VAL BOURNE urges planting the hardy flowers of the Atragene Group

If you have visited a nursery or garden centre that sells climbers in the last few weeks you can't fail to have noticed the wispy flowers of several spring-flowering clematis. Frances Rivis' is one of the bolder ones and there are two forms, the English and Dutch.

The Dutch form, pictured, has bolder, straighter outer sepals in a slightly softer blue. While the similar English form is rather more restrained, with shorter darker blue sepals that twist. Both have a welcome cool-green tinge on their white silky stamens.

These early-flowering clematis are known by a clumsy name - the Atragene Group. During winter they feign death, looking like a tangle of dead stems, but as spring arrives fat buds break along the old wood and develop into flowers. This group flower on old wood. So the atragene' clematis are never drastically pruned. If they are you sacrifice one year's flower or more. So you just have to tolerate that untidy winter tangle, happy in the promise of early April flowers and spring-green leaves to come. You can, however, lightly tidy them up after flowering, if needed.

For this reason I always dedicate an area to Atragenes. I never mix them with late summer flowering viticella' clematis because the latter are 'massacred' back to the lowest buds every spring. Mix the two types - as I once did - and you are faced with a pruning dilemma as you ponder, secateurs poised, which stem to cut and which to leave.

Atragenes are bred mainly from four types - the alpinas, macropetalas, chiisanensis and koreana. In the wild they come from cold, exposed situations often on sloping, mountainous ground. So although they look delicate these clematis are rugged and much hardier than montanas. So they are useful in the garden as they can thrive in cold, exposed positions. I love to see them tumbling over low stone walls, but I do find them slow to get going.

This group need excellent drainage. So when planting add some grit to the base of the planting hole. It's also a good idea to add fertiliser or organic material to encourage root growth.

There are some excellent older varieties. These include the lovely pastel-pink macropetala Markham's Pink'. Originally raised in 1935 by Ernest Markham, head gardener to William Robinson of Gravetye Manor in Sussex, this good doer has ragged, wide double flowers. The svelte Pamela Jackman', a less-vigorous alpina suitable for a tripod, has four deep-blue petals set round a cream middle. It's a very neat, crisp affair - the Wallis Simpson of the clematis world.

For a softer look use the very, very hardy Clematis macropetala. It will produce masses of pale blue skirts. Columbine', another Markham variety, has a green tinge to the blue flowers and there is also a white form. More recent and very garden worthy performers include Jacqueline du Pré', a pink with pale-edged sepals. Pink Flamingo' has pale-pink veined flowers and there are two sombre new varieties - the ragged almost-black Purple Spider' and the rich-maroon Brunette'. Perhaps my favourite new variety is the pink and cream Propertius'.

Whichever you choose this is an excellent time to plant all clematis.