Congrats Macky. This only goes to show that the information out there about when and whether you can succeed using wood that has flowers on the wood are just guidelines and that it never hurts to try something even if it goes against the grain of common knowledge and especially if the plant holds personal sentimental value for you.

Rather than regurgitate what I can link you to, I am enclosing a link below to an article from the International Clematis Society on clematis from cuttings. I think the pertinent thing here is not to use too rich of a medium with the cuttings since you might burn the new roots and not try to move the plants up into too big of a pot. If the plants are in individual pots already, I would try transferring the entire mass of your potting mixture into a new pot with a soilless mix and feed them with a low nitrogen fertilizer, preferably one organic in nature. If your cuttings are all in one container, then gently tip them out of the pot or container and tease the roots apart from the growing mixture and repot them individually.

As for how to care for the cuttings over the winter, I am unsure how to guide you since you live in a rather cold zone based on your posting info. I am also unsure if the plants are sufficiently developed enough that they should be allowed to go dormant this winter or if they should be kept alive and growing over the winter.

If they were mine, I would keep them in my unheated garage which never goes below freezing in the winter and attempt to keep them alive using a grow light and a warming mat. Not sure if you have those things available or not. Perhaps someone in your growing zone can offer more pertinent information.

By the way, one additional question. Do you and your grandfather both live in the same gardening zone? The only reason I ask is that COTW is conducting an international survey about clematis and their growing habits/issues/pests, etc. Since so little is known about the hardiness zones that clematis can survive in, I think that if you and your grandfather are growing clematis successfully in zone 2a, that information would prove very useful to the survey. I am providing a link to the COTW site where the survey information is being collected. Please consider signing up and providing any information that you can to this survey to help broaden the information known about clematis. Thanks if you consider doing so!

http://www.clematis.hull.ac.uk/survey-login.cfm

Here is a link that might be useful: I.Cl. S.

Thanks so much for your post. Sadly, my grandfather passed away recently, which is what prompted the taking of these cuttings. We're quite certain the house will be demolished for new development once sold, so the family is banding together to rescue the masses of plants he and my grandmother (passed years ago, avid rosarian) had. This clematis, though just an ordinary Jackmanii, had been growing up their east wall since well before I was born (I'm 31) and was my Grandpa's favourite. Because of it's age and how many plants were growing amongst it's roots, we were (and still are) uncertain if it will survive transplanting. My aunts moved all five clematis on that wall (I have cuttings from four) in August. Auntie A said it was all too emotional - many tears shed that day.

Granddad and my extended family all live(d) in Calgary, Alberta - zone 3. I live in central Saskatchewan (rural) - zone 2a. I've never grown a clematis before, so I'm not sure I could contribute to the survey, but I will pass the link on to my aunts in Calgary, who helped Grandpa with his garden when his sight started to waver and now have the original plants (two Jackmanii, one Jack Rubra, a Blue Boy and a fifth I don't remember) as well as many of their own. Now, if there's a rose survey out there, my Grandmother raised a few hundred hybrid teas and overwintered most of them in zone 3, complete with chinooks that tend to shock and kill confused plants. I got one of her HT roses, too.

Back to the cuttings...

That was the link I used to take the cuttings. :) The medium was obviously perfect - half grit, half peat. What it doesn't answer (because it's from the UK) are the very questions I have which you also weren't able to answer because of my zone. I should take a photo today so you can see how developed they are. That might help.

I bought a clematis book before I took the cuttings; it recommends burying the nodes that are sprouting when the cuttings are potted. It sound reasonable, but I'm nervous, as can be expected because I want to do this right. My two cuttings will be the only survivors of the original plant if it doesn't make it through winter. You should have seen my dad's eyes light up when I told him I had two Jacks and two Rubras sprouting! Auntie L, too. Should I really bury those nodes? If so, how deep?

