Both spots sound fine to me. Go ahead and plant it now. A plant in a 2 gallon pot is large enough that it won't have any issues as long as it gets adequate water, but not so much that it is soggy. Folks sometimes keep tiny clematis in pots for a season so that they are larger when they are planted out, but that isn't an issue for yours.

Plant with the current soil surface in the pot a few inches deeper in the garden. The roots don't need to stay cool, but they do need even moisture, so I mulch the ground around my clematis, though not right against the stems.

I don't have a lot of group 2 clematis, but I do have HF Young. It's gorgeous and relatively large. I do grow some of my clematis into shrubs, and they are mostly ones that have a longer distance between leaf nodes so that the foliage isn't as dense, and I have found that the best shrubs are large and have relatively stiff branches. The floppy-branched shrubs get pulled out of shape by the clematis, and if the clematis are too densely leafed, they may shade out part of the shrub.

I am thinking that I may need to find or make a larger support for my HF Young.

Dear flowers,

Just one year ago I was in your shoes... A clematis newby who walked by an HF Young and looked at it for a week before I finally just HAD to buy it. I planted mine next to a sturdy bush. It was only in a quart sized pot, so it was smaller than yours, but this year it's already much bigger than it was last year and started blooming last week.

I'm not an expert, but I'll offer this small bit and let everyone else tell you the details: don't worry! From my limited experience, it doesn't require any special treatment to be happy and thrive. Just pick your spot and let it do it's thing!

Oh, and guaranteed you can't get just one clematis! I got two new ones this year... I'm hooked! You will be too.

nhbabs - thank you so much for your reply. Yours is beautiful. I still don't even know all the basics about it. Is blooming season for this plant about to be over? And if so when will it bloom again? Also, what can I expect out of it this year, I'm so impatient lol? But it'll also give me an idea of what not to expect so I won't OCD over it.

I've already put up the trellis, with some low azaleas behind it. I plan to put it in the ground tomorrow in front of the trellis. I'm so nervous. It'll be a sunny spot, and we've not even begun to get hot here in Atlanta area either. I'll be worried to pieces I'll either over water or underwater. So I'm excited, cause I've already pictured it blooming there, haha.

I read this somewhere: would you agree?

New clematis should be pruned back to about 12 inches in the spring following their planting. This pruning will encourage new shoots to grow and will produce a fuller, bushier vine with more leads.

??? You mean as soon as I plant it I should cut it back??? I don't even know what to cut. As it stands now, it's about two feet high, lots of foliage and about 10 blooms or more. It looks to be a heavy bloomer. Should I use any fertilizer on it tomorrow or any other time for that matter?

Oh well, I feel you folks here can help an old man. :-) just I have a ton of stress issues, anxiety, panic attacks and here lately planting something and watching it grow calms me.

Any and all tips, as much as you have to offer feel free. And thanks again for all you've done thus far.

Sara, well that makes me feel a little better. I think I've picked a good spot. Did you do anything special, mix in any certain types of soil or fertilize at time of planting?

Anything you'd like to share feel free. I'm learning as I go. I tend to follow for what works for others. I think my name should've been lazy gardener. Lmbo

Have a wonderful day.

Plant your clematis now. Plants in pots can be planted any time you can get a shovel in the ground. Mulch the base of the plant; don't pile it on the stem, just the soil.

Water well and then let dry a bit before you water well again.

I like your Azalea spot. It seems as though they will have less competition for showing off than in the spot with the other plants.

Most importantly--stop worrying!!! Fretting over plants is their number one killer!!! Did you ever notice people who are successful growers just plant and then go about their day? And those who fret and pick at their plants don't do so well?
Bad vibes!!!

Clematis fall into three different categories as to their pruning needs. You can look up your variety to see which division and pruning time it falls under. If you want to make it easier, the rule of thumb is to do it after they have bloomed. Easier still, don't bother. Personally, I never prune mine and I have about 7-8 plants. This is my favorite clematis pictured two years ago. It is about to put on a spectacular show which is fantastic considering the winter it just went through!

Just plant, relax and enjoy!

Linda

This post was edited by whitelacey on Wed, May 7, 14 at 2:43

The purpose of hard pruning young clematis is to get them to push out more stems. If yours has a bunch of stems, it isn't needed, but if you only have a few stems, I'd prune it as advised.

If your azaleas are low, HF Young may overwhelm them if it grows on them, so just be aware. I didn't mention in my previous post that the trellis needs to have relatively thin parts for the clematis to grab since it climbs by wrapping its leaf stems around the support. Lattice doesn't work since the slats are wider than 1/2" or so.

I use an organic mulch of bark mulch, wood shavings and/or compost on all my gardens. That has seemed to be enough for my clematis; I haven't specifically fertilized any of them. In general, I don't ever fertilize newly planted plants. If your clematis seems to have issues next year, you can revisit the idea of fertilizer then. It is much more important to provide even moisture for a new clematis, which the mulch will help with. Once a week or so, plunge your finger deeply near the plant. If the soil is moist, you are fine. If not, water slowly and deeply.

