Congratultions, Clematis ‘Rooguchi’ for being brave enough to bloom after I so neglected you.

I take it that these two beautiful blooms are a thank you gift to me for finally getting rid of the weeds around you and putting down a nice layer of pine bark mulch. If it is, I thank you!

But it is I who should apologize for the lapse in the first place. I am mending my ways one bag of mulch at a time, one section of the garden at a time.

‘Rooguchi’, you encourage me to continue my efforts, to discover what might lie beneath those big floppy Ox-eye and Marguerite daisies that I am ripping out instead of cutting back, along with the weeds that think my garden is a good place to settle down in and put down some roots.

I hope that each year as you grow larger I’ll see more of these exquisite bell-shaped purple blooms in my garden. I’m sure I will.

You’ve proven so far to be quite easy to care for, basically requiring no care at all other than a little encouragement to climb up the obelisk I provided for you. I will remember for best bloom to cut you back to about a foot or so in late winter. I promise!

And I’ll always remember that it was Kim at A Study in Contrast who featured you in one of her Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day posts, introducing us last July. The minute I saw you, ‘Rooguchi’, I had to have you in my garden, too.

I wonder what beautiful flower I’ll discover in the next round of bloom day posts on July 15th?