sometimes you’ll see puffs of the golden dust, carried off on the wind. Wild hazel is attractive but there are better-looking, more productive garden varieties.

Other plants bear catkins, too. These include alders, birches, certain poplars and even oaks – all substantial trees. But willows vary from tiny, craggy shrublets to creeping ground-cover plants or substantial trees. All are easy to grow and to manage.

GOING FOR GOLD

A GOLDEN alder tree, Alnus incana Aurea, in my garden gives several shows each year. Now reddish male catkins are beginning to extend. Those hang among last year’s ‘fruits’ which resemble tiny pine cones. The spring foliage will be golden, turning green for summer, then gold again for autumn.

Alders grow large. But you can prune hard to maintain a manageable size. Hazels can also be controlled by judicious pruning. They grow naturally as multi-stemmed coppices. New shoots come from the ground, so you can thin those out.

Hazels bear the earliest and prettiest catkins. They’re a joy in the woods or on country walks. But for a garden, selected varieties look better.

The finest, Corylus maxima Purpurea, is a tall shrub with large, beetroot-red leaves. Mine produces plump nuts each autumn but the squirrels usually beat me to those. Golden-leaved C. avellana Aurea also has fine autumn colour.

Corkscrew hazel, C. avellana Contorta, is quirky. I brutally prune mine every few years to prevent tangled branches.

TANTALISING TASSELS

THE longest catkins belong to Garrya elliptica, the evergreen silk tassel bush.

Males have the longest catkins. James Roof or Evie are both male, the latter having wavy leaf-margins. From midwinter, pale grey-green tassels appear, which can reach 20cm or 30cm by late spring.

Though happy as free-standing shrubs, Garrya performs well on a wall, especially in cold regions. If you find the summer foliage too dull, relieve it with nonrampant annual climbers such as Rhodochiton or black-eyed Susan, Thunbergia alata.

The compact black pussy willow, Salix gracilistylaMelanostachys, is a conversation stopper. Jet-black spring catkins contrast with red bark. Later, it sprouts bright red anthers.

For tiny spaces, plant groundhugging dwarf willows. Slow grower, Salix x boydii is compact with pewter-green leaves. In contrast, Salix nakamurana var yezoalpina, rapidly forms a silvery green carpet.

THe time has come to prune clematis, but only the right ones. Varieties which flower after mid-June produce their flowers on stems which will have developed since spring. Those should be pruned now.

With vigorous types, you can cut away as much of the old material as you like. Varieties of small-flowered Clematis viticella, pictured, can be cut almost to ground level. They’ll respond by growing vigorous shoots and stems which will flower from midsummer.

In contrast, spring and early summer-flowering types such as C. montana, and varieties such as blue Lasurstern or pink Bee’s Jubilee, should not be pruned now.

If you prune them, you won’t damage the plants, but you will lose this year’s main flowers.

I cut late clematis back as hard as I dare. That ensures new growth which does not have to compete with older stems. However, vigorous clematis trained up into trees will be fine if left untouched.

The best time for pruning spring and early summerflowering clematis will be late spring, straight after flowering. That gives them a full summer in which to develop next spring flowers.

Truly herbaceous types such as C. integrifolia, C. texensis and the purple-pink hybrid Alyonushka can be cut to ground level each year.