Your clematis is a variety that blooms twice, once in the spring on "old wood", from buds were set last season. Later in the year it will bloom again on "new wood" that was grown during the current growing season. Yours may or may not rebloom this year since it is a new plant. My growing season is much shorter than yours, and I don't get a second bloom. I think that I lose the first bloom since most years mine dies down to the ground and then blooms in June from new growth. Even when I have given mine a light trim after blooming, it hasn't rebloomed later in the season, but I think yours will, just not perhaps this year since it is newly planted and may be putting energy into new roots.

I'll add that my first - year HF Young did bloom a second time last year, but only two flowers.

Okay thank you both so much. One other question, should I pinch off the spent blooms at this stage? I've got some with nothing but the white center.

Oh, and by stems do you mean close down at the dirt? When I planted it coming out of the dirt, there were three that I seen. I don't know if that's what you meant or not. It has a few blooms left, raining past two days.

Please advise if I should be a brave man and go ahead and cut it back. I mean I really don't know what to cut but I'll do my best. I feel so stupid. But this things got foliage, stems, branches, spent flowers, blooms, etc... But I want it to perform it's best, so if cutting it back will give me more stems let me know please.

Oh and as you can see, I decided against planting it with the azaleas. There was too much sun I think. I sat the pot there for two days and definitely noticed a difference in the color of the blooms. The ones that were shaded a little were darker than those in full sun as much as it was getting.

So, tell me what you'd do with this little fellow clematis?

Planting them deeper than they were in the nursery pot and cutting them back, helps them rather than hurts them but you can wait until it is done flowering. You do not have to deadhead the seedheads.

Thanks so much everyone. I'm like dying to cut it back now, maybe I shouldn't. I just want it to develop a good root system. I love this plant. It's already attached itself to my trellis, but it seems to be just one vine. I dug around in it and found two ends, and led them towards the trellis. Like I said I had three main stems when it was planted. I'm hoping it'll grow more. But thanks everyone. Any other advice I'll take it. :-)

Cutting it back will encourage more vines to come up from the buried crown.

Go to a feed/farm/ranch store and buy a bag of alfalfa pellets for horses. Toss a handful around this Clemmie after you cut it back. I also use them on roses, daylilies, hostas, rhododendrons and more for the last three or four years and results have been great. Many more scapes on daylilies and stems on Clemmies. Alfalfa has a growth hormone in it that is completely natural. Horse pellets don't have salt and are weed free. They are also cheap, I pay about ten bucks for a forty pound bag....keep them dry and they last a long time.

Okay, thank to all who have replied, but I am still so confused about this vine. I've read to cut it back, or keep it cut back to 18-24inches during the first year of growth. I don't even know how old this plant would be considered.

I do know that I had one long spindly vine growing up the trellis, I had read that isn't what you want. So I decided to cut it back. But I was so scared to do anything to it. It still looks like the pic above, in this post. Except now, I've cut back that one spindly vine and I see nothing happening now.

It looks just like it did the day I purchased it, weeks ago. Now it's not even climbing the trellis. I guess I'm waiting now for something to happen where I cut back, but don't even know what I'm looking for.

I can't even tell what's what on this thing. Branches, twigs, hard wood, soft wood, last years wood, this years wood, leaves, buds, I couldn't for the life of me tell you where what starts and where what ends. It's a tangled mess, all down at the bottom. There are two or three main stems coming out of the dirt. I assume that's the start of each section of the vine. So I'm assuming, if I see three main stems coming from the ground, somewhere amongst all the tangled mess, there should be three endings, to each of those stems, in which I could train to climb the trellis if I could find an ending.

I don't know, but maybe I should just leave it alone. It's not dead, it's green, I see one ending that might be showing new growth, but if it is, it's still only gonna be one long lanky little vine growing up the trellis all alone, because I can't tell where what starts and where what ends. I'd much rather sacrifice any additional blooming this year and have this thing put out new growth from the ground. But I don't know if I should chop this thing all the way to the ground or not. I just planted it this year, know nothing about it and have done nothing but stress since I got it.

I guess if it starts growing again, and I do have that one piece start growing up the trellis, I should just leave it and enjoy it. If I knew that cutting it back all the way to the ground would help it in any way shape or form I'd do it. That way I can see it as it grows, where the starting and ending points are, if that makes any sense. Because as it is now, I can't tell what's what.

Scroll up to see the pic of what it looks like and tell me what you'd do if it were yours.

If it were mine, I'd do nothing right now. I've had lots of clems that appear to be just sitting there, some for several years in a row. There's a saying about clems - first year they sleep, second year they creep, and third year they leap. Although it may be older, for the sake of making the wait easier, I'd assume that yours is a first or second year clem and is busy growing roots right now that will support the third year leap. It looks healthy to me, with lots of leaves to give it the energy to grow the roots.

I would never prune a new blooming clematis in the peak of growing or blooming. It can grow up to ten feet or sometimes taller. Grow it on an arbor or trellis. When
the new growth is tangling, carefully untwine them and guide and lightly tie the stems in the direction you want. Deadheading the spent blooms is O.K. above the first set of leaves below the spent bloom. Prune down to about 12 -18" at the end of Fall. This will help the young plant produce a thicker bottom.

I have Vinca growing up the side of the house and planted a clematis at the base. Now it looks as if it is a Vinca with large blooming flowers. (:

I tried the same with a large Privit bush but when the wind shifted the branches, it broke the clematis vines. ):