Please can someone ID this Clematis for me

It looks like Niobe, but red/purple colours are notoriously hard to reproduce accurately in photographs

I would say this colour is fairly accurate....Thanks Ilex...I just googled it and i think you are correct...thanks again...:>)

No problem :-)

There aren't very many red coloured large-flowered Clematis hybrids, and the few others that are around tend to have wider petals.

Good to know....ta

Motinot - my Niobe is a lot darker in colour, even in a photo - and the texture of the petals is velvety. If that's a true colour I'm seeing, I don't think it's Niobe....sorry....I'll look in my Clem. books and see if I come up with anything...otherwise, have you looked at the 'clematison theweb' site?

Clematis corona?...it looks very like one I have just bought! Just a thought...!

I'd like to know how long its been flowering for - it does look like a Niobe flower after a couple of days in sunlight (that's what mine end up like, better in shade I reckon), but it's not impossible that its Ernest Markham.

'Corona' should really be more blue/purple than this pic, and also has red-tipped stamens....

I agree it does look a little too pale for 'Niobe' which certainly opens a deeper, truer red, but, as Bamboo says, it does (frustratingly!!) fade out to something like this colour in the sun - just like it's viticella rubra ancestor - plus it matches the relatively narrowed, non-overlapping petals and overall flower form......

'Ernest Markham' generally has more than 5 petals per flower, although the colour is a better match.

Oh goodness...i am confused...these flowers are not very large, if that means anything....Im going to check all the suggestions and get back.......Im back lol...It looks very like 'ernest markham'....mine has been flowering for about a week or 10 days....:>)

Hi Motinot:

Sorry for all the confusion! If the flowers open the same colour as shown in your photo then I would say it's definitely not 'Niobe' and could be 'Ernest Markham'....if, on the other hand they open deeper red and fade to this colour over the course of a couple of days then I'd say it probably is 'Niobe'.

Do all the flowers have just 5 petals, as in your photo, or do some have 6 or more?

If the flowers are quite small and all have 5 (or fewer) petals it could actually be a form of the parent plant of these 2 hybrids, namely C. viticella rubra as shown below:

http://www.epimedium.be/foto's%20planten/klimmers/Clematis%20viticella%20'Rubra'.jpg

The two basic problems with Clematis ID'ing are:

1) there are literally thousands of different varieties

2) flowers of any given variety can be hugely variable depending on age, position, vigour etc etc

I hate to say this Ilex, but my Niobe has 6 and 5 petalled flowers on it right now! I'm sticking with Ernest Markham - were it Niobe, it would have been in flower a month ago or more, like mine.

Bamboo, is your Ernest Markham in flower NOW? I have a newish one...not yet in flower.

I don't have Ernest Markham Izzy, I have Niobe, which is just finishing but Motinot has it (I think) and it's just starting now - average time for flowering (assuming pruned correctly by mid February) is end of June early July on.

The colour doesn't fade at all....The flowers are not very big and they curve slightly backwards....I just had a look and most of the flowers have 5 petals...a few have 6 and 1 or 2 has 4..lol....All in all i think it is C. ' Ernest Markham'...Thank you very much to each of you for the help the link and site...(how clever you all are).....:>)

Not clever in my case, Motinot - I have 'Niobe' in my garden - I just knew yours wasn't her! ;-)
I'm glad you have an ID, though. :-)

Me too...thanks again Spritz...I always enjoy looking at the photos of your beautiful plants and garden....:>)

Thanks, Motinot. :-)))) And you're welcome!