Also, I've never seen grades of compost/potting mediums here (I'm rural). How would I know if a mix is weak or strong? I have some stuff here at home - old potting mix from the store (just needs moistening), a bit of perlite and vermiculite, some leftover sand from my daughter's sandbox (clean and sifted) and some compost that's about 3 weeks cured and already sifted. Should I use a combination of stuff I have (also have garden soil available obviously) or is that too risky? Is something I buy at the store going to be safer?

I have all sorts of pots around. I'll even sterilize them if I need to. I have three 4-foot shelves of grow lights in the basement and one 2-foot light here on the main floor, which is where they are now. We keep the basement cold in the winter (save $$), but it never freezes. That can be adjusted to whatever's best for the cuttings. I have no idea either whether I should keep them growing or encourage them to go dormant. That's the biggie question. I can do either, I just need advice as to how.

Will come back later when I have more time. My two-year-old is tugging on my arm... we're supposed to be going into town this morning. :)

Macky, I have attempted to research the potting mix issue both online and in the many clematis books that I have but I keep running into the fact that most of the books that contain any information about this are written by British or European authors and they keep mentioning things like John Innes potting mix number so and so or a potting compost. Being here in the states, I have no idea exactly what those mixes are and what they contain. There is a poster who frequents this forum named gardengal and she has worked in a nursery for quite a few years so perchance she will see this post and chime in here and can shed some light on the best potting mix to use for your cuttings.

I have contacted a friend in England who grows many plants by seed and have asked him his opinion of what to pot up your cuttings in and to see what he thinks about keeping them growing over the winter in your basement with grow lights. I will let you know when I hear back from him. I do know that most info about taking cuttings say that it is best to use bottom heat to get them started. The same is true when growing most plants from seed but once the seeds have germinated, most commercial growers will move the new seedlings to a cooler environment to encourage root growth since it mimics the cooler soil temps. in the fall. That is often the reason that in my gardening zone anyway, fall planting is best for most plants--the roots have a great chance getting established before winter arrives and they can continue root development until the ground temps. reach some critical temp. and the root growth in essence stops or comes to a very slow crawl.

I would strongly advise against using regular garden soil since it will be brimming with microorganisms that could cause your cuttings to die and or damp off. I know that I have seen quite a few references talking about spraying young cuttings with fungicides to help prevent damping off. I would think that what you would want for the young cuttings is more or less a mixture that you would use for seed starting perhaps with grit or sand mixed in to help with the drainage. You might be able to use a commercially available potting mix as long as it was not chocked full of fertilizers, although I am unsure what exactly you need to use to fertilize them. I know in my area they sell something call seedling fertilizer which is higher in phosphorus since it helps with root development.

I will copy and paste what information my friend offers when I hear back from him.

That Jackmanii plant that your grandfather had must have gotten huge in all those years. I would bet a dollar to a doughnut that it has probably layered itself in the area around where the stems exit the ground and that when the plant was dug up (or if it is as I couldn't really ascertain this when reading the post) that there were probably many different crowns present that could have been separated. Clematis can take a good amount of abuse when they are dug up and still survive. I have moved several of mine after them being in the ground for a few years and although I broke a bunch of roots, they have still managed to survive. I do understand your hesitation about loosing the plant however due to sentimental value.

As far as buring the nodes that sprout, this is sound advice. In fact when I plant any clematis that I purchase, I always plant it several inches deeper in the ground as it was in its original pot. This buries dormant nodes that can help the plant resurrect itself should it be cut back by wilt, animals, weedeaters, etc and can give rise to more vines. This is something that you can do to your cuttings but I would wait until they got further along to do so. Perhaps in their subsequent potting up while they are being grown out.

Hope this has helped somewhat and I will be back in touch when I get any info to pass along to you! :0)

Thank you again for all your time and effort, nckvilledudes! Here are a couple pics... sorry they're not very good quality.

