If you were looking at wild plants, the one called Sweet Autumn Virgin's Bower (Clematis terniflora) is a non-native species that has mostly entire leaves. The one called Virgin's Bower (Clematis virginiana) is a native species with deeply cut leaves like the plant in your photo. So your plant isn't likely to be C. terniflora. But as bboy said, you need the flowers for a proper ID.

The term clematis paniculata as used by Bluestone is incorrect. Sweet autumn clematis is clematis terniflora. Clematis paniculata is an evergreen clematis native to New Zealand. See link below. Clematis terniflora can be found at most nurseries and is something that if I could purchase locally, would do so over ordering mail order. Not all clones of terniflora are scented so it is better to purchase a plant in bloom to make sure that it will be fragrant. Terniflora is very vigorous in my garden and is a mad reseeder. Some people consider it to be a weed and invasive due to its seedy nature, while in other people's gardens it is not as seedy. Whether it would do well under maple trees is unproven since maples are notorious for sucking moisture and nutrients out of the soil. The shade they cast may also hinder the plant's ability to thrive. My best suggestion is to see if you can purchase an inexpensive plant and see how it does. You will have to provide the plant some support to get it to climb into the limbs of the tree since the plant won't be able to climb the trunk of an older established tree due to the diameter of the trunk. Here is a link that might be useful: Clematis paniculata

Nckvilledudes, As I said I order 2 of the SAC's and after looking and reading up on them I think one will be more then enough!! So that leaves me with a extra one and I've been wandering around thinking about where I could plant it and I was wondering if I could plant it with my Wisteria? They both are crazy growers so do you think one would choke out the other? It would be a nice combo because my Wistera don't flower lol or I shall say it hasn't yet (3 years) But I chopped it back and moved it and I'm hoping that I shocked it into flowering for me next year and don't end up killing it ;) Plus it would fill in all that green in the fall when the SAC flowers. What do you think? Chelsie

Sweet autumn clematis goes by many names. The one I have is celmatis terniflora, but the exact same plant - as far as I know - is also called clematis maximowicziana and clematis paniculata. I'm not sure why, but I know that several plants have gotten new sceintific names lately. Don't know which is the current name for my plant. I have heard people call other species (?) sweet autumn clematis, so you could have a different plant. If yours is evergreen, it's not terniflora (or all its many other names). Isn't there something called virginiana that's evergreen and an incredible spreader? Does anyone know?