I would wait and see. Never count a clematis out even if it hasn't emerged from the ground for over a year. If it was cut back severely, then it might take it a while to a)either put out buds on the older stems that are left or b) take time to put out more shoots from the crown. Either way, I would not count it out until next spring at the earliest.

Thanks Miguel. I rather tended towards waiting. It seems that most of the stuff I have read regarding these clems is that they really dont need any pruning except to keep them in bounds. Is this right? The other thing is that these clematis look pretty terrible in the winter when all their leaves are dead, is there a good way of dealing with this? I was thinking about allowing my macropetalas, one blue and one white to mingle in with Constance, is this a smart thing to do or am I asking for an enormous headache? I was thinking that the macropetalas would only require pruning of the new wood after blooming and I could basically let the three of them do their thing together. Smart? Or clematis newbie mistake? Sorry for too much 'thinking'. Thanks again. Kat

Kat, the macropetalas are not ones that do well in my zone since the summers are too hot for them. My first attempts at growing clematis from seed were the macropetalas, much to my chagrin, and I learned that they do well for a year or two and then just sort of melt away. Too bad for me since I think that they are a great bunch of clematis but I have learned over the years that there is no use trying to grow any plants that can't deal with the heat and humidity and lack of rainfall that my area seems to be "blessed" with. As a result, I tend to have little experience with them and have stuck with the type IIIs and the native US clematis or those bred from that stock. You are correct however that they as a class require little pruning except to remove deadwood or to contain their size. That does not discount the general advice that all classes of clematis tend to benefit from being treated as class III clematis the first year or two in the ground.

Intermingling of type I clematis should be fine since their pruning requirements are the same.

Hope that helps!

Well, I guess this is going to be a really interesting, and hopefully not too disappointing experiment. Our summers here can get quite hot but where these macros are going to be is at close to 3000 ft and in pt. shade so I am hoping that they will be OK. The blue one that I have had for many years, I bought from White Flower Farm, AKA extremely expensive for the smallest plants in the world. This thing was in a 2.5inch pot and I have potted up subsequently each year into something bigger, finishing now in a 1.5 gallon (I think, bigger than a gallon anyway). Finally, I have a resting place for it and I have a white one on the way for spring planting. We shall see, wont we? Thanks for all the advice. Kat

Kat, here in the south it is the heat and humidity that does things in. If you have had one for many years that has made it so far, that sounds promising to me.

Yeah, I agree that WFF sells extremely small plants at highly inflated prices. I have a heracleifolia that I bought over 10 years ago that was small and pricey. If I had only known how easy they were to grow from seed I would never have bought it.

Kat, I have an atagene by the name of Blue Bird that had an unfortunate accident after planting and was broken back to a few inches from the ground. I thought surely it was a goner but knowing how clematis can seemingly rise from the dead I left it alone and it put out long new growth last year. Just keep an eye on it for now. :-)

Carol

'Constance' is a selection of C. alpina and should be fine intermingled with macropetalas. As Miguel says, I'd not worry to much about her appearance right now.....while the atragenes are some of the earliest to bloom, they tend to look pretty dead until right before that happens :-) In fact, flower buds and foliage appear pretty much simultaneously.

These do bloom on old wood, so you likely won't see any flowers this season. But old vines CAN be rejuvenated by a hard pruning, so I doubt the treatment it received when it was transplanted will harm it permanently. I did the same thing with a very old and very established montana with a quite thick trunk and it recovered fine, although it took a couple of seasons to do so.

And there's not a lot you can do with regards to their appearance in winter, as pruning in late winter will remove flower buds. For this reason, I tend to grow all my atragenes up trees or through shrubs or other woody plants rather than on decorative trellises so their winter appearance is not so noticeable.

I have pruned my alpinas and macropetalas back hard including cutting into old woody stems without problems.

Thanks to all for the responses. I think that putting Constance up against my garden fence near the gate was a mistake due to the ugly winter factor. Perhaps I will move her and plant the other two with her to grow through a shrub somewhere as suggested by gardengal. Geeze, always something to do.... I think my blue atragene is also a 'Blue Bird' glad to hear yours recovered, Carol. She is so pretty, I love her. Best to all. Kat