Thanks, Melle. I have Hagley Hybrid, too, and it's been an uphill battle. It survives and puts out a bloom or 2, but is a very weak grower for me. Jenn, it occured to me that I didn't answer any of your questions. "Where do you put them all?" Had to laugh at this. Probably the reason I have so many is because I ran out of room. Clematis grow up, so they don't take up a lot of ground space and most can grow through other plants and strangle them. I grow them through shrubs, trees, roses, tall perennials (like salvias). I have herbaceous ones (Petit Faucon) that get just a few feet tall that clambers through the perennial bed using the plants for support. You can stick them almost anywhere. I have a few of the smaller varities that I grow in large pots, but most are planted in the ground. The exceptions are the ones in my plant ghetto waiting for a home...LOL, and the ones that I consider too small to be planted. They go into pots, are babied for a season, and planted the following spring (or fall). It is hard to pick a favorite, but If I had to only have 1 Clematis, it would be Durandii, a non-climber that only gets about 6' and fills an obelisk nicely. It's extremely hardy, blooms non-stop from spring through fall, and is a gorgeous blue color.

Pat, yes I think we are on the same page. The first year you get the plant, whether you plant it in the ground or in a pot, you can pinch the growing tips out to help encourage branching and side shoots (this is not severe pruning, this is pinching out growing tips). The next year, assuming the plant is a type II or I, you prune it as a type III, removing the old wood and taking the plant down to several nodes from the ground level, even though doing so means you might not get any blooms. If it is a type III, you prune it as a type III. Then after the plant starts putting out its new vines, you can always pinch out growing tips to encourage more side branches. Pinching out growing tips can be done on any plant in any year. You aren't removing old wood by doing this, but just removing the main shoot so that side axillary buds will break and form new shoots. As for your two vigorous ones which are type IIIs, then did you prune them back in the late winter/early spring. If so, then you are finished with what needs to be done. I still go around and pinch out growing tips on all my clematis as time allows however to promote side branching. My D of A was hard pruned in late December. That has not stopped me from going out at least twice now and pinching out growing tips to encourage side branching. Hope this clarifies it! :0)

Carol, The white plastic stake gives no clue as to the grower...sorry. If I can find out, will let you know. M.

Generally speaking, integrifolias, which fall into the type III pruning class, are not as susceptible to wilt as are the type II clematis. That being said, there have been people who have posted here and on other clematis forums that have said that they had some of the type III clematis succumb to wilt. Whether it was really clematis wilt, another form of general plant wilt, or some other factor that led the clematis to wilt, I can not say. However, I have never (knock wood) had any type III clematis, including the integrifolias, succumb to clematis wilt.