Since you are so much further North..I would think it's still nice and cool up there?..If so dig deep and dig wide and move that baby...keeping it's roots moist to getting adapted is imperative...Jeanne

Depends on what your weather is like now and what your typical weather is like over the summer. In my zone, I would prefer moving any plant, especially a 10 year old established plant, in the fall. If you do it in the fall, just make sure you do it early enough so that it has about 6 to 8 weeks to get established before you have your first hard frost. Also, mulching it well will help keep the soil warmer longer into the late fall/early winter, thereby giving it more time to get established before the soil freezes up. Plants produce most of their new root growth in the fall when the soil temperatures have cooled and do very little root growth when the soil has warmed up.

MsAudie - I move anything, anytime except trees. I figure landscapers do it, I can too.

Like Jeanne said, you will have to water often, especially if we have one of our typical dry summers again. I have never lost anything moving it at this time of year, and I have moved a lot. Last year I moved almost the entire garden. Jeanne is right, you will need to water often and don't expect much from it this year.

Last year I moved an Artic Queen and a Multi Blue right before it got hot and stopped raining. The flowers were distorted and ratty looking and overall the plants looked rough, but this year they both are doing fantastic along with everything else.

You might consider leaving your clem where it is this year and enjoy the bloom. Plant scarlet runner beans or some other fast growing annual vine on your arbor, then move your clem as soon as it breaks ground in spring - my favorite time to move perennials.

Usually starting around middle August is when nights are a little cooler and it starts raining a little more. Still, you can't trust what happens with the weather from year to year. I know a lot of people plant in fall, but I've lost too many perennials that way.

I should have added that the plant I want to move is now blooming. Should I wait for it to stop before the move?

Woah, sorry about the bad editing.

Definitely wait until it stops blooming. If you could post a picture, we might be able to give you more pruning tips.

Marie in ME

Janet, it is one thing planting a containerized plant at any time or moving a recently planted clematis, but it is a whole other thing moving a 10 year old established plant. A containerized plant will not have its roots disturbed anywhere as much as digging a 10 year old plant up. You will be chopping up an older established root system that is going to put undue stress on the plant. Cutting back the top foliage significantly may help somewhat with water loss due to transpiration. If it were my plant, that I had had for 10 years, I would move it during a time of the year when the heat stress would be a lot less and the plant would have time to grow new roots and late summer/fall is best for that.

The op lives in my state where the weather is very different than it is in your state. Spring can be cold and rainy making moving plants nearly impossible without creating a mucky mess. Waiting until fall could mean an early frost can kill vunerable plants. Waiting until plants are dormant is risky as well because you can get snow making it impossible. Last August I planted 5 perennials and only two survived. Although I prefer to do all my moves as early in spring as possible, that is not always an option, so I still make moves at this time.

Regardless of when the plant is moved, it will be stressed. I gave her three options to chose from and she can do what she feels is best. Right now almost the entire state is coolish and rainy, has been for days, and will be for at least the next few days. The summer could be coolish like a few summers ago, or it could be hellish like it was last year. If it is move now, she will need to be attentive all summer if it is anything like it was last year. Put a soaker hose on it or use the 5 gallon pail method.

Now that I think about it, I should have given her a fourth option, the best one IMO. Leave the 10 year old clem where it is and buy a new one. :-)

I'm really confused by something. When we buy clematis we are told to put them in pots so they can develope a better root system over the summer, but now you say that they don't really grow roots in the summer. Am I missing somethere here?

I didn't know it's starting to bloom..I'd assumed it has finished blooming...

The reason fall planting/transplanting exisiting clematis is advantageous for us is that we have nice long cool wet falls and winter..which is great for helping plants get established..the plant has plenty of time to get adjusted before winter sets in and the roots DO continue growing during winter for me..the OP should know her weather and how much longer it will stay cool enough for doing that...Miguel is correct ..digging up a 10 year old clematis is alot different..that is why I recommended digging DEEP and WIDE 'cause if you saw some of the roots on those that old you'd freak....there's a chance you'll always sever some roots when digging....

"When we buy clematis we are told to put them in pots so they can develope a better root system over the summer, but now you say that they don't really grow roots in the summer"
Of course clematis grow roots during the summer as well..just not as vigorously as the fall/winter..think about it..the clematis doesn't have all the leaves to feed from the roots during that time and spend it's energy growing roots..that is why you see them bigger and better each year because of the bigger rootsystem..IMHO...the proof it is in the pudding..I've potted up clematis in one-gallon pots and dug a hole and dropped them into my garden and come fall when I pull the pots up to plant..I've got roots coming out the bottom and into the soil!!..MsAudie..enjoy them blooms..and since it's already June..I'd wait till fall..'cause it can bloom for 6 weeks and then you'll be into August ..might as well wait till September to move it?...How's your weather then?...Jeanne

You repot your clematis and they develope a large root mass over the summer, but what I was eluding to is that they can do this in the ground as well.

Planting early in the season gives the plant more time to snug into the ground. Since our soil freezes deeply in winter, having it secure in the ground will be helpful during the freeze thaw cycles that kill a lot of plants over our long winters.

we could have a frost as early as mid September. If I want to give the plant at least 6 weeks in its new spot that would mean planting/moving it in early Aug. which is a very hot month. I will have to think about this and decide if I should wait until next spring or have it get a head start yet this year.

Jeanne is correct Janet. Never in any of my postings did I say clematis don't grow roots in the summer. What I did say is that clematis grow more roots during the early fall season than any other time of the year.

