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 doubt you killed your clematis, but you may have cracked the fragile stems at the base. Keep treating the roots like they are alive and you will probably get new shoots coming up. Best practice is to prune the clematis back hard before you plant leaving only about 6 inches of growth or taller so you have a few sets of leaves. There isn't a leader vine. Sweet Autumn grows fast, so keep watching it so you can try to guide the stems. I add bone meal the way Chalk Hill recommends, but it isn't required. I don't take out the supports that came in the nursery pot unless they fall off. I try to cause as little disruption to the roots as possible. I do take off the twist ties though and use my own. Tightly tying the vine to your support isn't good. I use velcro straps to hold the vines in place. It doesn't take long for the tendrils to grab on, so as soon as it does, the straps can be removed. What I try to do when planting a new clematis is plant it at an angle towards the support. That way the vines will already be growing in the right direction. To help it along, I might add a couple of lengths of thin bamboo on either side of the root mass and use these to help guide the vine. It also serves to protect the vine (somewhat) from dog feet. Where practical, I will use the velcro pieces to hold the bamboo to the support, but most of the time it can just rest on the support because the soil holds it in place.

This is a nutrient deficiency. Not a big deal but an indication that these containerized plants are not getting what they need. Using a dilute liquid fertilizer once a week until you get them in the ground would be helpful. It is also not at all unusual for nursery-size clems not to bloom while still in the container. They can of course but no guarantees :-) They will be happiest once planted in the ground in a well-prepared and enriched planting hole.

You might want to read the FAQ linked below to start with and then browse through some of the other FQs. If there are specific issues you are concerned about, take some photos and post them so we can see what the problems are. Clematis do best if they are planted with the crown several inches below ground level. They like consistent moisture - not super soggy, but not dry. Mulch will help with this as well as proper watering if it is needed. They do not like root competition, so if they are planted too close to your roses, they will be unhappy. I plant my clematis at least a couple of feet from any other plants. Since my area tends to get fairly consistent summer rains, I rarely have to water, but I've heard that your area often doesn't get regular summer moisture, so you will want to water before they dry out (test by sticking your finger into the soil a couple of inches.) I also do a lot of soil improvement before I plant garden beds, so they are fertile with high organic matter. I improve the whole bed, not just the planting holes, but in an established bed with poor soil this will be more difficult other than adding amendments to the top and letting them work in over time. Finally, I noticed from your other post that you first started considering clematis in 2010. Clematis do require a bit of patience unless you bought large plants to begin with, gallon or larger plants that are more than 2 years old. When I buy large plants they bloom some the first year while they settle in, and then really take off. I find that the two-year-old plants from Brushwood Nursery bloom a small amount the first year and then get larger and bloom more each year after. If you buy anything smaller, they will take at longer to bloom. So unless you bought large plants, they have been working on growing good roots to support themselves over the last couple of years and only this year will the plants really amount to much. Every year they will get better. Your area has some great retail places to get clematis in larger sizes and now would be a great time to visit to see some of them in bloom. As others have said above, the group 3 types are in general easiest to grow, not troubled by much of anything (other than voles eating their roots in my garden.) Here is a link that might be useful: FAQ - My new Clematis is not growing, what could be wrong?