IME, the individual flowers have a very mild, slight fragrance, often hard to discern. It is only when the vine is covered in bloom is the scent particularly noticeable. And it IS a very light fragrance as well.......not something that would knock you over from a distance.

Oh, that's odd. I had a white blooming vine (not too large) in a public park in my neighborhood that used to be so fragrant that one could get whiffs of it from afar and I thought it was SAC. I guess I was wrong.

Can you show pictures? Is the identification solid?

I thought I had posted this last ight.....but apparently not :-)

If you had both the SAC and a star jasmine planted and both were in full bloom, it would be the scent of the jasmine you'd detect, not the SAC. Even though the jasmine does not bloom as heavily (all at once) and the flowers are mostly individual, not in clusters like with the clem. It simply has a much stronger and permeating scent. I have never found the clem to be very strongly fragrant....just a very light, mild scent most noticeable in early evening after a day in full sun.

But scent is the most subjective of our senses. What smells strongly to one may be almost unnoticeable to others.

Floral, did you mean Id of the one in the park or mine. Here are some of my "SAC."

I find the star jasmine fragrance to be pretty mild so I guess the SAC is going to have a very faint scent. 😞

I meant yours. It does look like SAC. I just wondered whether you'd got a mislabelled flammula or something.

Thanks. Good to know. At least I know I should temper my expectations. I have it only for the fragrance so we shall see if earns it's keep.

Planting a clematis based solely or even primarily on its potential fragrance may be a bit of a mistake. While there are a number of fragrant species/varieties, most will offer that very light hawthorn, almond or honey scent I described previously. I have grow many of these myself and I can think of only a couple that have a scent that is very noticeable and even fewer that send that scent out over a distance.

IMO, most honeysuckles have a stronger and more pervasive scent. Even a few roses will pack a bigger fragrance punch.

True. I grew a honeysuckle (harlequin) for a couple of seasons- it bloomed once for a week or so the second season, was mildew ridden for half the season and then promptly succumbed to the wet winter. Otoh, this guy survived as a little start in a gallon pot outside and has become a decent sized vine in less than a year with abundant blooms which will probably last a while considering by NW balcony is getting less and less sun as the sun receeds in the opposite direction. I have had many roses over the years, hardly any have enough fragrance and all have succumbed to the winter gods within a couple of seasons. My clematis have had better luck although I have had casualties among them as well. Something tells me that the SAC will not be dying anytime soon. So, yes I would love a very fragrant perennial, and that was the original motivation, but given the state of affairs, the SAC cannot be written off so soon.

SAC always was very fragrant for me when in full bloom. It smells like very much like vanilla here. However, I never notice it until it is covered in flowers.

I am waiting for all the buds to open and hoping it gets fragrant then. Some plants get more fragrant as they age so...