If you don't want to dig them up, just mound soil up around a large area around the crowns and you will in essence have planted them deeper. Cover the area with mulch and it will help the soil stay in place. I also agree that if you have not pruned them back hard yet I would do that. I treat Niobe as a type III clematis in my garden.

Hey Minnow: Unfortunately, my post was sort of a question as well. I'm not the best person to advise you. I will be removing the lower "True" leaves of my leggy 2 ft plants and planting most of the bare stem on it's side on an angle in my joshobox. Roots should form along the stem. So the top of my tomato plant will be poking out at an angle, but once I put it in the sunlight, I hope it will straigten out. I'll also have some sort of trellis system to train it on as well. From other posts I've read, I get the idea that it will set back my plant's growth for a while, while new roots develop. I think I can take the hit, even if it shortens my already short growing season. I started too early anyway. I can't even picture a leggy tomato plant that's taller than me! My 2 ft tall plants are starting to flop over and look wilted which is why I don't think I can wait to plant outside. I can't imagine what yours are doing. Please let us know what you decide to do. As for the flowers, maybe it would be better to pinch them off and route that growing energy into making the plant stronger?

I think (and that's my hypothesis) that trenching is better than burying the plant deep) because of the soil warmth--Dave alluded to this as well. (I think) If the root ball is shocked by being in 50 degree soil (or worse) 20 inches down, it will most likely slow down your plant until it can form a secondary root system. However, if you trench, your plant is going to be in the warmest soil possible. One downside of trenching, you are more at risk of damaging your (buried) main stem with a stake or something, so make sure you put your stake in at the same time, or align your stems all the same way and don't put stakes in along that line, etc. Something that works for me: because I grow in a window and move out onto a balcony on warm days, I have always "potted up" by putting seedlings into the bottoms of pots -- beer cups, 1 liter bottles with the tops cut off, etc, and this mimics "burying deep" so when I go to plant out (on Sunday, wooo!) I get a nice big fat pint or quart sized root ball, and lots of adventitious roots already started. The 1liter bottles are perhaps the best, because, full of soil, they give a root ball 8" high.

You can repot it; if it's still supple & flexible, maybe bury it horizontally, or coiled, but be careful it doesn't snap while maneuvering it.