I assume you are talking potted nursery stock. It can still be done but you will need to be very attentive to watering. Too wet or too dry can both sink the ship. Also I'd want some tempoary shade over the tree until it starts growing. If it were me I'd wait to plant until it starts cooling down in late summer/early fall.

And Hi to you, prariemoon Talk about inspiration! Your use of the pots and saucers is ingenious; I would never have thought of it. With your permission, I'm going to borrow your idea; I have some similar pots (no matching saucers but I'll rig up something). Birdbaths I've used in the past (which the birds actually used for bathing!) seemed too deep for the little ones. So I cleaned up some rocks and placed them strategically in the birdbath; gave them something to land on without fear of falling in deep water. i keep the traditional hanging feeders filled with black oil sunflower seed and safflower seed, assuming only the cardinals would be attracted. As a special treat, I'll sometimes add some peanut hearts and shelled sunflowers. The feeders designed for woodpeckers are filled with a mix specifically designed for them. (This is the one premixed product I do buy and the woodpeckers love it.) I usually add some crushed peanuts to it. Of course, the titmice, chickadees, mockingbird and blue jays get their turns at it too. For the sparrows, I put white millet in the platform feeders. Finally, I have a thistle seed sock hanging out for the goldfinches. Unfortunately, it seems no one has informed the various birds what they 'like' and 'should' be eating. My cardinals often gorge on the millet while the sparrows and goldfinches can be found more often than not at the platform feeders! As imposing as the grackles appear, they're usually well mannered, allowing the smaller birds equal time at the platform feeders. And occasionally, a cute little wren will venture to a feeder, take a few pecks, realize that the millet is not insects and quickly leave. And then, there are the doves. Ah yes... They will eat anything. As big as they are, a few have impossibly turned into acrobats, hanging nearly upside down to get at one of the hanging feeders. And they're the only bird that has shown any aggression, always at other doves.. The hummers are the true acrobats; have seen three at the same time and assuming that's all there are... hope I'll attract more next year. Apologies for being long winded ...can't seem to learn any other way. gary

There is nothing wrong with fertilizing the first year. Miracle Gro potting soil has fertilizer in it so with the compost and bone meal, your Clem should be fine for a few months. No Clematis does much the first or even the second year. They need at least three to mature. I have Clems planted less than two feet apart that do just fine. I would not be terribly worried about Clems being planted together. I've seen them planted in the same hole doing great.

For some reason, an inexperienced lawn-steward like myself thinks that compost is harder to spread than animal feeds, though I have yet to spread my first of either. So I know almost nothing about this. I was under the impression that animal feed pellets (like alfalfa pellets and corn gluten meal) are easier to spread than compost because you can simply use a rotary spreader for the pellets, whereas the rotary spreader isn't capable of spreading compost. I think you need a special compost spreader which I haven't found online for sale anywhere, and someone on some site wrote that the round bin-like compost spreaders don't really work well anyway. Maybe they're wrong I hope? I sure hope they're wrong and some are available for sale online. Since you can't use a regular rotary spreader for compost, I thought the only other way is to shovel the compost from a wheel barrow onto the lawn at a couple dozen spots, and then use a longish rake to spread the compost more thinly. It sounds harder to me and more time-consuming than simply using a rotary spreader for animal feed pellets? But of course, I'm probably missing something.