Corachie Clematis Garden Centre

Corachie is a specialist clematis nursery on the back roads above Taynuilt, between the village and the lower slopes of Ben Cruachan. Clematis is a deep niche, over three hundred named cultivars in general cultivation in the UK, and the range of types runs from spring-flowering alpinas and macropetalas through to large-flowered summer hybrids and the vigorous late-season viticella and tangutica groups, and Corachie’s stock leans into that breadth rather than the small rack of garden-centre staples you’d see in a supermarket. The plants are grown on under polytunnels at the nursery, which sits at the back of the holding rather than alongside the road.

The setting suits the crop. Taynuilt’s climate is reliably wet but sheltered, and the long-established gardens around the village (Ardchattan Priory’s are the best-known) show what does well in this corner of Argyll. Clematis raised here are hardened to a real West Highland growing season rather than a Surrey one.

The nursery is small, family-run, and runs seasonally, visit through the main growing season rather than mid-winter. The setting is rural, off a single-track lane signed from the A85 at Taynuilt; allow time to find it on a first visit, and don’t follow the satnav blindly.

Opening times, current stock, and mail-order arrangements at the Corachie Clematis website.