This is the true form of 'Frances Rivis'. Small, nodding, bell-shaped deep blue or mid-blue flowers. White staminodes. The seed from which this form was grown was collected by Mrs F E Rivis in Nepal or Xizang (Tibet).

There is a 'Frances Rivis' sold in France and the UK, known as the 'English form', which has longer, paler blue tepals and which, according to the International Clematis Register and Checklist 2002, is possibly a form of 'Blue Dancer'. The true form, described above, is sometimes called the 'Dutch Form' to help distinguish between the two.

Group:	Atragene group
Approximate height:	2.5 - 4.0 metres
Flowering period(s):	Apr May
Aspect:	Any aspect
USDA zones:	3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Pruning:	No pruning (Group 1)
Raised by:	Sir Cedric Morris
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Date raised:	b1965
Parentage:	Uncertain
Other name(s):	alpina 'Frances Rivis'; 'Francis Rivis'; 'Blue Giant'; 'Frances Rivis' (Dutch form). Wrongly: alpina var alpina 'Frances Rivis'. Mis-spellings: 'Frances Rivas'; 'Francis Rivis'; alpina 'Francess Rives'
Further detail:  Flower diameter: 5-8cm Tepals: 4.5-6cm long, 2-2.5cm wide, ovate to lanceolate,sometimes twisted Database entry: 33