Golden Acre Home & Garden Centre's Plant Library

Other Names:  Blue Jasmine, Curly Clematis, Marsh Clematis

Description:

A perennial variety producing dainty, nodding, bell shaped flowers that are shades of violet and blue, with white interiors; well adapted to use in wet areas; keep roots cool and moist

Ornamental Features

Swamp Leather Flower features dainty lightly-scented nodding sky blue bell-shaped flowers with violet overtones, white eyes and yellow anthers at the ends of the branches from early summer to early fall. The flowers are excellent for cutting. It has green deciduous foliage. The pointy compound leaves do not develop any appreciable fall colour.

Landscape Attributes

Swamp Leather Flower is a multi-stemmed deciduous woody vine with a twining and trailing habit of growth. Its average texture blends into the landscape, but can be balanced by one or two finer or coarser trees or shrubs for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance woody vine, and is best pruned in late winter once the threat of extreme cold has passed. It is a good choice for attracting hummingbirds to your yard. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Swamp Leather Flower is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• General Garden Use
• Groundcover
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Swamp Leather Flower will grow to be about 10 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 24 inches. As a climbing vine, it tends to be leggy near the base and should be underplanted with low-growing facer plants. It should be planted near a fence, trellis or other landscape structure where it can be trained to grow upwards on it, or allowed to trail off a retaining wall or slope. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 20 years.

This woody vine does best in full sun to partial shade. It prefers to grow in moist to wet soil, and will even tolerate some standing water. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This species is native to parts of North America.

Swamp Leather Flower makes a fine choice for the outdoor landscape, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. Because of its spreading habit of growth, it is ideally suited for use as a 'spiller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the edges where it can spill gracefully over the pot. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when grown in a container, it may not perform exactly as indicated on the tag - this is to be expected. Also note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden. Be aware that in our climate, most plants cannot be expected to survive the winter if left in containers outdoors, and this plant is no exception. Contact our experts for more information on how to protect it over the winter months.