If you google 'clematis with 8 sepals' you can see a few that look like yours Jac.

Yes, several Clematis patens hybrids have this flower type and belong to pruning group 2. All Clematis are assigned to either pruning groups 1, 2 or 3.

With Pruning group 2, light pruning is generally the order of the day only cutting most stems a third, certainly no more than a half. If you cut back harder, you may still get flowers but they will be later and fewer in number.

You can look up how to prune group 2 clematis for diagrams too of course.

Variety? Several come to mind. These types with a darker central bar to the tepal (petal) are generally derived from Clematis patens or at least a lot of their characteristics are derived from it. Unfortunately, because C. patens had very large flowers, it was used a lot in hybridising and their are many named varieties that look similar!

Hallo Jan - I wrote a blog about pruning Clematis that you might find useful. You'll find it in my blog archive in June 2009, or if it's easier, type 'Prune Clematis' into the search box and I think it's there. :-)

That clematis is REALLY nice.

Thank you all for your help. I did read your brilliant blog Barbara but I still wasnt sure which group it belonged to! I still find clematis pruning a bit confusing, as once I have discovered which group they all belong to, I have to decide where exactly to prune. I will get there one day - probably through trial and error!

Thanks for your kind comment Alextb :)

Maybe I should add photos of the actual places on the plant to cut? Would that help? I can't do that until next spring, of course.

That would be fantastic - your knowledge and advice is so appreciated :)

Thanks for the compliment, Jan. :-)))