My Ramona Clematis

When Mr. LH presented me with a Ramona Clematis last Mother's Day, he did so knowing I had yet to succeed in keeping a clematis alive beyond the first season.

Every single one I transplanted in years past had promptly died. I don't know why. Bad soil? Too much sun? Maybe it was because I didn't do the Hokey pokey and turn myself around. Whatever the problem was, all my previous Clematis died. So I transplanted this one into a large pot, surrounded it with columbine and while I hoped for luck, I didn't count on it.

The one bloom I had on the plant last year blew away with the first big thunderstorm (the hail helped, too). 

The columbine bloom  survived the hailstorm - the clematis did not.

Though the plant appeared green and healthy, the vine didn't seem to grow AT ALL. Maybe it was just using it's energy to grow it's root system.

When the cold of winter appeared, I placed the clematis in the garage to protect the container from the well-below-freezing temperatures and fed it snow every once in awhile.

In March, I brought the container out into the sunshine, looked at it's brown dead-looking stem, watered it and waited.

Imagine my excitement when I noticed the first leaves sprouting. Imagine then my ridiculous joy when I started seeing the first flower buds forming!

I couldn't shut-up about this plant!

By late April, my Clematis had grown 4 feet high and had 14 HUGE blooms on it! WOW!

I'm looking forward to seeing what this plant will do NEXT year!