wrote in message ...

I got some seed when on holiday in Crete, and have finally given
up on it (after about a decade!) It grows and is lovely in flower,
but I have got it to do that ONCE - every other year, aphids stop
the flowers and shoots developing. Perhaps I would have more if
I sprayed heavily with the nastiest sort of persistant insecticide,
but I don't want to do that. Merely spraying to eliminate the
worst of the aphids doesn't help.

Heaven alone knows why. L. x tellmanniana was as bad when it
didn't get significant sun, but it (and this) get a fair amount
of sun - and it is only L. etrusca that is hopeless.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Nick, try the form etrusca superba, it is much stronger plant than the type,
most of the other forms of this are indeed hard work in the UK


--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk