Kendra: Brown beetles that feed at night are most likely the Rose Chafer or Masked Chafer beetle. Japanese beetles normally feed in the daytime. The recipe for all these beetle types is the same: Sevin liquid mixed with the appropriate amount of water. Since your trees are small, application could be made with a 1 quart hand trigger sprayer. Sevin liquid is sold at your local Lowes and Home Depot, as well as any nursery. You can also find trigger sprayers there, as well as at Wal-Mart. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Yes, it is likely normal. Some Clematis perform better in hot areas than others and some get fungal diseases. They all take several years to establish and do best when hard pruned the first few years. Chopping them down after they "brown out" in the summer often results in fresh new growth and blooms. The one that is yellowing now, does it get even moisture? Is it mulched? They don't like to dry out. They don't like to sit in water either.

Wood mulches attract root weevils and they can damage the foliage of an evergreen clematis - not too many other insects will bother with the thick and leathery leaves. But it is highly unusual for root weevil damage to be anything more than cosmetic unless you have a very severe infestation. I've never known the larvae to bother clematis roots although they can do some serious work on heucheras! Eradicating weevils is difficult and I'd never recommend a toxic pesticide for this purpose, but replacing the wood chips with another mulch product will help. Otherwise, use beneficial nematodes. Again, it sounds more like some cultural issue that is causing the failure rater than simple insect damage. How recently were the clematis planted and how was your winter weather? IIRC, you are located in the PNW? If so, I'd expect that weather played a significant role.

Alina, I have seen the same thing in some of my clematis--ie the lower leaves turn paler and yellow and finally brown out. This has never been due to lack of water and I attribute it to the fact that some clematis just develop this way. Those bare legs are just a hazard with some clematis cultivars. In some plants, the older leaves are covered up by new leaves and the older ones just turn light and fall off. If the clematis in question is growing very vigorously then perhaps it could be a nutritional deficiency where the plant doesn't have access to or the ability to take up nutrients fast enough to keep up with all the new growth.