Thank you so much for your response. Further questions, of course... It does make sense to go ahead and pot these little fellas up now, right? Those tiny containers they are in CANNOT contain much in the way of nourishment. The varieties I have are: Prince Charles, Miss Bateman, and Ernest Markham. From my online searches it appears that I have a bit of a mixed bag - I wish I had ones I could prune all at the same time since I'm planning to plant them all together along the bottom of a fairly large trellis on the front of my house. Did I luck out and get ones I can treat as a common group? In that space they will get direct sun for about 4 or 5 hours a day and they will be planted behind some shrubbery. They will be shaded by the trees in the woods across the lawn from about 4 in the afternoon on. I suspect morning sun would be preferable but if I plant them on that side of the house they would seldom be seen! I could add more plants around the bases if it would help with keeping the soil cooler. As it is they will be at the back of a bed that contains various perennials and a young redbud tree. Eventually the tree will shade the trellis even more. I do need to work on amending that area. Our soil is almost pure white sand here and I usually add lots of compost and manure to new beds. I'll get at that between now and fall planting. Another question...should I add lime? Do clematis prefer sweeter soil? Ours is pretty acid and the compost, etc, doesn't seem to address that side of things.

I overwinter stuff in pots every year. There always seems to be a "pot ghetto" hanging around. Last November, I bought 55 plants at a local nursery on sale for $3-5 each! Some were in small pots, but most were 1-3 gallon pots. Most of them were native perennials and grasses. No chance of something like warm season grasses growing and establishing roots that late in the season! So I planted a few cool season grasses, then sunk most of them in the ground in their pots. I put some on the north side of the garage, surrounded by a heavy mulch of leaves and also bags of leaves. This is what I do with the pot ghetto every year. The idea is to insulate the plants from temperature extremes. We had persistent snow cover all winter last year, which helped to protect all these plants in pots. I didn't lose anything but some Scabiosa columbaria 'Pink Myst' - which is not a native and is notorious for dying over the winter anyway, even when established in the ground.

Thanks for the compliments and, um, "sympathy" (smile). It's good to hear other GW friends admit to being crazy, Katie, and I happen to think it's a good kind of crazy. I mean, truly insane gardeners like us don't need to come inside when it starts raining either (like today). I'm glad (and surprised) that daffodils do well in the desert, though come to think of it a lot of bulbs evolved in high deserts in Turkey and such. You might try the low botanical tulips that are the size and timing of crocus, as they like it dry. You're right, Sharon, by this point I can just dig and replace the bulbs by now to plant the rest of the roses, but for me it doesn't really help fall planting. I just dig where I know not enough bulbs will survive, and again in the fall, if I dig up a bulb to plant another one I just replace it and move on. Carol, it sounds like we have a new convert to bulbs and roses, and Canada should be a good place to mingle those, as JJPeace can testify. Cadiarose, I do appreciate the work of keeping up with both obsessions, and I agree that if I had to choose I'd pick the roses. However, self-sustaining bulbs like crocus or daffodils don't really take any work once planted, and they can be at the back of the bed so you can forget about them once the roses start. Just a thought to maintain the insanity a little longer (smile).\ Cynthia

A number of issues get mistaken for clematis wilt that are not :-) Several weather related stressors can produce symptoms that are similar to wilt, including both too much or too little water. As well as damage to the basal stems of the vine from critters or mechanical injury. Wilt starts at the top of the vine and rapidly works its way down to the base - other similar looking issues will start at the base and work their way upwards. And then there is also a temporary 'wilt' situation that is not a fungal issue at all but lack of a sufficiently well developed root system to support a lot of vigorous top growth. That is probably encountered more often than true, fungal-based cases of clematis wilt. I worked for a period of time for a very large wholesale grower of clematis and have grown a fair number of these vines over the years, including many species types. It is perfectly true that the large flowered hybrids tend to be more prone to wilt (either the fungal wilt or the 'grow too fast for the root system" wilt) than do the species vines or those very close to the true species. But neither wilt is fatal or permanent. A good number of the clematis I grew in my old garden (close to 50 or so) were supposed "wilted" plants returned to the nursery. I took them home, cut them back, planted them properly (a bit of a trick with clematis) and they never looked back! I can honestly say I have never had a case of wilt originate in my garden so I am a firm believer that proper planting technique and focusing on either the early blooming species or the small flowered late bloomers can avoid this unpleasant ordeal entirely. As to planting techniques to avoid instances of clematis wilt or wilt-looking problems, plant deeply (4-6 inches deeper than in the nursery container) in a well-amended, freely draining planting hole and to cut back the vines hard regardless of type or pruning group for at least their first two season in the ground. Both the deep planting and the hard pruning encourages a strong and well developed root system and the production of multiple stems from the root crown, which serves to prevent against damage to a single stem from whatever mishaps and to better support the vigorous top growth with respect to both water and nutrient transport. This is pretty standard advice given out to those who frequent the Clematis forum. Try it - you may find it makes a world of difference in how well your clems survive without disease or weather issues.