Well, not sure what y'all are growing but sweet autumn clematis in my yard is so fragrant that it perfumes the whole garden, and you can even smell it inside the houose. However, it is sooo invasive in Z6! It literally will cover a whole woods if it gets a chance, and even small seedlings immediately put down woody roots that you have to dig out, they won't pull! Almost worse than Japanese honeysuckle. This must be c. ternifolia. I have it and it is definitely beautiful with clouds of fluffy white flowers, and oh my that smell! However I did not plant it, it came with mhy garden, and in spite of my best efforts, I still have it after 25 yrs. I have whacked and pruned on one vine that is on my fence this year, and it came back stronger and thicker than ever and rewarded my rough treatment with more flowers than I have ever seen.

I looked at my pot ghetto yesterday and Ville de Lyon, Durandii and Cezanne are blooming. All were dug up and potted due to construction on my house. Etoile Violette has a few blooms too. Due to construction, I was not able to prune, fertilize or water as much as I'd have liked this past summer. My garden overall looks like a word not allowed to be used on this message board.....:(

Ken Druse's book on propagation says the following about clematis in general: "Seed-moist cold 2 to 5 months depending on species, sow indoors (70 to 75 degrees) (germination 30-365 days depending on the species). I can tell you that I have had pretty good results with other seeds that come up in unexpected places by sowing them into pots in the fall and leaving them outside to the rain and cold all winter. In the spring I begin watering and they will often come up, sometimes even before I begin watering. If you have an ongoing supply of seed, it's worth a try. Sorry I cannot be more specific.

Hi SAC aficionados - Many thanks for all the info above, I hope to learn more from all of you, with experience. I had to erect an arbor to protect my 16y/o Nikko H from full sun (she lost the dappled shade when our 26+y/o Locust tree had to come down). My search for a fast growing climber took me to this forum & fell in love! (Bellarosa's & Pianolady's pics got me) I planted 1 on each leg of the arbor last June - got them from 2 different nurseries) The one from Earl May was a younger SAC grown in Iowa and bloomed beautifully in Aug and has a lot of seed pods. The other was an older plant and was stressed out when I got her on sale - my heart broke when the only surviving vine broke to the base, in planting. True to her nature, she did sprout new limbs and climb happily on the arbor ( about 7ft, but didn't flower). My ??? - do I need to do any kind of overwintering measures? Will the seeds grow in the area, should I snip them to avoid spreading? Did I need to plant 2 to cover a 10 ft tall arbor? Will I end up with a big pruning job in the future? Would appreciate feedback from similar zone, devotees. ditas