defining ambient light is near impossible with words .... you can have trees limbed up 40 feet .... be in total shade.. and have to wear sunglasses for the brightness ... or it can be so dark.. you need a flashlight at mid day ... 2 hours of direct light is very borderline, as you suspect ... but the amount of ambient light for the remainder of the day is determinative ... the only real solution .... GIVE IT A GO .... what is it.. a 10$ investment.. maybe 20 ... frankly .. all other things proper .... lack of sun simply reduces vigor .... it rarely kills ... you can always move it later if it isnt growing to expectation ... i planted a AC in full sun .. in the third year .. it covered a split rail fence for 15 feet in every direction ... if in 3 years.. your is only growing 3 feet .. then you have to think about moving it ... also .. since they bloom in the heat of summer.. you better have no fear of bees .... though the scent will help overcome such.. lol ... they are extremely busy on the plant.. and frankly .. unless provoked.. they would prefer to concentrate on the flower .... but some peeps just cant take the risk .. or have nerves of steel ..... ken PS: greenery is usually very capable of adjusting to reduced light... its the flower production that will be limited by lack of sun .. which may defeat the entire reason to buy this .... PPS: all that said... there is a clematis forum.. go figure .....

I have been searching the web trying to identify a wild clematis in my yard and came across this thread. A thread that has been going for eight years. Tonight I have learned that there are several similar species and some are known by several names. Clematis terniflora has at least two synonyms:Clematis maximowicziana and Clematis paniculata. And at least three common names: Sweet Autumn Clematis, Sweet Autumn Virgin's Bower, Japanese Clematis. It is a native of Japan and in some areas is an invasive weed. In other areas it is loved like most on this thread love it. There several similar species called Sweet Autumn and virgin's bower. But, vary in number of leaflets water and light requirements. Some have no odor, some have complete flowers and some male and female flowers are on different plants. In western US the native Clematis ligusticifolia is very similar. Same rambunctious growth habit and similar scent. There are at least three cultivors of this species. One of them is naturalized here in Missouri. I am now searching to determine which I have.

Well, I've spent a fair amount of time fighting honesuckle and multiflora rose to keep it out of the woods on properties I've worked at. Didn't realize until I Googled it that the native wild clematis, VB and Sweet Autumn Clematis were different, and that the non native one was invasive. It's the smelly one I want. The wild clematis is not showy enough to waste space on it in my tiny, tiny, tiny urban downtown row house yard. I don't feel there's much danger of my stuff invading a pristine natural area, the best luck a seed from my yard would have is to land on some vacant urban corner. I haven't read anything about the clematis being a big problem around here, but maybe that's because it is not very commonly grown or sold in nurseries. I don't mind cutting back the upper foliage, to keep it trained along the fence. My neighbors have a grape vine trellis that they have to keep after, but the roots don't wander, just the tops. But after that rose experience, I just don't want something with root suckers, because then I have to go into my neighbors yard to pull the stuff up, and it risks disrupting things, in my yard and hers. I don't want to accidentally uproot her tomatoes or something like that. Maybe I should go with a regular clematis. I sure do LOVE, LOVE the smell of the Sweet Autumn Clematis, and the flowers are pretty too. It smells like baby powder. I have such a tiny yard, I can never decide what to plant, because I am torn between wanting stuff to eat, smell and look pretty. I had to tear out my beloved crab apple which has all three qualities, because it was overrun with rust. I didn't treat it at first because the Cooperative Extension folks said it was just "cosmetic." But eventually the whole thing became infected and distorted and covered with the stuff. And I realized that the soil where all the leaves fell would now be infected for years to come. I finally put the poor thing out of its misery. Now there's a huge hole in my garden and I can't decide what to put there. So far I am replacing the tree with a red ninebark, but I don't know about along the fence behind it and on either side.

I think sweet autumn clematis would be fine there. It's a nice plant... sadly, mine seems to be an unscented one. Maybe put a morning glory or something with it? The SAC would cover the fence at pretty high speed, the morning glory would provide summer blooms, then the SAC would bloom in September. My SAC is in its third or fourth year now and already this season has grown from ground level to about 6 feet tall... and it's only early May!