The group of them under the light.
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Closer shot of one of the Jack Rubras
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The youngest Jackmanii sprout
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I turned the light off yesterday because that Rubra on the right has reached it. (Just turned on briefly to take pics, not that it helped much.) It's just getting light from the window for yesterday and today. Will have to get hubby's help tonight to raise the shelf the light is mounted to. Not as nice of a setup as I have downstairs, that's for sure! The next tallest sprout in that first pic is the first Jackmanii cutting to sprout from the oldest plant. The cell pack contains 5 Blue Boys and one Rubra that aren't doing anything.

Side question... why are some of the leaves going yellow or even brown around the edges? I was actually going to toss a couple of them, but then they sprouted!

Eagerly awaiting advice from your friend. Coincidently, my family is from England - my dad was 10 years old when he came to Canada with his parents and two brothers. His little sister was the only sibling born here. She's been having the most trouble moving all these plantings. One of the five clematis was a gift to her parents one year, so she has that one again.

No problems Macky. One question though--are you sure that the plant cuttings have rooted? The only reason I ask is that at the times I have tried cuttings of various plants, they sometimes put up new foliage when there are no roots yet formed. Have you gently tugged on the stems to see if roots have actually formed and are holding the plants in the pots? Or better still can you actually see roots through the holes in the bottom of the pots? Those two ways are the only ways I know of telling that roots have developed short of growing them in clear plastic containers where you can actually see the roots through the container.

Plants that are rooting typically have some leaves that go brown since the plant is attempting to support all the growth and develop roots. You typically remove the vast majority of the foliage when you start cuttings to minimize the leaf surface where moisture can be lost through the plants' stomata.

I work 12 hour days starting tomorrow thru Monday so I might not be able to post much between now and then but be assured that I will get back to you when I can and when I have the info! ;)

Okay, here is the info I got from the friend in England.

"As to the cuttings, as you say, you are not entirely sure how advanced they are, but presumably she will have rooted them some time ago (unless twin node fairly ripe cuttings of course, in which case they may be pretty new), and over here I might have been tempted to leave them in a sheltered spot outside, as they often do better there than, amazingly, in a greenhouse, which I know sounds strange, but seems to work with your average types, not of course the 'awkward squad'. However you are talking about a very different Winter climate up there I would guess, so I suspect that in her shoes I would keep them inside, in a greenhouse if she had one, again however, the idea of an inside basement with grow lights would seem to be a much more sound bet up there, in what I imagine is snow country, just ticking over quietly rather than trying to get too much soft growth, until Spring. Compost wise, John Innes is a mix containing loam, drainage matter, peat in the old days, nowadays a non peat organic compost, and added balanced base fertilizer."
"For young rooted cuttings I think that the main thing is a good deal of drainage - grit, sand or otherwise through the winter so that they get some moisture, but never actually sit in a wet compost, where they can easily rot off."
"I do tend to keeep them well drained, and then I will only water very sparingly from the bottom, rather than put water on from overhead, and just enough to keep them from drying out. Obviously with grow lights your friend is in a slightly better position, even in a basement, but I would still err on the careful rather than the generous side with water. I think probably for that first winter your suggestion of a seed starter mix with good drainage and water soluble fertilizer from below sounds a most sensible suggestion, and in her position that is what I would do. She may have the odd failure, but I would be most surprised if the majority of the cuttings don't come through the winter OK.
Potting compost is basically a nice open mix with a decent quantity of organic matter, good drainage and fertilizer (natural or added, depending on the type of organic matter - some have more 'built in' fertilizer than others, depending on what was in the compost heap in the first place)."

Hope that helps!

I don't know if it is available where you live, but I have a "Root Stimulator & Transplanting Solution" made by Vigoro. I think some other companies make a similar product.

You mix 2 capfulls of the liquid with a gallon of water. I would think that watering with this maybe once a month might help your cuttings. And of course regular water in between, when necessary.

Also I would cut back the plants as they grow tall like the J Rubra in order to put more energy into the roots and produce more stems.

Marie