Armandii normally gets no pruning except to control its size since it is an evergreen type I clematis. I had one here in the piedmont of NC at my previous house and never had an issue with it blooming. What type of fertilizer are you using? If you put to much nitrogen around most plants that flower, it stimulates them to put out a lot of foliage and few to no blooms. Fertilizing with a high phosphorus fertilizer may help stimulate blooms. One other thought could be that the plant is still getting settled in and may bloom next year.

Where are you located? Clematis armandii is typically recommended as a shade loving clematis, as it thrives and blooms beautifully in a fair amount of shade......more than most other varieties. And while it can also be grown in sun, how much sun would depend on specific location. Full sun in my very northerly, mild summer area is fine - full sun in the southeast not so fine. In it's native habitat, it is a forest understory plant, receiving minimal direct sunlight. New growth is often tinged with red and the sun exposure may be intensifying that. Is the second photo of a second plant? If so, that one is in deep trouble and will probably not survive. This is not the easiest of clems to get established so selecting the best possible location and preparing the best possible planting hole and treating with kid gloves for a season or two is highly recommended.

From personal experience I feel sure your neighbor would love wisteria too. So beautiful and so easy to grow. Mine could reach across the 7-foot gap between our house and garage within two weeks, greeting us after each summer vacation with a lovely dappled-shade passage. More than once friends were surprised when the vine shot seeds at them, which was fun to see, but I really appreciated it for the way it cobra-squeeze destroyed the old wood arbor my husband didn't want to work on, giving me an excuse to replace the posts with metal 4x4s with decorative heavy metal brackets. I'm not sure anything can match the gift of bamboo, though. I once appraised a house in an old neighborhood belonging to an elderly lady. After her husband died and son moved to New York, it got so lonely it moved into her garage looking for her, then swept across their rear yard to visit four adjoining elderly neighbors and their yards, before finally finding her and moving into her rear porch and laundry room. About that time her son came to visit her, instead of vice versa, and I got called when he decided she needed to leave before it tried to join her at the kitchen table. BTW, the home, garage, and retaining walls between all these hillside properties were total losses, with all requiring extensive bulldozer work, but for economic reasons only the property for sale and one other actually got the 40'-tall bamboo and its underground structure bulldozed out... Buried a house and contents (?!) definitely tops anything here, although I guess the GaEPA problem-solver (of interfering with business as usual apparently) official is mine too. In my case I do happen to know there's not even a shed or old bed buried in this area, just our usual light clay piled up behind a short retaining wall. A bit of a wander from Clematis armandii. On shopping I found that Chalk Hill Nursery has closed. So sad. That was the first place I automatically looked. I also want to try a solid-cream (no speckles) Clematis cirrhosa for winter flowers, but I'm going to have to find them at some other nursery, after it opens in spring apparently.

It's growing underground, not above ground. Clematis blooms on new growth only. It takes a few years for clematis to really become established, at least 3 years. Don't worry, it will take off this year again for you. You have to be patient with them for 3 whole summers. I use Miracle Grow on mine once a month in the summer, mabey that will help with new growth. Good Luck!