Large, velvety red-violet to purple-violet flowers with a slightly redder bar. Yellow anthers on green-white filaments. Raised by Brother Stefan Franczak of Poland and introduced into the U.K. by Jim Fisk.

Szczepan Marczynski, on his website, writes that "'Nike' is a Greek winged goddess of victory. In Warsaw, 'Warszawska Nike' is a monument to the heroes of Warsaw 1939-1945, the soldiers and civilian population who fought during the Second World War for the freedom of their home city. It is particularly dedicated to the participants of the Warsaw Uprising (1 August - 3 October 1944). The fight broke out when the Soviet army had just reached the outskirts of Warsaw and its tanks approached the opposite bank of the Vistula. Over 40,000 soldiers of the Polish underground army stood up to fight on the 1st August 1944. Though very poorly equipped, they managed to release about 50% of the capital territory but since no help came either from the Soviet army (they even stopped attacking Germans in this region) or from the western Allies, after over 2 months of hard struggle the uprising ended in the defeat. Nearly 20,000 insurgents and 200 - 300,000 of civil population died, killed by Germans, most of them shot or burned alive. After that Warsaw was emptied and all surviving citizens were sent to concentration camps."

Our original information about the derivation of this name was incorrect; our thanks to Peer Sorensen in New Zealand for bringing the error to our attention.

Group:	Early large-flowered group
Approximate height:	2.5 - 4.0 metres
Flowering period(s):	Jun Jul Sep Oct
Aspect:	Any aspect
Pruning:	Hard prune (Group 3)
Raised by:	Stefan Franczak
Country of origin:	Poland
Date raised:	r1966 f1970 i1982
Parentage:	Unknown
Other name(s):	'Warsaw Nike'; 'Warszaw Nike'; 'Warszawa Niki'; 'Midnight Showers' (US). Mis-spelling: 'Warshaw Nike'
Further detail:  Flower diameter: 10-15 (-20)cm Tepals: 6 (-8); 5.5cm long, 4cm wide, obovate to spathulate, overlapping, deep central grooves, pointed, margin slightly crimped Click here for the text of an IClS article about this clematis Database entry: 593
People:  Click the name(s) for information about:
	Brother Stefan Franczak
	Jim Fisk