Jackmanii and the closely-related Jackmanii superba do well in zone 3. They kill to pretty much ground-level each winter, but bounce back in the Spring to reach 6 or 8 feet (jackmanii) or even 10 feet (Jackmanii superba), smothered in big purple flowers. Ville de Lyon is 6 or 8 feet tall, with huge pink blossoms streaked with white, also a good zone 3 choice. Give them and the jackmanii some protection of leaves or whatever over the crown for winter, even though they will kill to ground level anyway.

There is a white-flowered native Alberta clematis that has done okay for me some years, but the flowers are tiny. The bigger flowered yellow "tanguitica" clematis has done very well for me, particularly in it's younger years, but I think this is now classified as a noxious or invasive species in Alberta, so I don't grow it anymore. Too bad, it had amazing seed tufts that looked great over winter.

The species Alpina and its selections are absolutely huge and bulletproof in my yard. I got a pink seedling out of my blue plant a couple of years ago, which is also doing well. Alpina blooms spring and fall.

I'm also growing C. integrifolia durandii, which is supposed to die back to the ground each year, and it does really well. It's a medium sized plant and it literally blooms for 3 months straight.

My experience with large flowered clematis is they are often really nice for several years and then eventually they just disappear for no apparent reason.

The viticellas do well here too, I have 'Purpea Plena Elegans' which just thrives.

I am definitely going to look for these clematis next spring. Do you guys order them on-line? Do you guys put any amendments in the soil? Peat moss, vermiculite or bone-meal?

I have several. The best one so far has been Pope John Paul. It was totally covered with blooms this summer and i'm pretty sure there are still some on it. Durandii hasn't been too bad, but it didn't do anything this year, just sat in the ground with a few tiny shoots. Multi Blue usually has a couple of blooms per year, but that's about it. Nelly Moser is usually a good bloomer but she wasn't this year. As for Ville de Lyons, it's now blooming for the first time this summer!

I don't do any soil amendments for them, and just heap leaves over their bases in the winter. Most of them die right back no matter what I do.

Just found this website, looks like I can find most of the clematis on it. http://classicclimbers.com

This post was edited by Brandon_Chen on Thu, Sep 18, 14 at 1:14

I picked up my Jackmannii and Jackmannii Superba at somewhere like Home Depot in late August one year when they were selling off their greenhouse stock cheap, only cost a couple dollars. Took them a few years to establish that way though. My Ville de Lyon I got from a local nursery last Spring as potted plants, that way they were off and running right away.

Canadian Tire has good prices, great specials and they actually give a warranty now so they're much higher on my list than they used to be.

I just buy local for things like Clematis.

My Integrifolia was a present from DH from Home Depot, and my Alpinas were seedlings from my mom's. They give you the odd seedling if you're not a diligent weeder.

Thanks for the input guys. I will keep an close eye on Home depot and Candian Tire next spring.

Let's colour this up:

Jackmannii, tried and true, about 7' or 8' tall (in my zone3 garden anyway):

Jackmannii Superba (similar to above, but 10' tall, maybe even more, otherwise it looks just like a regular Jackmannii:

Ville de Lyon, not as vigorous for me as Jackmannii, but similar height and more striking flowers:

My only advice with clematis from box stores, is that they are shipped in square pots with the vine attached to a stick and a photo at the top of the stick. They're expensive to ship and they will stack the pots two deep so check carefully that the base of the stem hasn't been broken.

Canadian Tire's clematis have come in rounded cardboard containers (stick attached) for a couple of years. I would imagine they're shipped the same way. I haven't noticed that any were broken, but if that's the way they're shipped, it probably does happen to a lot of them.

Love the pics of Don's clematis! I wish all of mine looked so nice! The Pope did this year but the others have never looked like that. And my Ville de Lyons doesn't have the lighter stripes in the middle. Wonder if it's not what it said it was.

My clematis all died last winter so I'm not sure if I will be replacing them. They seem to do well for a few years and then disappear, just like northspruce said.

Ones that have done well for me (until they DIED) Polish Spirit, Jackmanii and Madam Julia Correvon.

Make sure to buy the ones marked Pruning Group C - those bloom on new wood. The big box stores sell every single type of clematis and not many are suitable for really cold zones.

Hey Brandon, many of the garden centers are now in 50% off mode, it's a great time to buy and plant them, crazy snowstorms notwithstanding :)

Don555, great Clematis. That's very encouraging. I am definitily going to try your variety.

Shazam, thanks for the advice. I remember the box stores sold them at 8-15 dollars this spring, which was reasonable. So I guess I will just wait until early spring.