Move them outside when you don't have any more frosts or freezing temps. You must let them get used to being outside, you need to acclimate them. Bring them out for one hour the first day and increase time for 2 weeks, then they will be fine. You could grow them indoors if they are doing OK, it's up to you. You need also to slowly expose to the sun. The first few days I would leave in the shade, slowly increasing sun exposure daily too. By the last day 8 hours outside and in the sun or whatever your exposrure is. They do need sun.. 14 days is about right, works best for me. I keep mine in the garden, one is about 25 years old. I added four more last year. The 25 year old one is massive, I cut it completely down every year. It grows like crazy and produces hundreds of flowers. Pruning depends on what type you have. 3 groups exist, each are pruned differently. Brushwood Nursery has a good grow guide for Clematis Here is a link that might be useful: Clematid Grow guide This post was edited by Drew51 on Sat, Mar 15, 14 at 16:42

Hi Kim..is the weather still warm enough in NY to keep tropicals out this late?? You can either bring in gradually, or find a nice, sunny spot in your home.. Before bringing in, (if warm enough) hose entire plant off outside..Toss out dead leaves, remove yellow/brown. If it's too cold to hose outside, then bring indoors and hose off in a sink or shower..Aim mainly at foliage. To prevent mites, (if you mist plants) add 2-4 drops of dish soap, finely chopped garlic and citrus..shake..then spray away..thoroughly. Don't set your plant in front of a heating vent..this is the worse thing you can do at this time. Keep on the cool side, mist daily. Once a wk, if manageable, take it to a sink or shower and hose leaves. Also, inspect foliage/stems for insects. If you find buys, you need to ID them in order to find a solution to rid them. I spray the dish soap and a bit of Fish Emulsion though most FE's have a fishy odor though they now sell odorless types. BTW, if you're Umbrella's in an outter pot, clean it out before bringing inside, too..Toni

Okay, here are my thoughts so far: This Erlwhatsis LED panel is a 45-watt fixture that provides about 20k lux of plant-yummy light at a distance of about 4 inches. This drops rapidly to 8k to 10k lux at a distance of about 10 inches from the panel. Light intensity also declines the farther the plant is from the center of the array. I have two 12-watt TaoTronics bulbs on either side of the panel and they throw out 40k lux but they have a circular array of LEDs so that's actually only a light point of about 2 to 3 inches in diameter, declining rapidly outside the focal point. Basically you can put one plant in the middle and anything around that one plant will be poorly-lit. Just to put in context, direct sunlight is over 100k lux, increasing in intensity as you get closer to the, er, sun, measured in astronomical units of 150 million kilometers. To improve light distribution, I am planning to attach white panels on the sides of this shelf. Above this setup is my other plant shelf, under T5HOs. Now, if you want to keep your plants growing throughout winter, a 45-watt panel is not going to be enough light to keep your plant compact, especially if you are planning to heat the area up to summer temperatures and keep feeding them. This will work for me because I do not plan to keep them heated in the basement, nor to feed them. IME, this slows them down to the point of semi-dormancy. Basically, this is winter shutdown for some of my adeniums. That said, LED grow lights generate wavelengths very specific for plant growth. That part, I have to monitor this winter since it will be very different from plants just scavenging usable wavelength from daylight T5HOs. In my home office, though, that's a different story. That stays tropical all throughout winter. I hope this helps someone! Pagan

One thing to understand is that the temperature of a leaf is cooler than the air temperature, because of the moisture that evaporates continuously from it. Something about solar radiation maybe?. Nanelle, I'm with you in theory, and the temperature on the leaf and fruit surface can be significantly hotter than the air. Causes sunscald ... from higher temps developed on surfaces. Evaporation is taking place does not require the leaf temperature to be cooler than ambient. A balance is struck between the amount of water a tomato plant can deliver through transpiration and reflection and the outside temperature. There is a limited capacity - especially in the growing tips and buds. We are outside of that range at over 100 F for sure. In dry climates there is usually a point where the tomato simply can't deliver enough water to all of its transpiring surfaces, and that is when damage and wilt could occur. The leaf absorbs much of the solar radiation which the air doesn't. The buck stops here when it comes to the solar energy absorbed. OP mentions wanting a cheaper cover for a 15x15 bed. That to me sounds like they don't want to build a robust support structure, which nanelle, of the kind you might like... and I definitely would too -- one giving plenty of room for air circulation, designed perhaps by angling and placement to reduce midday intensity - which would be great during the hotter days of the season. Just carefully draping (risking damage) it over as a plug for the hot days on demand will certainly help maintain moisture (OP also has mulch they can use to help with that), but could even raise temperatures by restricting air flow and causing a bit of a greenhouse effect (in which case the summer weight fabric would make more sense I think). So I guess there are a lot of personal situation considerations. To me it is far north enough that the mild nights offset a lot of the problems and will result in reduced production and you probably won't get blocked from set for long periods. I wouldn't want the plants shaded in the morning though, so a bit of engineering would be necessary to get everything satisfactory IMO. Cheers PC