I don't blame you for wanting to see those blooms. Seems early to me but my Jackmanii Superba has been blooming away for a week in Petaluma. I don't think it will hurt the vine to delay cutting it back, but if it were mine as soon as I saw bad wilting above the breaks I would cut it back to get an earlier start on rebloom. If the breaks are complete it will just start growing below the breaks anyway.

Thanks for the advice - I followed it. The good news is that when I unpotted them, they seemed to have strong root systems. In addition to Miss Bateman, H.F. Young, and Barbara Jackman, Lowe's had Violet Charm. I have to go back there to get something tomorrow. Is it worth picking up one of the Violet Charms for my neighbor, assuming I could nurse it back to life? I don't know anything about this cultivar. Thanks, Bunny

I'm no clematis expert - you'd find those on the clematis forum, which I highly recommend, and where I did post a link to this question - but no, you should not have to rip up the whole garden. You should divide this task into two objectives: one is transplanting a piece to get it started in a new spot, and the other is eradicating from the old spot. How you tackle this depends somewhat on how the clematis grows. I assume there are a bunch of shoots coming out of the ground over a large area. Alternatively, there might be one trunk or point of origin from which shoots continue to sprout. If it is the former, then you have probably got a Type C clematis and perhaps you can just divide it like any perennial - take a chunk to the new spot and nurse it till established. (Or, given that it is midsummer, put it in a large pot in the shade and neither over nor underwater). If the latter format is what you have, then you should just concentrate on getting the trunk part with a reasonable amount of root, so it can survive. Once you have it established somewhere else, you can start just yanking any shoots at the old spot that come up, and after a couple of years the original plant should die. Or you can do a major excavation to get it all out once and for all. All this digging is facilitated if you use not just a shovel, but also some clippers, loppers, or maybe even a saw to get through the roots so that you keep some attached to the clump you are digging up to save, and so you can remove whatever you can get without having to chase the remaining roots to China. KarinL

Sorry, it seems no one is familiar with these new cars.