Yes, clematis in the ground will grow roots but everyone's attention to plants in the ground is not the same. When something is in a pot, you water and can see that water is coming out of the bottom of the pot so you know you have watered enough. When a plant is in the ground, unless you water slowly and deeply over a longer time, there is no guarantee that the plants are getting water all the way down to where their roots are. Therefore the roots will grow upwards towards where the water does reach, resulting in a plant that is shallow rooted and that will be more dependent on you for its water supply. Same thing goes for fertilizer. It is much easier to ensure it is getting to the plant's roots in a pot than if it is a new smaller one in the ground.

Your fourth suggestion is a good one but the OP wants to move it due to the limited amount of sunlight that it is getting and the fact that she has a new arbor she would like it on.

My basic point is this. Summer is not a great time to move anything due to the heat and more limited rainfall in most parts of the country. In my zone, I like waiting until late September/early October to transplant plants and plant new clematis. In your zone 4, perhaps by August it has already cooled down enough to move it so that it has time to reestablish itself before winter. A heavy mulching of organic material, and I mean really heavy, will insulate the ground tremendously and allow the plant's roots to continue growing long after the top growth has been zapped by the cold. It will also prevent heaving of the plant's rootball so that this is not a cause for the plant's death.

I don't want to turn this into an arguement, but in an earlier post, you stated "Plants produce most of their new root growth in the fall when the soil temperatures have cooled and do very little root growth when the soil has warmed up."

Now, I agree that in high summer when it's hot and seldom rains that plants will go into a resting phase, but right now, in Wisconsin, plants are still actively growing, and those of us who are having all this healing rain are getting phenominal growth bursts. I moved a bunch of stuff last weekend, and although a few of them sulked for a while, they look just the same as they did before the move.

Like I said earlier, middle August is when the evenings cool and it typically starts raining, but sometimes it still isn't enough time to get a good root system established.

There is only so much that mulch can do to prevent the soil from freezing, plus most professionals here do not recommend putting on a heavy layer of mulch until the ground freezes, and once the deep freeze starts, nothing is going to keep the soil from freezing.

I know it is hard for people in warmer zones to understand how long and cold our winters can be, so to facilitate that, think of a steak in your freezer, it's rock solid once frozen, right? That is how hard our soil gets. Now think of it thawing near the surface, then freezing again. This can happen a few times during the growing season. It is rough on some plants and most of us lose less established plants every year. The best way to avoid that is plant well before the first frost. One of my sister-in-laws had a landscaper install over 200 plant, trees, shrubs and perennials in July, and they moved quite a few as well. It was horribly hot and dry last summer. She watered faithfully and everything survived winter except for 5 plants.

I know all this doesn't matter to you, but it's important for me to remind people that what works in warmer zones might not be the best approach here in the north.

My rule of thumb is that everything must be moved before the middle of June. I haven't lost anything yet.

I am not taking your responses as being argumentative Janet. I like debate about anything and that is the nature of being a scientist. I did say what you posted but remember I am a scientist who uses math so if a plant does most of its root growth in the fall when it is cool then the amount it does in the summer as a percentage is going to be small compared to what it does in the fall. It's all about the math! LOL

That's good, Miguel.

And I don't think in math terms, so there you go. lol

Since You all Northerners..LOL..have 4 distinct short seasons...I would assume Spring planting is comparable to our fall planting??..since you have a longer cooler more moist time and you jump right outta hot summer into freezes?..I gotta tell ya..I much prefer my planting zone..LOL..I can plant into early November...August is hotter than heck and about midway into September we start cooling off enough to start working into dividing and transplanting our plants...I really don't miss 4 seasons..heck I'd love to live in Hawaii to be honest..hmmm..but can they grow clematis there?..if not I wouldn't be happy...hope everyone is having a great weekend and their little grey cells are on game...Jeanne

Okay, I have a question. I have only moved two established clematis and I moved both of them in February while they were mostly still dormant. It didn't seem to bother them at all and they grew and bloomed the same year. Did I just get lucky? Should I never do that again? :-) I move roses in late fall or February so figured clematis should be as amenable to moving at the same times.

I know this doesn't apply to zone 4 since your soil is probably still frozen solid in February.

Carol

Jeanne, we can plant trees and shrubs in November, but the plants have to be dormant, and you have very careful to avoid any air pockets in the soil.

We have Autumn, and it's not quite as bad as from hot to frost. It starts quietly middle to late August, and the Maple leaves start turning. It will be warm at first, but we get cool nights, then September it bounces around between cool and rainy, maybe frost, and hot during the day again. There is no way to predict what September or October will be like.

I don't mind the 4 seasons, much... but I can say that now, in March I get pretty stir crazy. lol

Carol, I will move any plant as soon as the soil is workable in early spring, so you did just right as far as I am concerned.

Carol, in our zone clematis can be moved anytime the soil is not frozen solid. In your zone that is probably year round. However, moving things in the middle of summer or once it is hot is probably not a good idea since the plant will be stressed by the move and the lack of rain during our summers. Those in the colder zone probably have it worse since they have to worry about how soon fall arrives and in the summer, they don't have to worry about the heat and humidity we do.

Janet, if you are not a math or science nerd, not to worry. Like I said earlier, I am a nerd and proud of it! LOL I realize that not everyone is like I am but sometimes forget!

I wanted to go into one of the sciences but the math scared me off.

We do have heat and high humidity, but most years the extreme heat isn't all summer long. Except last year.

Carol..moving plants during dormacy is purrrrrfect..you did good girl..keep it up...Jeanne

Thank you for the affirmation guys and gals. It made sense to me but....

Miguel, I don't even go outside in the summer if I can help it, much less dig up and move stuff :-)

Carol

I am with you Carol. I go outside to water only and to occasionally mow the grass if it needs it. Even so, I come inside and am dripping wet like I have been in the middle of a thunderstorm (that would actually be a good thing!). LOL