mulberryshoots

Clematis “Montana – Nelly Moser” branching out under the bay window

Our Queen Anne Victorian house has a pink clematis climbing up one corner, then branches out into two lanes, one to the left and one to the right underneath a second floor bay window.

It is the FIFTH plant that has followed this pattern, the first one planted almost twenty years ago; then a bad winter befell the vine after some years and no more leaves showed up the following Spring. I planted successive ones over the next decade that either grew slowly or not at all. They were all the same color with the same species name: Clematis “Nelly Moser.”

This Spring, after the snowiest winter in Boston’s history, a climbing clematis was the furthest thing from my mind until I caught a glimpse of it this week while unloading groceries from the back of the car. Gardens and Mother Nature move along at their own pace. If we’re lucky, we may have a small hand in it now and then.

What a joy it is to see these familiar pink flowers reappear! It also reminds me that Hope Springs Eternal, even when I’ve almost forgotten about it.