No, you plant the clematis in a container first, grow it on for a year or two, or at least a season, then plant it out in the garden (OUT of the container) after that. The purpose of growing the plant on in a container at first is so that it can get adequate moisture, fertilizer, TLC from you while in the container, put on some good root mass, before it goes out into the garden to fend for itself. Clematis just establish MUCH better when they are good sized plants when planted out in the garden, 2-5 gallon size, rather than the 2-4" pots in which you often buy clematis. I will commonly even take a 1 gallon clematis in spring, put it in a 2-3 gallon container with some osmocote, and grow it like that till fall, then plant it out in October (I have found that clematis do very well with fall planting). That is not to say it is impossible to directly plant out a tiny clematis. but for me the up-potting method works very well. And often I haven't decided where the plant is going yet anyway, so it buys some time. It lets you look at its bloom characteristics a little before you give it a home. One other recommendation, plant the crown 3-4" deeper than the soil level every time you plant the plant. So a 4" pot gets planted in a bigger pot 3-4" below the soil level, and again bury the crown 3-4" when you plant it out.

I finally got the Blue Light I was lusting for ever since I first saw it on a forum, but I paid dearly. When I went to Agway, a feed & nursery chain here, to get a 30 pound bag of bonemeal, they had 5 or 6 in 3 gallon pots for $30. Debated with myself for about 5 seconds, then decided I better snap one up before they are all gone. Wasn't too hard to detangle from the trellis, but I want to wait until after blooming to repot or plant. I had a hole dug for overwintering a pot of a spare Ramona, so I put Blue Light there. It will be growing into an old Marie Boisselot which is budded now. East of it is my Mrs Robert Brydon which I hope will go up the inside of the headboard fence (with a little help from twisties) & drape over to the Blue Light side. Also to the East of this section of fence is a simple green arch I found someone had put out for the trash pickup because one bottom leg section was broken. On this side are an old Niobe, and last years Teshio & Dr Ruppel, a Bridal Wreath Spirea, a gold leaved Ninebark, a skinny Rosa Glauca and a pot of Atragene Jan Lindmark which wasn't getting enough sun where it overwintered & is barely out of the ground. Inside the fence with Mrs RB is a Summer Wine dark ninebark, a new Alpina Flamingo & an Ice Blue that I just moved because it was growing too fast under the lilac clump & Arborvite. There is also a Magic Carpet Spirea behind the Bridal Wreath and white Peonies behind Marie B. Not much to take pictures of yet, but when some buds open I will. Marie in ME

I have Clematis Blue Boy and I just have fallen in love with this one! The picture you see here is true to the color outside in my yard! It looks a bit lavender blue but it is close to a light blue as I think you can get. In fact, I purchased this from Chalk Hill. When someone told me it wasn't the right color, I contacted Chalk Hill and they sent me a new one. As it turns out, the new one (last picture) is also the same color. Doesn't matter, I still love it. This one exploded this year and looks magnificent! The next picture is of one single bloom: This last picture is the new plant I planted last year ...same color as you can see!

Thanks for your comments gardengal - especially a propos since we're close geographically, and it looks like you have oodles of experience. One of the reasons I didn't want to yet place in the ground is because of comfrey growing behind the roses - well, now up through ÂePeaceÂf as well, sigh. 'Peace' seems to be suffering for it, and/or maybe for other reasons. The roses have a fair bit of blackspot; I'd prefer better access until (?if!) I get that under better control. Have just now pruned most of the dead bits, and will gradually prune more, after blooms, so also need access for that. I likely need to prune more aggressively in the first place, but so far IÂfm not adequately decisive. I agree about how nice the clems would look with these roses, but it just seems to me they'd really cover them (& already were growing over a foot above Abe). There are about 9 hefty vine stems coming from each pot, with off-branching I think. One possibility for one of the blue clems is near a purple azalea - of course they wonÂft be in bloom at the same time. This azalea seems to be dying out on about half so the clematis could cover up the dead branches (& more)Âc though maybe not great if hope of it recovering significantly (sentimental value, coming from a family member). ThatÂfs a more shady area (north side of house). I haven't looked/done enough rose/clematis combos to make a fully informed assessment of ÂgoverwhelmingÂh the rose. The only other ones we have are: 'Nelly Moser' growing up from under 'Compassion' (not such a great color match to my eyes, but now difficult to get at Nelly) - and 'Jackmanii' providing a nice bridging color between 'Elina' and 'Pink Peace' roses... but going up a trellis so not really on the roses. Hmmm, now that I think about it, also have 'Comptesse de Bouchard' getting mixed in (but usually mostly trellised beside) with 'Sunsprite', and 'The President' sort of trellised, mostly beside but also through a bit of 'Mary' rose (love that combo). None of those are super vigorous (probably need feeding). Our biggest clematis is probably 'Allanah' (gorgeous deep red, not near a rose) - I can't picture her right on a rose unless many of the vines were teased out to grow trellised outside of the rose too. Also - back with the blue Integrifolias... there's another rose (label kaput so not sure what variety - it was so covered up that it hasn't seen much light of day lately), from large peat pot, that has rooted into the ground just adjacent to the clems, much closer than the other roses, such that if I dig the clems up, I'd probably need to extricate the roots from this rose (which ideally I'd move too).... too much, too close!! I'll have to look more for combo pics. Meanwhile, probably will wait to move/re-pot ÂeBlue BoyÂf and ÂeBlue BellÂf. Maybe will try an obelisk for now.