C. 'Evipo079'(N) NUBIA™
Raymond Evison has introduced some smashing red clematis over the years, and of his handsome array of large-flowered hybrids, C. 'Evipo079' NUBIA is my favorite. It is consistently quite short — ideal for edging or container culture — and reblooms without much prompting. But mostly for me it's the color See Note 1. Whenever someone says they are waiting for a cultivar that is truly strawberry red, I introduce them to C. 'Evipo079' NUBIA.
Tribute strawberries |
Clematis Garden, Autumn 2021 |
At the Rogerson Clematis Garden (near Portland, Oregon, USA) we grow it at the end of one of the aisles of clematis in the Modern Garden area, where Rows 3-7 are dedicated to the introductions from Evison, planted in alphabetical order. It just worked out that C. 'Evipo079' NUBIA landed at the end of Row 6, so it has a short metal surround to climb on (36 inches, 0.9 meters tall) that protects it from the mowers that groom the grass paths. Typically, we get three waves of bloom a year, with the first in early May, at a height of 30 centimeters or less. We deadhead to get another burst of bloom within weeks, just in time for the Strawberry Solstice tasting event on June 21st. We deadhead again, and C. 'Evipo079' NUBIA makes some effort to get taller for its final flowering. This takes time. By early to mid-September, it has managed to stretch enough that the tips of the flower buds reach the top of the half-round support. It then opens flowers from the ground up, making itself a diminutive red pillar. In my home garden C. 'Evipo079' NUBIA is in a container with Fuchsia 'Autumnale', which makes for quite a shouting match between the clematis flowers and the foliage color of the fuchsia, a contest I quite enjoy. Sadly, I don't have a picture of this, but if you see a rosy glow in the western sky, it's probably from them. Now seems a good place to mention that at the Rogerson Clematis Garden we use organic rose and flower food for large-flowered clematis in the ground (feather meal, bone meal, ground-up alfalfa pellets etc.), with an N-P-K of 4-6-2. We've used a formula with 5-7-2, which works just as well. We apply the first time in March, and then apply monthly (a scant handful spread around but not on the crown of the clematis), with a last feeding in September. Our average first frost date is 22 November, so the September feeding leaves ample time for a last surge of buds. In containers, we use an organic liquid concentrate from the local brand Down to Earth, or Espoma's Tomato!™ concentrate. Both have molasses added to provide natural magnesium sulphate. Thanks to my travels with the I.Cl.S., I've seen C. 'Evipo079' NUBIA in Lars and Jette Jensen's garden in Denmark. As a lark, I had posted a picture of a new pair of shoes with a floral print that seemed to include a red, dark-eyed clematis on social media. The Jensens insisted I wear the shoes to their garden, where C. 'Evipo079' NUBIA was obligingly in bloom for a side-by-side comparison. Then, in 2024, while the I.Cl.S. visited the town of Loches in the Loire Valley of France, I caught that distinctive red out of the corner of my eye outside a local (and very good) florist. C. 'Evipo079' NUBIA, along with C. 'Evipo075' SAMARITAN JO, were dolled up with other outdoor gift plants. I was delighted in both cases to see this stand-out red clematis giving such a good account of itself.
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Loches, France, 2024 |
Linda Beutler