If they were my plants, I would sink the pots in the ground and leave them alone until you are ready to plant them in the ground in their permanent positions next year. Clematis take time to get established any time they are planted and removing them from their pots, planting them temporarily in the ground, and them digging them up once again to put them in their permanent position is going to put them back twice. Another advantage to leaving them in their current pots and burying them in the soil is that most plants put on the most root growth in the fall as the air and soil temperatures begin cooling down. Allowing your clematis to sit in their pots over the fall and winter and into next spring will allow the plants' root balls to get larger and thereby increase their take off once planted next spring. The soil will act as an insulator and any mulch that you add with further insulate the roots allowing them to continue growing much longer into the fall and winter. Realize that root growth will continue some time after the top portion of the plants has been nipped back by frost. Another point to consider is that it is generally advised to plant clematis in the fall in the ground so that they have a minimum of 6 weeks to get settled in before the colder weather arrives. I see you are in zone 5 and don't know exactly when colder weather arrives so to be on the safe side, I would be hesitant to remove the plants and plant them in the ground in your garden now. As to your browned out leaves--that could be due to the plant not being watered adequately and it allowing the top portions of leaves to die off so that the plant has less leaves to lose water from via transpiration, it could be the plants response to being in a black pot sitting in the full sun at the nursery, or depending on the variety, it could possibly be clematis wilt. I would be tempted to leave the plant as it is, water it well, put the whole pot into the ground, mulch it well, and keep it watered if Mother Nature is not being cooperative. Next year, when you are ready to plant the clematis in the garden, I would cut the top growth back so that you have two or three nodes left above ground once planted, fertilize it with some slow release low nitrogen fertilizer, and see what happens.

JPW, I personally don't like to attempt to overwinter clematis inside the house for the reasons you mentioned with roses above along with the fact that the plants tend to get very leggy unless you have a window that gets lots of direct sunshine. You said that last year when you attempted to overwinter them outside, that all except one died. How big are the pots your clematis are in? How did you attempt to overwinter them outside last year? Did you cluster the pots together in a sheltered location? Did you leave them sitting out in the open where they were exposed to the elements? You could attempt to cluster them together and place some sort of insulating material around the pots such as bales of straw or the like. Even if you had an unheated area where you could store the pots after they had been exposed to sub-freezing temps that took them into dormancy, that would be better as far as I am concerned than attempting to bring them inside the house. Do you have friends with uninsulated garages or even crawlspaces that could store the plants for you?

when i needed 1500 pots to move the collection.. i hit recycle bins all over town .... and talked with nursery owners.. who always seem to have a pile somewhere on the property ... the only downside to free pots... was that afterwards... i had 200 different models.. and it was a problem to neatly stack them for storage ... frankly cheaper is better and free is best ... then you need a good potting medium .... something that will hold some water.. but shed most.. i used promix.. and had some problems because it help too much water ... if i knew then.. what i know now.. i would have added some bark fines to increase water shedding .... dig... pot.... and leave them standing where ever .... move them once in a while to insure they dont freeze to the ground .... AFTER THEY FREEZE SOLID ... stack them like a pyramid .. on their sides... on the north side of a building .... you can leave them there all winter ... the key is... no water on a frozen pot ... they wont be happy frozen into an ice cube .... no sun on a black pot ... i had about 1000 in the pole barn .. and 500 stacked outside ... most losses were associated with those in the barn ... which was two or 3 zones higher than outside.. and they came out of dormancy a MONTH early .... a full three months before last frost date ... a big ... BIG problem.. having fully leafed out hosta with 60 days until frost free ... those outside... stayed dormant longer .... came out of dormancy at the right time.. and missed most of the frost ... i used paint pens to mark the sides of the pots.. as labels sticking out... made handling extremely painful ... the paint will easily last a year or two ... lol .. i still go to nurseries where i donated/recycled them.. and see the names of my hosta on their pots.... good luck ken

1. If you can stand it and have some patience, repot your clematis in a next size pot for this year. Clematis need to establish really good root systems and it sometimes takes anywhere from 2-3 years. Growing it in a pot the first year encourages the roots to grow. 2. Clematis likes cool roots, so much it very well. 3. Fertilizer: I've used tomatoe fertilizer (most popular a few years ago), chicken manure (contains more phosphorous than steer manure, and feeds your soil), and the new thing is alfalfa fertilizer. 4. Know your clematis group - there are 3 groups, and you can check them out by googling "clematis groups". I checked and yours is a Group II - repeat bloomers; prune immediately after flowering to the next good node. 5. Support: I have planting mine against my chain link fence; by my deck to which I stapled some fencing for climbing; and by use of trellising. They climb by "twining" so you may have to give them a little help with "stray" stems. I saw some humongous pots of this clematis (with humongous flowers) at Horn's this week. I don't know how much they were - they probably wanted my first born child for them. But they really are gorgeous! Congratulations. It's easy to get hooked on them. I have a few - 'Nelly Moser', 'Dr. Ruppel', Jackmanii (a very good grower even in partial shade), 'Polish Spirit'. I used to have C. tangutica because I wanted a yellow flowering clemmie. It was just too rampant and I pulled it out. However, there are some cultivars of tangutica that aren't probably as rampant as the species. I love some of the "bell-shaped" flowering clems, like Rogoochi. And there are also some beautiful "shrub" clematis as well. The possibilities are endless if you fall in love with these guys. Susan