Peter Truman Photography

A little research suggests that this wonderful Clematis cultivar was introduced way back in 1897 by Jean-Jacques Moser in his nursery in Versailles. I'm not sure where the "Nelly" came from, although I'm sure a little further diligence in my research will find out (anyone care to point me in the right direction?), but whatever the inspiration for the name he produced one of the most popular and attractive Clematis varieties. It's a one we have a couple of in the garden where they thrive to produce two shows of large flowers every year. It's a rewarding plant that produces lots of large pink flowers with a darker stripe down each sepal, grows fantastically over an arch or similar, and does better in partial shade otherwise the flowers fade to grey or white rather too quickly. That old maxim "feet in the shade, heads in the sun" should be partially ignored for the "Nelly Moser"; feet in the shade certainly, but head in partial shade is best.

The whole Clematis family are fascinating in their flowering patterns, climbing ability, colours and varieties of flower styles. But what I found particularly interesting with this example is the way one is drawn towards the central tuft of stamens by the darker bars on the sepals. Then the cluster of stamens that gather, almost protecting the very centre. Not unlike the way an insect is drawn in I guess.

The second picture is from the same plant but a year later, and a little later in the flower's life than. Here the stamens have spread out and the tuft exposed; the sepals will soon wither away now and drop off to leave a rather attractive seed head.

The third picture of the seed head is a picture I had in mind for some time. Once the flowers have finished and the seed head is left some clematis manage to put on quite another show of their own, but only when the light is perfect. I sat watching the sun drop in the sky and waited for it to light these heads up from behind to show the whispy, featherlike patterns.

It is not normally necessary to take a sequence of pictures like this over such a long period (2006 - 2009) and indeed I have many other pictures of the same plant. It's just that these are the three that please me most.

The first photograph (June 2006) was taken in bright sunlight with a Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens on my Canon 5D. ISO 100, f3.2, 1/500 sec. Handheld.

The second photograph (August 2007) was taken in shade with the same camera/lens. ISO 100, f2.8, 1/15 sec. Tripod.

The third photograph (September 2009) was taken in bright evening sunlight with a 180mm f3.5L macro lens on a Canon 1Ds Mk III, ISO 200, f3.5, 1/250 sec. Handheld.

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