One year, I really went "over the top" with planting seedlings. I had four sets of lights, 3 racks on each, and they were all stuffed with flats of seedlings. Every day, as soon as I got home from work, I raced to the basement to see if anything had "popped" in the last 24 hours. It was so exciting! I finally had them all potted up and out on my 3 season porch. Needless to say, there was barely room to walk around out there. I was slowly getting them planted, when an emergency came up and my husband and I had to be away for a week. My neighbor promised to check on my "babies" daily, and water as needed, which was important because it was hot and dry. I had it all set up for her so all she had to do was turn on the hose and hose them down. (They were sitting on the deck so any excess water would just run off - no problem). Honestly, it wouldn't have taken her 5 minutes, and she didn't even have to be "delicate" about it. So I left with a deck stuffed with green, growing plants. When I returned a week later, about 2:00 AM, I turned on the lights and walked out on the deck. I was horrified to find that all of my beautiful plants were dead and dry to the core. Even the ones in 8 inch diameter pots were dry to their very core. Obviously she had never watered them. I was so furious I phoned her immediately and got her out of bed. She said she had "forgot" to water my plants, but thought they'd be all right. When I told her they were all dead, her answer was: "Well, they were just plants." No apology, no nothing. Needless to say, that was the end of that friendship. I really mourned those plants I'd spent so much time raising. BUT it hasn't stopped me from raising more plants from seeds! I still love it, still adore watching a new plant pop it's head up for the first time, or unfold it's first set of leaves. I guess what I'm saying is that if you truly love growing from seed, you'll do it no matter what. And if you don't, then maybe you'd be better off buying them a little later on, after someone else has started them. And there's no judgement in that. To each his/her own. Whatever floats your boat! Just do the kind of gardening YOU enjoy. MacThayer

If you don't want to dig them up, just mound soil up around a large area around the crowns and you will in essence have planted them deeper. Cover the area with mulch and it will help the soil stay in place. I also agree that if you have not pruned them back hard yet I would do that. I treat Niobe as a type III clematis in my garden.

Thanks for your input. I've been watering everyday, but I check first to see that the soil is dry at least 4 in. down, not just on the surface. Perhaps I'll try watering less and see if they rebound.

Wow. Thanks for the response. If someone can tell me how to post a pic I'll try to do that. For now let me say the plants have no problem supporting the top growth. When the sun is actually shining..the plants see sun from 730 am until 5pm via a window in my house. As a result they lean towards the outside. To counteract this I switch the orientation daily. (it is amazing to see them adapt daily) A few of the plants are 5-7 inches tall with more than a dozen leaves (cherryÂs and early girls) I do have all of April and most of May to get through before I put them outside but I intend to put them in my patio enclosure in pots in mid April. On sunny 60 degree days the patio gets a hot as 80 degrees with about 6 hours of sun. This is my bridge strategy before I eventually put them in the ground outside in mid May. My big boys are the ones that are starting to concern me. Some of the lower leave have yellowed/browned and fallen off. A few of the leaves has some very small yellow spots. I should say that the BB seeds came from last years crop. A crop that somehow survived LB.