Betty, I found this thread that had pictures of the rebar umbrella. Scroll down to about the middle of the thread. There are 3 pictures. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/roses/msg061920177156.html I hope this is what you were looking for. Karen Here is a link that might be useful: rebar umbrellas

Msrose, I agree that some of the ones with larger flowers look stunning, but I have no experience growing them. Hopefully someone else in Texas will add their experience. If you've never seen it before, there is an online article from 2006 written by a person who grows clematis in Atlanta - she lists those that have been successful for her as well as some that have not. I cannot link directly to the article, but on the home page there is a list of articles about vines. If you scroll down a little more than halfway through the list, there is an article called "Growing clematis in hot climates". Once you get to the article, you will see that most of her list appears in blue type - these are active links that will open that clematis page on the right hand side of the screen. Perhaps this will give you some ideas. Everyone's yard is different, with different soil, different light exposure and different water. I think that if there is a clematis that you really like, you should just give it a try. If you don't mind experimenting, I'm sure there are others that can take more heat. Of course, a bit of shade in the afternoon could always be helpful, too. Here is a link that might be useful: Clematis Container Nursery

Well, she buckled. Actually the umbrella poll cracked due to the combination of the weight on top and high winds. This "tree" is a beauty and I got so many compliments on it. I'm cutting it at about 4 ft and am going to replace the support with a wooden one. It took less than a year to achieve this growth. I love this vine.

Thanks Sheila. Clematis SOMETIMES grows here. It is super finicky here. Not sure if I want to use the limited water on something so fussy... but maybe. I'm not sure the photos do the rebar tree justice. It looks quite spindly in the two dimensional photos. In person it's pretty substantial looking and pretty darn cool. I just have to figure out the right way to set it so it's stable and the right rose or roses to grow in it. We are finally getting some rain here so it will get a nice rusty color over the next couple of days and look even better. It's also a good test to see if the rebar limbs move around a lot in a storm.