Go to your local feed&seed or coop store and buy some seed potatoes. Cut them into chunks wherever you see an eye sprouting. Buy some powdered sulfur and sprinkle it all over the raw potato, like flouring chicken before frying. Let them sit overnight. This will cauterize the wounds and help keep the potato from rotting once buried. Commercially grown potatoes are treated to keep them from sprouting eyes but you can go to the grocery store, buy a few potatoes, wash them with soap and water and put them in a dark, warm place. They will begin to sprout. Better still, ask the produce manager at your grocery store if he has any sprouted potatoes he has culled. He may not be able to give them to you but he will probably sell them for next to nothing. One plant will grow a bunch of potatoes.

What you are seeing in your potted up clematis is what is known as "Brownlegs"...Clematis will get those especially in hotter climates..potted clematis will dry out quicker than those in the ground..that is why I "Sink" my potted clematis into my garden..you should get those potted ones planted in the garden when the weather turns cooler..probably next month..Pruning is essential.especially for baby clematis as this forces the clematis to focus on growing a stronger root system and not growing vines..this is done in the first year..Clematis that are PRUNING GROUP 3's MUST be hard pruned as they bloom on the new vines grown during the growing season whereas pruning group 2's bloom on last years vines..I like to use Rose fertilizer rather than miracle grow..remember that clematis are like Roses as they are heavy feeders and bloom best when the fertilizer has the higher middle number in the N-P-K ratio...the "P" is what makes flowers bloom..Being in zone 8 I hard prune and fertilize my clematis in Mid Feb around Valentines day or as some say when the Forsythias are in bloom..so calculate that for your zone...Jeanne

perennialfan275 , I am not an expert on RRD but I do think it is possible some mites carrying the virus would remain in your garden after removing a plant. Some miticides kill rrd mites. I don't like using them but I have read that it can help to spray miticide every month. I don't do that. Dormant oil spray sprayed in winter might do some good. Maybe Ann in TN will comment, or you can see her e book. I had a neighbor with an infected rose. I gave him printed out info on RRD including pictures. He was nice as can be and said the plant is mine to do what I want with. So I sprayed it with Round Up brush killer, miticide, and hairspray. The hairspray was something I'd heard mentioned as one way to possibly immobilize mites. Then we cut down the plant, bagged it up, and dug out the roots. Then we had to follow up with digging out some more roots. I offered my neighbor any plant he wanted to replace it but he didn't want anything. I think asking nicely helps. I wouldn't assume that the owner of an infected plant doesn't give a hoot. I first had a plant with RRD about 16 years ago. Since that time I've lost more plants but not a lot. I haven't counted them up but it's somewhere under 20. It probably averages out to about one a year. That's bad, but not so horrible that it's worth getting depressed about it. It hasn't spread like wildfire ( yet), and it hasn't spread to adjacent roses. What worries me most is the untended mass plantings of Knockout in the area. It is ridiculous to be fatalistic about that and just sigh and say how awful it is. Should do something, like contact the town or business.

I hand sewed 2 masks adapted from the pattern Raven shared--only 2 thicknesses as DH and I don't use a filter. I used craft pipe cleaners for the wire and some fabric scraps I found that I had forgotten about.. Took the better part of a day. But every day I am knitting knockers for the Knitted Knocker folks to stuff and distribute to women who need them.