I was confused, but perhaps I’ve figured it out. When the worn-out garden area surrounding the new sunroom was removed to allow more room for construction, two clematis were chopped to the ground in October 2023, leaving the roots. The two vines, one purple, the other white, had scrambled through a tall nandina at the corner of the lower level of the deck that was torn out.

A year ago, both grew but there were no flowers. As growth began this spring, I could see that both would require support rather than allowing them to wander. An inexpensive obelisk was set for one, with the other directed up the trunk into the yellow-leafed ‘Moonrise’ Japanese maple. While neither clematis could be identified only by foliage, I hoped the purple-flowered vine was growing up into the maple.

Wrong again, but doubly incorrect since the clematis on the obelisk is also white-flowered.   While my confusion is justified, I presume that there were three clematis, not two, and the purple was inadvertently destroyed. I would have enjoyed the garish contrast of large purple blooms through the yellow foliage, but the white will have to do.