‘Blue Dancer’ Clematis

Clematis alpina‘Blue Dancer’

Plant Details

USDA Plant Hardiness Zones: 3a-9b Find Your Zone

Plant Type: Flowering Vine

Height or Length at Maturity: 6-10′

Width at Maturity: 3-6′
Spacing: 3-4′ apart to cover fences and walls

Growth Habit / Form: Climbing, Twining

Growth Rate: Moderate to Fast

Flower Color: Soft Blue to Lavender-Blue
Flower Type: Single, Bell Shaped

Flower Size: 2-3″ long
Flowering Period: Mid Spring to Early Summer

Fragrant Flowers:

Foliage Color: Green

Fragrant Foliage: No

Sun Needs: Full to Mostly Sun, Part Shade, All Day Lightly Filtered Sun

Water Needs: Average

Soil Type: Clay (Amend heavy clay to ensure good drainage), Loam, Sand, Silt

Soil Drainage: Moist but Well Drained

Soil pH: 5.5 – 7.0

Maintenance / Care: Low

Pruning Group: 3

Attracts: Butterflies, Hummingbirds, Beneficial Pollinators, Visual Attention

Resistances: Cold (-40F), Deer, Disease, Heat, Humidity, Insect

Description

All of our Clematis vines are trellised 2 year old plants in a 1 gallon pot.

Winner of the prestigious Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society, and in our opinion the best of the blues in the Alpina Clematis family, ‘Blue Dancer’ has longer and prettier flowers and is exceptionally cold hardy to -45F! From mid spring to early summer, and occasionally in fall, abundant soft sapphire-blue to lilac-blue nodding bell-shaped flowers measure up to 3 inches long with four slightly twisting petals that surround a creamy white center. Absolutely charming, especially when swaying in the breeze! As with all others in the Alpina family, following the spring bloom, Blue Dancer sports very showy pompom-like seeds heads persisting through summer. This one occasionally reblooms in fall in our gardens. At 6 to 10 feet tall, depending on the height of the support structure, Blue Dancer is ideal for growing on a pergola, arch, fence, tall obelisk, post or trellis, and is also suited for growing in pots and sprawling through shrubs, climbing roses and small trees.

Landscape & Garden Uses

Climbing 6 to 10 feet tall and 3-6 feet wide depending on the support structure, Blue Dancer Clematis is ideal for growing on pergolas, fences, trellises, arches, tall obelisks, poles, lamp posts and other structures she can twine her vines around. Also well-suited for growing in for pots, planters and other containers that can be situated on or near patios and other outdoor living spaces where the charming flowers can be viewed from close up. A fine addition to Clematis gardens, butterfly gardens, beneficial pollinator gardens, Asian Gardens, Zen gardens and blue themed gardens.

Suggested Spacing: 4 feet apart on fences and trellises

Growing Preferences

Blue Dancer Clematis is easy to grow in a moist but well-drained soil of average fertility and full sun to part shade. Clematis tend to like sun on their vines and shade on their roots to keep them cooler. So we always plant a groundcover or flowers around the base of the vine to meet this preference.

Note: All clematis prefer to be planted so that the crown of the plant, where its stem(s) emerge from the soil in which it was grown, is at least 2 to 4 inches below the soil level.

Clematis Pruning Group 1

Blue Dancer Clematis is in pruning group 1, which consists of spring flowering species. Clematis in pruning group 1 flower on last year’s wood and therefore should not be cut down to near ground level (especially montanas, armandii, chrysocoma and gracilifolia which can be killed by hard pruning). They should be pruned as soon as possible after they finish flowering. Avoid pruning them after the end of July, so they have time to produce next year’s flower buds before winter sets in. This group should be lightly pruned to remove all dead and wispy growth. Additional pruning can be performed to remove three or four year old wood to reduce the bulk of the plant. Cut each stem just above a pair of healthy buds.

Helpful Articles

Click on the link below to find helpful advice from our experts on how to plant and care for Clematis vines

How To Plant A Clematis

How To Prune A Clematis

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