You are growing SAC in a container? Can you describe the size of the container and how it is planted and what kind of care it gets? FWIW, this is not a clematis I'd pick for growing in a container :-) Is there a reason you can't plant in the ground?

I would definately say that someone in your neighborhood has been spraying something. My SAC looks something like this, and I know someone was out in the alley with weed killer. It is all distorted and growing like crazy. They probably used something for dandelions. I get a dose of weed killers every year when the crop dusters go out to spray wheat for weeds. Even the smell drifting in will effect some plants. Redbud trees and purple hyacinth beans for instance. I think your plant will recover.

I don't think you have anything wrong with your vine. Based on the leaf appearance, rampancy and seeding habits, it sounds like C. terniflora or Sweet Autumn clematis. Considered invasive in many parts of the east, it's a big, aggressively growing vine that benefits from a severe pruning (like down nearly to the ground) annually. The bleaching or discoloring of various sections of leaves and stems is likely due to more exterior vining tendrils simply wrapping around and strangling the others. I wouldn't worry about it. If you cut it back hard next spring and thereafter, I doubt you'll see this problem again.

in zone 5, the weather has been overcast the past week and I'm pretty sure the soil was so moist it was rotting my plant. I moved to a new location yesterday, and the soil when I was digging it up smelled rotten. new location has much drier soil and is not near a sprinkler head where it keeps the soil so soggy. I hope she recovers!!!