Clematis crispa Brookgreen Gardens very astringent fresh but good

very astringent fresh but good cooked

well-drained soil with generous summer water

handsome against a sheltered wall

each bloom built around curved stamens that give a vaguely butterfly-like silhouette

more emphatic variegation than the related 'Creel's Calico'

Clematis crispa Brookgreen Gardens very astringent fresh but goodClematis crispa, the swamp leather flower, is a small and delicate native vine that trades the flat, showy face of a garden clematis for something quieter and stranger. The flowers hang solitary and nodding, little urns of thick, leathery blue purple, paler within, their four recurved sepals frilled and crimped at the tips like curled ribbon. Slightly fragrant and endlessly charming, this is a clematis scaled for a small garden rather than a barn