Looking for a compact shrub that blooms all through July? And August, and into September? ‘Mongolian Gold’ Clematis
may be your answer. Eve’s has graced her front yard for about 30 years, and reliably makes a mound about 2 feet high and 3 feet wide every year. Most people assume that all Clematis are vines, but this is an exception. Mongolian Gold begins blooming in early July and just keeps going and going. Honeybees and native bees visit the lightly fragrant pendant yellow flowers often. In Eve’s garden, Mongolian Gold Clematis is located under the southeast edge of the canopy of a very large Douglas Fir tree that’s been limbed up, so it receives full sun in winter, and in the morning from spring through fall. It is watered only occasionally. It has a somewhat weeping habit and makes a perfect accent shrub where its branches can cascade over a short wall. The plant makes a permanent woody base framework that, once mature, should be pruned yearly in February to shorten the previous year’s slender stems. We’ve never seen any pest damage on Mongolian Gold.