One gallon sized clems are typically going to be 2 or 3 y.o. plants and are already going to have a fairly well developed root system. Provided the roots fill the pot properly, I never bother to pinch them back but plant them, let them grow the first season and then prune hard the following March. If they were smaller, bare root offerings from a mail order source, I might take a different approach :-) It certainly won't hurt them to pinch them back, if that's what you want to do. Depending on their size, if I were to pinch, I'd take them back by a third to a half, removing the top growth to right before a pair of leaf nodes.

Did they really overwinter florida 'Sieboldii' in zone 5? Was it indoors? There's a lot of conflicting info on how hardy the floridas truly are, but most literature suggests they are NOT as hardy as most clems and prefer a very sheltered winter location or grown in a container and brought indoors. I can honestly say that I have murdered this particular cultivar more times than I care to admit but typically have remarkable success with nearly all other types of clematis, even those seemingly "dead-from-wilt" ones dug up and returned to the garden center for refunds. I would not have thought my climate anywhere severe enough to cause this plant problems, but it simply will not survive for me :-(

Laura..So glad to hear from you!!..I just emailed you worried if my baby had made it to you or not!!..Thanks for letting me know as I didn't know you weren't home..Those that are only one vine..I would hard prune..this helps the clematis to shoot up more vines...yet in saying that ..I agree with GG..those in the one gallon are most probably older and more mature and should do just fine!!..One gallon clematis here are about 25 bucks !!..Jeanne

I'm really interested in the Florida clem in zone 5 also. I read somewhere that some were hardy here, but the one I planted died the first winter, so I don't really know whether it was something I did, or just the cold that did it in.