My clematis book says C. patens flowers in early to mid spring while C. montana flowers from late spring to early summer. From that I'd say everything is fine and your clematis has finished flowering for this year

Thankyou for that information. I feel so relieved to hear that. I had wondered if it was one of the very early bloomers, so that is great to know.

Ummm...I'm confused. C. paniculata, or C. patens, Dwyllis?

I understood that C. paniculata was actually autumn flowering so should not even be in flower yet in NZ.

If you bought it two months ago - that would have been winter? So the clematis would probably have been grown in a polytunnel, or North Island, and was flowering late rather than early. As long as it still looks healthy then it should be OK for your coming autumn. Something to look forward to, LOL.

If you actually do have C. paniculata, this one is a species clematis rather than a hybrid - which means it is not affected by Clematis Wilt, and so you should stop worrying about it from that point of view. Should be pruned by mid winter because it flowers on new year's growth later in the year.

Thankyou for all your replies. Yes it is indeed Clematis Paniculata, & when I bought it, it was just over a metre tall & absolutely covered in those lovely creamy-white flowers .... will add a photo of it a couple of weeks after I planted it, if I am able to. I bought it very early spring, but I don't know how long it had been in flower. There were other NZ native clematis in flower around the same time .... the clematis foresteri is one which springs to mind. Bulbaholic, I do live in the North Island .... the lower part of the mid-central area ... a 2.5 hour drive from Wellington, which is right at the bottom of the North Island. Bamboo .... I am so relieved to hear that the dreaded wilt is not going to be a problem. When I was living in England in the 1990s, I lost two recently-planted clematis to the wilt, & I never tried again, but I really want some clematis in the garden. This area appears to be very well suited to the montana varieties, as they are in flowering abundance all around me at the moment. will see if I can attach a pic to the blog now.

I don't appear to have the option of editing the question to add a photo now, but if anyone is interested, there is a photo of this clematis in flower in my album.

Have just looked C. Paniculata up on some websites & it says it 'heralds spring', so it would appear to be very early spring flowering. It also says that it gives a lovely display in autumn of fluffy silvery seed heads. States that it does not like to be disturbed & will grow up to 9 metres.

I think the information on flowering period depends on which web site you visit, Dwyllis. One of its common names is Sweet Autumn Clematis and I have found web information giving it as flowering late summer/mid autumn and also May/June (UK site).
Let it settle down for a couple of years and then come back to this query and let us know what your one does.

My information says it flowers late on new wood, so late summer/autumn here.

So ....... if it states this clematis flowers late summer/autumn in UK, that would translate to late winter/spring over here in NZ ..... early to mid-spring probably, which would fit in with what mine has done. And as it apparently does not like to be disturbed, it might take a while to settle in. That means everything appears to be normal. I just saw all the beautiful clematis montana in full bloom all around me & panic set in, as I really do want to see that fence smothered in this clematis in another three or four years. LOL Thankyou everyone. I will post up a pic of it in our autumn to see what it is doing then.

Most plants flower according to day length and/or temperature patterns, rather than any kind of internal calendar. So, the ones that bloom in spring in NZ, should also bloom in the spring in the UK. The differences in the flowering times on different sites may be due to ignorance of anything but the flowering months in NZ--which would be fall in the Northern Hemisphere--or the plant may bloom in both fall and spring in certain climates. Many other autumn or early spring blooming plants--such as Carolina Jessamine or California Fuchsia--do the same.

That's interesting & thankyou for that input. I guess I will have to just wait & see what it does. According to the NZ native plant website I looked at, this should flower early spring, but doesn't say when flowering should end. Then it stated that in autumn it will give a show of fluffy silvery seedheads. That should be pretty too.

Well, if it gives a show of fluffy seedheads in autumn, that would imply it flowers throughout the summer, or you'd have seedheads by end of Spring - guess its a wait and see how it performs in your garden.

hi there, i also live in NZ and i have the clematis you mentioned and have just taken cuttings from it two days ago and hope they take so i can grow it over a long fence. So fingers crossed!!!!!

Hope they do well for you Jojo. I did not realise one could take cuttings from clematis. I might try that next year. It gave a nice show in the spring & is climbing nicely along the fence. What part of NZ are you living in?