Afternoon! Last summer, I got a piece of clematis that someone basically ripped out of the ground for me and threw into a pot. Amazingly, the thing lived. It's lucky, because I was too busy/lazy to trim its brown stem back over the winter, not understanding that new growth would come from that stem as well as from the base. At any rate, it's growing like crazy and I'm full of ideas as to where it can go. But I have no idea how big it will be because I don't know what kind it is. And I've never grown a clematis before, so I've got lots of questions. 1) I have it planted now at my foundation and I have a rather small trellis that I will use to encourage it up to the top of my porch. How do I get it from the ground up to the trellis, though? The trellis is perhaps 5 feet above where the plant is now. New growth is just laying on the ground. 2) Once it gets to the top of the trellis, can I use wire or line or something to train it along the top of my porch? And over my garage? Can it grow sideways wherever I want it to go? And I must admit I'm a bit afraid that it will try to get up under my roofing shingles or siding. Are they aggressive like that? 3) Lastly, how do I know what type this is? I have no idea when or if it should be pruned. Any pointers would be appreciated. I don't even know what color this thing is going to be! Karen

Yeah well this year there is not much to see there in the back - on both sides of the shed I had a Henri on one side and a Ramona on the other and they both got wilt :0( So I added a General and a Piluu on the right as I am not sure if the Henri is going to come back. And I have a Comtesse de Bouchaud that I added to the Ramona which were all very small plants and I added six along the back fence there one is Venosa Violacea - the flowers are just opening and they really look wierd - I am wondering if something is wrong with the plant - this is the first year with that also so I am not sure what it looks like when opening?? Ive planted about 10 in various planters and you'd never know it by the picture but I now have 31 as I went totally wild this year - lol. But when I get pictures I will post. Unfortunately it takes a few years to leap :0( and I have no patiences - lol. Golden.

Prairemoon, It was a lot easier to move than I expected. Of course,there were a lot of roots left behind because there were a lot of roots that were close to the surface that had spread far from the plant. I moved it before it was tall enough to attach to the arbor, so I didn't have to cut it back. I think I only slowed the growth down by a couple of weeks. I mixed compost into the soil and either bone meal or rose tone, and I also used rooting hormone. Mine blooms in late August or September, and for that reason, I moved the SAC from the arbor because it was in a prominent spot. I wanted to see color in the summer, not a tunnel of green, although it was nice to stand under the arbor feeling enveloped by the lushness. I moved the SAC to a corner where I am going to try to get it to climb into a tree. I'm not sure how well it will flower because there might be too much shade. If that doesn't work, I'll probably move it so it can climb along the fence. Your wire idea is a good one. I think I will do the same at some point.

Chalk Hill and Brushwood Nursery have very good plants, however Brushwood doesn't carry The Duchess and Chalk Hill is sold out for now. You will have better luck ordering from Chalk Hill in late winter to VERY early spring. They will ship according to your zone. Spring would be a better time to plant anyway, in my opinion. The roots will have all summer to acclimate and grow. The Duchess is a very fine clematis and worth waiting for ! Suzy