If you are getting a ton of new growth up from the crown and not from old stems you may not need to cut back. Most of us cut back to force that growth. Some clems have a tendancy to just have one or two stems. Growth coming up from the crown is good.

I agree with BorS. If you have abundant growth from the crown, I would let them be. If you had a few scraggly stems coming up, those would be the ones that I would pinch back.

I doubt a clematis coming up so that you know that it is a clematis at this stage of the game is not likely one that came from seed. If water moved the plant then I doubt it would be buried in the soil. See if the plant is sitting on top of the ground or actually buried. Another thought--unless you marked where the clematis was planted, perhaps it is one that you forgot about planting or where you planted it.

Hmm, I thought about it being one that I may have forgot I planted, although I placed a tag along side all of the other's so it's pretty doubtful but I'm not ruling it out. I am pretty sure that it's a Clematis as it looks a lot like the other's as far as growth and leaves and if it's a weed, it's one that I've never seen before. I will inspect a little further when I get home this evening. I may just have to wait and see what happens.

Thank you, I appreciate your input.

Linda