Clematis ‘Darius’ may not be easy to find, but is certainly a beauty. With flowers as big as my outstretched hand, this is classed as an early, large-flowered clematis.
The flowers seem to have been painted with a star shape formed by a purple-pink stripe down the centre of each petal. Spidery dark purple anthers on creamy-white filaments add their patterns too.
The petal edges are lightly wavy, giving each flower a crinkled effect.
I’m sharing this for Cee’s Flower of the Day.
Susan Rushton 
Beautiful and the size of a hand? Wowsah!
Not bad, eh?
Not bad at all!
They are beautiful and frosty looking.
They do look frosty.
I love the crinkles! Kind of like goose bumps, as though they are constantly thrilled about something. You’re so right about the star shape — this is more of a constellation than a climber. What a beauty!
I love the idea of them being constantly thrilled, though in our climate it could be the cold!
It reminds me of a stargazer lily.
Yes, it is lily-like.
Lovely
Thanks, Derrick.
Wow, these are real beauties! You got a great captures of that single bloom and the grouping, Susan!
Thanks, Ellen.
A lot like Nelly Moser, I have about 35 buds on my plant this year, I am looking forward to seeing them open.
I was trying to remember which one it reminded me of and that’s it.
This is such an interesting bloom – the colours and texture look so delicate, yet it is palm-sized! Amazing.
I thought I’d mention that as it’s hard to tell the scale of a flower from a close up of a bloom.
It is indeed difficult to tell – and even when you’ve mentioned it, it still takes me a moment to adjust the scale in my head and imagine what it would be like in front of me! Kinda like viewing artwork digitally – it takes a while and it’s never quite the same as viewing it in person!
oh isn’t this lovely. My clematis are still not in flower, lots of buds showing but way way behind on the flowering stage
Montanas are out locally. I suspect I have missed one of my other favourites recently by being ill-inclined to climb up a hill to visit it in the rain.
Hampshire, or at least my garden, seems way behind everyone else
This is so different from the three species of Clematis that are native in central Texas.
It’s different from our wild clematis too – traveller’s joy (Clematis vitalba).