Don't you love it? I planted mine last year, moved it this spring and it's been blooming for a few weeks, not many, but still, it is encouraging. Are yours small too?

Hello LORIA, Gosh...where to start....Barbara J and Nike are group 3 pruners which means you have to cut them way back in early Spring. Do you want to fumble amongst the roses to prune? As for fading...I would not recommend ANY of the multi colored clematis. The BEST for full sun are your white ones. I have a black mailbox with a Miss Bateman-white, on one side and H.F. Young-blue, on the other. Neither one fades. I have Earnest Markham -red, Ramona -blue, and a General Sikorski-blue in full sun. Henryii is a great one for the sun...he's white. Ken Donson is excellent also. He's a blue. All of these are group 2 pruners. To be honest, all Clematis do better in the shade, but there are some good sun loving ones as well. As for size, Ken Donson, and Henryii will give you 8" blooms. The others are smaller. As for your wooden post, will you be using some sort of chicken wire wrapped around your post to allow the plant to climb? I actually have some attached to a treillis with large gaps. You aren't setting yourself up for failure. Enjoy your clematis and have fun choosing OR TWO! (:0) I hope my advice helps. TwelthSunrise.

I have some clems on order and I bought some to plant after they are hardened off...heres what I have... omoshiro dutchess of edin. yukikomoshi warsaw nike gernesy cream bees jub. I already have a newdawn rose with 'the president' and I was thinking to plant bees jub. with that.. warsaw nike has sooo many varietys of photos from burgandy to dark purple..if it really has a bit of reddish I thought it may be good with omoshiro....and then I could find a dark purple for the yuk...opinions? suggestions?

No need to be confused. The pruning group question is one that I, BorS, gardengal and various other posters here have said time and time again is not written in stone. Many of the new varieties are being introduced without the pruning class specified. The pruning groups, especially the type IIs, are general guidelines that are not written in stone. Clematis don't read books and will often perform in conflict with what is written about them. I will say this one more time: Most type IIs can easily be treated as type IIIs. The only exceptions that I can think of are the type IIs that bloom double on old wood only. Even them, if I had them, I would put to the test in my garden to see if that is really true or something that is repeated time and time again and assumed to be true. I challenge all clematis growers regardless of the zone they garden in to perform a simple test. When planting a type II in your garden, treat it as a type III the first two years it is in the ground. Cut it back for two springs after it is planted so that the plant can concentrate on root growth (this is recommended by many clematis gurus). The third spring, treat it as a type II and don't prune it back. See how it blooms, see when it blooms, and just take general notes on its vigor. The fourth spring, treat it as a type III. Prune it back hard and then observe the same things that I noted previously: when it blooms, how many blooms it has, etc. Decide then if the particular type II you are growing does best being treated as a type II (no prune or just to control size or remove deadwood) or a type III (hard prune to within several inches of the ground). That is the only way each and every clematis grower will know best how to treat their purported type IIs. End of speech on soapbox!!