And for yet a sligtly different approach......I prune both my 2's and 3's hard each spring (right about now, or as soon as I have time). It results in only a slight delay on the 2's. I don't prune again after the first flush, simply because my schedule at that time of year doesn't often allow it yet I still get a rebloom but perhaps not as heavy as I would if I did a tounch up. Type 3's in my climate are mid to late summer bloomers and will be in flower pretty much consistently until frost so I have never seen a need for any additional midseason pruning on them. There is just one long bloom season here for 3's, perhaps because our summers are very mild. Jeanne's summer heat may create a different bloom situation that further pruning improves.

Jeanne, This is the fourth year for Arctic Queen and Multi-Blue in the in the ground, 3rd year for Fireworks. Carnaby was moved last year and Miss Bateman was planted last fall. Bad news about Multi Blue though: I have to dig it this year and perhaps completely bareroot it thanks to the neighbors. There is a weed (I forget the name) that is growing through the Multi Blue. It has deep underground runners which break off easily and produce new runners freely. Despite my best efforts, runners have traveled to the clematis next to it as well. I should wait until middle August. I recently purchased Mary Toomey's Pocket Guide to Clematis. In it she states that Arctic Queen needs regular water and feeding for best results. Because it is in the dryer part of the yard, I think I might move it to a different location.

Dedith, many people who move to NC lament the fact that so much of the central part of the state has red clay soil, but that hasn't stopped countless generations of farmers from being able to grow a multitude of crops here. Our red clay, which is mostly what I have along with some of that grayish colored clay, tends to hold moisture well and contains lots of minerals. The bad part about it is that once it dries out it turns into cement and reincorporating moisture into it is a problem. The secret to dealing with it is to prevent it from drying out and doing something to aid in the reincorporation of moisture. Adding pine bark soil conditioner (essentially fine ground pine bark) helps to break up the soil somewhat so that moisture can get back into it. Layering organic material, whether it be double mulched hardwood, more fine pine bark nuggets, compost, grass clippings, chopped up leaves, etc, on top of the soil around the plants draws earthworms to the area who in turn help till the material into the soil. The material also helps prevent moisture from evaporating out of the soil. The earthworms drawn to the area also leave their worm castings in the ground which helps to improve the soil. The point that is most important is that you don't just put some organic matter down and then forget about it. Organic matter decomposes, gets used up by the worms and other soil organisms, gets incorported into the soil and has to be replaced. Mulching is something that I do constantly. In the spring, summer, and fall, I collect the neighbors' grass clippings and lay them around the plants. In the fall, I rob peoples' recycling buggies and organic matter they haul to the curb for the city to collect and get chopped up leaves and mixtures of leaves and grass clippings and lay them around the plants. In other words, I am constantly adding organic matter. Over time this will get incorporated into the soil and help improve it. I know some on this forum advocate digging a hole that is 18 to 24 inches deep and amending the excavated soil with all sorts of amendments. In my area, doing so would produce a swimming pool in which the roots of most clematis would rot. I also think that amending a planting hole excessively will lead to the plant's roots not wanting to move out into the surrounding native soil and thereby make them less vigorous and more dependent on me for watering. You basically have to assess your soil and what works and what doesn't work. I don't think I do anything unusual but just do what I have found works for me after having lived and gardened in this area since 1968. Hope you can find something useful in my experiences Dedith! By the way, my main bed in the back yard is a raised bed into which I placed loads of better topsoil and into which I constantly dump organic matter.

Most of this I also posted under another thread. We got down to 17 degrees at my house and the plants did not fair well. I only covered a couple plants like my newly planted weeping bottle brush tree and the big pot of variegated flax lilies by the house. My orchids, begonias, and staghorn ferns have been in the enclosed back porch for months now. Everything else was left to fend for itself though. Almost everything in my garden looks horrible right now. The big pot of bromeliads under the oak tree that's too big to move looks really bad, I'm not sure if they're going to come back. The crinums, amaryllis, and big selloum philodendrons all look like they melted. Almost everything else looks dead although I'm pretty sure most of their root systems are fine. I had a patch of native white rain lilies go into bloom right before the freeze and now the blooms are all laying on the ground. Even the flowers on my red maple were burnt by the freeze! The small orange tree in the back looks pretty bad and I think I'll end up cutting it down. It hasn't bloomed once since I bought my house over 4 years ago so that's not much of a loss. My potato plants that had started sprouting were frozen to the ground but hopefully they'll recover. The only plants that seem to have been unaffected by the freeze are the violas, dianthus, fennel, and blanket flowers. The chickasaw plum trees are going into full bloom right now as well. I also forgot to take down about 7 red glass ornaments that I had hanging in the trees outback and due to some water that had collected in them all but one of them shattered. All of my glass totems came thru just fine though.