In this episode, the third in a series of 'plant special' podcasts, Mike chats to Clematis King, Raymond Evison, owner and founder of Raymond Evison Clematis. 

Raymond has spent six decades searching for, breeding and developing the world's best clematis.  Born in 1944, Raymond started his horticultural career at the age of 15 in Shropshire and quickly became the director of his first company 'Treasures of Tenbury Ltd'. A brutal winter killed a third of his mother stock and he moved the clematis operations to Guernsey, in the sunny Channel Islands, near France, where he set up the 'Guernsey Clematis Nursery' in 1985, to take advantage of the milder climate and longer growing season.

In this Clematis Special episode, Mike chats to Raymond who shares some invaluable hints, tips and advice about growing clematis. You'll learn what to look out for when you're buying clematis, how to plant them and everything you need to know about how to care for them. Raymond also provides some easy to follow instructions on how to prune clematis, a subject which some of us worry about needlessly.

For the more adventurous maybe, some invaluable hints and tips on how to propagate clematis.

And, amongst much more, you'll learn where the name for the popular Clematis 'Freckles' comes from.

After this wonderful episode, I'm sure, like me, you'll be ready to buy more clematis for your green space. Raymond's stunning collection of clematis can be found at his website www.raymondevisonclematis.com.

As always, if you wish to contact the show, you can email Mike at his email address [email protected] or message him directly via his Instagram account @mike_thegardener.