Clematis "Niobe"

Can you believe this is one of my better rock walls? The first one I built was twice this high and, when it was done and I was about dead, the friend who got me started on the darn thing said, "Yeah, looks pretty good. Usually the flat side of the rock faces out." Makes sense, but then how do you stack 'em?

The vinyl-coated chain-link fence, the rock wall and the plantings are new, except for the big Solanum crispum 'Glasnevin' that you can see about half of on the right. This whole area was wiped out by our neighbors' picket fence when it blew into our yard during the December 2007 "hurricane". I had to cut the Glasnevin back to nothing but a structure, a gorgeous structure at that, and didn't know until about three weeks ago whether it had survived.

That's a Pieris 'Forest Flame' in the middle, flanked by red snapdragons and scarved with a clematis 'Niobe'. There are maybe 50 types of Pieris, aka lily-of-the-valley shrub because of the look of their unscented flowers. Forest Flame may be one of the best for this area because it grows tall and narrow compared to most other Pieris. It's also gorgeous in winter and early spring, with glossy leaves in four separate colors -- bright red, white, medium green and salmon -- and then the pendulous racemes of white flowers. They'd make a good Christmas tree for a rich family. This one, which is maybe 2-1/2 feet high, was $45.00 at Portland Nursery. (Am I drooling? Sometimes I drool when I think about Portland Nursery.)

Joy Creek Nursery, in Scappoose, Oregon, has the best collection of clematis I've ever seen or heard of outside of the speciality nursery Chalk Hill Clematis, which is your best bet for mail order.

Look at how red 'Niobe' is in my picture. It is supposed to be red, Barry Fretwell thinks it's one of the best reds (outside of the texensis varieties), because it doesn't fade to a nondescript color; and it's just what I wanted. But through my naked eyes I don't think it looks much different from the purple 'Gipsy Queen'. The picture from Chalk Hill Nursery is much more the way I see it. But here it is, red as all get-out, and the other colors in the photo are true.