Name a flower
In 2011, my parents, who grew clematis and climbing plants, were asked to propagate a plant by the wife of Ben Clifton. Ben had nurtured the plant from a chance seed that featured a larger flower than usual for that type of clematis. He passed away before the plant was named. His wife gave the plant to my parents, who she hoped would propagate it.
My parents grew the plant and registered it as a garden plant at the Royal Horticultural Society and named it with Ben, the man who made the plant, and me in mind.
"Fls single, broadly bell-shaped, 12 cm across, nodding or drooping, borne singly, not scented. Buds large, purple, heart-shaped. Sepals 4; outside red-purple with, towards the tip, a white margin; inside strongly flushed red-purple at the base of the sepals, shading, through red-purple veins over a white ground, to white at the margins and tip; 7 × 4 cm, broadly elliptic, overlapping and touching at base, gappy above, ribby, wavy- margined, long-pointed, with tips sometimes slightly recurved. Staminodes 2 cm long, cream tinged pink. Filaments and anthers cream. Fruit-heads persistent. Deciduous climber, with stems 3–4 m, green when young, maturing to brown-red. Lvs biternate, dark green, with margins irregularly toothed and lobed. FL: Apr–May on previous year’s growth, with light flowering in summer on current year’s."
- registered description of Ben's Beauty.