Clematis montana
Alpine clematis
RANUNCULACEAE, The Buttercup family
This vine grows on the wrought iron fence around the parking lot. It is in bloom. Each blossom has four pink petals. It looks well despite being grown on a narrow, exposed bed along the sidewalk, and being pruned (if it can be called that..) like every other plant on the property: they are all sheared into cubes. Each plant is treated like the next, the camellia, hydrangea, pieris, azalea, rhododendron, arborvitae, they all get the same haircut and it doesn’t suit them at all.
The little boys with sticks were beating the clematis today when I came home. I explained to them that they were hurting the plant and asked if they could play something else. They proceeded very good naturedly to turn their sticks toward each other, and throw rocks.
