My original post might not have been too clear. I am just looking for ideas for foundation planting ideas, not a total landscape design. Gosh. I do not find this rude nor dismissive. The OP simply apologized for perhaps wording the original post poorly (which he did not) and restated his desires. I find it amazing that someone could belong to GW for less than a month and feel it appropriate to comment on the suitability of a post for a given forum. As it is, you have probably driven away a poster who was gaining insight from the kind people on this forum who chose to respond. I personally have learned a lot from the people willing to give their time to help those of us who have no idea what we are doing. Many of us have posted questions that are not "landscape design", yet the mainstays of this forum have taken their time to answer our questions, address our concerns, and carry us into the next (perhaps incremental) stage of our development. Many of us now mostly lurk, but we are learning with each thread that occurs (well, maybe not with every one, but with many). It seems to me that perhaps you, as a landscaper yourself, could take the time to read some previous threads, learn the culture of this forum, then find a way to offer your insight such that it will be appreciated. Ink offered you the same advice. And, it might not hurt to take care with posters screen names. You still (probably deliberately) have maro's wrong, and inkognito's as well. If you want to talk about courtesy, then show the people on this forum some as well. ducking back into hiding now

Usually it's a case of pollination. If the flowers were pollinated by another suitable Aesuculus tree, then the fruit develop to maturity. But if the flowers either weren't pollinated, or were unsuccessfully pollinated by an incompatible Aesculus, then the fruit would either initially look like they are developing only to drop off soon afterwards. This happens a lot with Magnolias and Oaks. They will hold on to their fruit, and the fruit will even look to be developing, but then sometime before maturation, they will drop the developing fruit(Magnolias do this 4 to 6 weeks after flowering and Oaks will do this as long as 3 or 4 months after flowering) because the flower wasn't properly pollinated. I suspect that since you have all the same cultivar they are probably not self compatible enough to properly pollinate their own flowers and hence the fruit are dropped. Since they are all the same cultivar, they are all genetically identical, so any pollen landing on any flower would be the same as if the pollen from one lone tree landed on it's own flowers. Plant another variety of Red Horsechestnut (Aesculus x carnea), like 'Briotii or 'O'neill', or perhaps even one of it's parents(A. hippocastanum or A. pavia) and you should get some fruit, although some claim at least some Red Horsechestnuts are sterile.

I might rethink planting a type 2 clem on a Harry Lauder. One of the pleasures of the HL is its winter silhouette with interesting branch shapes. Type 2 clems aren't usually cut to the ground in winter (you can do it, but will lose all the first bloom, and some won't bloom as well in the second bloom in my cold zone 5.) If you don't cut it to the ground you will have all the scrappy dead vines left in your winter HL which will interfere with its bare-branched silhouette. At least consider a type 3 or choose your type 2 carefully so that you get one of them that seems to bloom longer so you won't lose too many blooms. My Daniel Deronda, a type 2, will bloom almost all growing season, even after it has winter killed to the ground, and I imagine that there may be some more. I mostly put type 1s and 2s where I don't have to see the dead vines in winter. The other thing to consider is the ultimate size of the clematis and the HL. A large, fast-growing clematis can overwhelm a young or small shrub. I tried the strategy of planting clems on the opposite side of the shrub from where I want to eventually view them so that they would grow through, and I find that I prefer the ones where I planted them on the side from which I wanted to view it. The grow up the shrub just fine in my garden. It may be a difference in sun angle and intensity between Bob's CA location and my NH location.

I am new to this site. I love Hummingbirds and Butterflies. This is a nice thread and will be investigating many of these plants for my garden. I do want to advise you not to get discouraged if Hummers don't seem to like one plant because the following year they may go bonkers over it. I guess they are like humans, we all don't like the same food equally. One year they seem to fight over the trumpet vine. The next year they are just mildly interested in it. Two years ago they were crazy about the Hyacinth Bean Vine I planted for the first time, last year they could care less. Maybe the weather affects the nectar the plants produce. My trumpet vine is over 30 years old & I just continue to mow over the "suckers" that appear. Thanks for the wonderful suggestions.