To enjoy gardening it is certainly not compulsory to assimilate all of the botanical terms for plants. All it really takes is to go throughout your garden to see and appreciate the many pretty blossoms, leaves, etc. that Mother Nature provides us. However, it can be helpful to understand the terms (below) when communicating with other gardeners about your clematis and/or when reading articles about them. So, here is the Clematis Queen’s glossary for gardeners who grow clematis. I hope you will find them useful.
Acidic soils. Soils with a pH below 7.0.
Alkaline soils. Soils with a pH above 7.0.
Bar. The central colored part of the tepal’s midrib.
Bi-color. A tepal having two colors.
Blind plant. A plant that stops producing blooms.
Bud. The swelling on a stem that will produce leaf clusters and/or the part of the flower that produces a bloom.
Clematis. The Greek word for some kind of climbing or trailing plant. The correct pronunciation is CLEM-uh-tis. Frequently mispronounced clem-MAT-is or clem-MATE-us.
Crown. The portion of the plant where the stems join the roots and from which new shoots are produced.
Cultivar. A cultivated variety created by man to produce distinct and desirable characteristics. The names of cultivars are signified by single quotation marks and are always capitalized. For example, the cultivar ‘Vyvyan Pennell’ is a cultivated cross between ‘Daniel Deronda’ x ‘Beauty of Worcester’.
Deadheading. The removal of spent or faded flowers to prevent seed production and encourage further flowering.
Deciduous. Refers to a plant that loses its leaves at the end of the growing season.
Dieback. The rapid demise of a clematis starting at the tip of a stem. This condition can affect one stem or the entire plant. Dieback can be attributed to fungal disease, weather, lack of water, etc.
Disinfection. See Sanitation.
Dormant (dormancy). The period in winter when a clematis temporarily stops growing. Dormancy for clematis may or may not occur in warmer locales.
Double flowers. A clematis flower that produces multiple layers of tepals.
Fungus (pl., fungi). A lower form of plant life that includes molds, yeast and mushrooms. Fungi are the cause of most plant diseases.
Hardy plants. Plants that are capable of enduring frost or freezing.
Herbaceous. A non-woody clematis which usually dies down to the ground at the end of the growing season. For example: Clematis crispa or Clematis integrifolia.
Horticultural disinfectant. A broad range disinfectant that controls disease-spreading organisms.
Internode. The segment of the stem between nodes.
Leaf Bud. A bud that develops into a stem with leaves.
Midrib (flower). The central veins of the tepal.
Mulch. A layer of top dressing of organic material placed over the soil. Mulch enriches the soil, conserves water, reduces weeds and protects the roots from frost.
Node. The joint on a stem where a leaf or side shoot emerges.
Petiole. A leaf stalk. Clematis cling by wrapping their petioles around a support.
pH. A scale measuring the acid or alkaline content of your soil. 7.0 is neutral. Below 7.0 is acidic. Above 7.0 is alkaline. The ideal pH for clematis is 6.5.
Rootball. The mass of roots and soil that remains on a plant when it is removed from its container or dug out of the ground.
Sanitation. The process of eradicating fungal bacteria or viral infection.
Sepal. See Tepal.
Single flower. A clematis flower with one layer of tepals.
Species. A distinct group of plants that share characteristics and interbreed freely.
Sport. New growth that spontaneously appears on a plant but bears no resemblance to the parent plant. Horticulturally it is an abrupt deviation or mutation.
Stamen. The pollen-producing male part of a flower that consists of anthers and filaments.
Stem rot. Stem rot is best defined as a collapse (either totally or partially) of a clematis due to fungus.
Tepal. The colored petal-like segments that make up the outermost parts of the clematis flower.
Wilt. See stem rot.