Blossoming Clematis

The clematis is in full bloom. This will be her second summer and I'm hoping that she'll do better than last year. Although she grew quickly up the lattice last summer, she had very few blossoms. 

I chose a variety known to bloom from June through August so we'll just have to see how she does this year. The variety escapes me but I will make sure to add it to the post if I find the tag in my garden files!

Just to show how big the blossoms can get, I've photographed one with my hand. As you can see, the blossoms are large. 

This photo from last summer shows the clematis growing strong but without blossoms. The limelight hydrangea (the white blossom hedge on the side of the building) did well last year and I'm looking forward to seeing how they do this year. 

As you can see from the first photo in this post (which I took this morning), the hydrangea bushes are bigger this year. I haven't pruned them at all so far because I want them to grow nice and big. I do remove the old blossoms in the fall however, as I don't want the winter snow to weigh them down and snap the branches. 

Note: I am slowly but surely adding some more before photos to some of my old posts. I was able to add some new photos to the The Exterior of the Old Sauna post here.