1 Clematis ‘Ernest Markham’
2 Clematis ‘Madam Julia Correvon’
3 Clematis ‘Niobe’
4 Clematis ‘Rouge Cardinal’
5 Clematis ‘Ville de Lyon’
6 Clematis ‘Voluceau’
7 Clematis ‘Warsaw Nike’
If you are longing to find a fire-engine red clematis, sadly they do not exist. Just as a clematis that is described as true-blue (see articles: Am I Blue and Are Clematis Really Blue) is a misnomer, so are so called pure-red clematis. As you can see from my picture above of the seven clematis regularly labeled as “red”, all of them have a blue hue. This blue hue gives their tepals a magenta cast. So, when you are looking at photographs of supposedly red clematis, whether they are in a book, magazine or on the Internet, keep in mind that the color may not always be depicted accurately because it is difficult to capture these red colored clematis (or for that matter, any other red flower) correctly in print. Regrettably, I too occasionally use the term red for bluish-red clematis, but if I was really a Queen, I would immediately bestow upon them the more accurate moniker “magenta” which is a bright, pinkish-purple color. Although this solution may not be a perfect color designation, I think it would definitely give clematis gardeners a more realistic expectation when it comes to coloring as opposed to just using the catchall color red.
You can be your own judge of this coloring controversy. The next time one of your “red clematis” is in bloom, compare it as I did it with something that you know is true red. In my case I used the red Tupperware lid shown above. Then you too can make an unbiased assessment of whether the shading is magenta or red.