According to my experience, Clematis cuttings are extremely difficult to root. Even if you will manage to root it, it will take several months. After that, the rooted plant is still very weak and vulnerable. If it will survive, it will take it at least two years to get established and bloom. Too much trouble for a common variety IMO.

Well, I'll let them go and see what happens. If it hadn't been for whatever varmint chomped it, I wouldn't be trying. But, it's an experiment. Thanks for the info.

Karen

I rooted a couple of Polish Spirit by sticking the cuttings inside sterile potting soil in a ziplock baggie. I kept them inside the first winter and I planted them outside in 1 gallon pots the following spring. They took off and even bloomed a bit in the fall. They're looking really good right now.

Having a vine chomped off won't hurt a Clematis in the slightest. Hard pruning helps them. Even tiny newly planted vines benefit from hard pruning.

I have rooted cuttings by the dozens. In the fall dig a trench and drop the clematis in it and cover it up with soil. In the spring there will be a myriad of plantlets growing from the vines. Cut as many as you need, scratch the bottom stem and dust with hormone powder. Plant in plastic sheet covered tray and moisten the soil, place in a shady spot. Once they've rooted, plant in an out of the way spot and ignore them till next year. Stand up the original plant and continue as before.

I have never had any luck rooting clematis from cuttings in soil or water. I have many clematis and would like to be able to do this so I may swap w/ friends. Boday mentioned their luck with what sounds like 'layering'. Could you pls clarify the procedure you use? Just lay a stem in a trench and cover. Maybe scar one side of the stem and dust w/ hormone powder and then cover w/ soil. Is this correct? What lenght of time passes before new growth is seen? Also I didn't understand the plastic covered tray part. Sorry to be so dense but would appreciate your help. Thank you

So far, the three pieces I pushed into the potting mix haven't wilted, look just as good as the day I put them in the container. Now I probably jinxed myself...lol!

Karen

If they're haven't wilted they should be fine. It's springtime. Most of the problems are that people get impatient, don't use sterile soil or maintain moisture. I've taken cuttings from an everblooming hydrangea or roses in the spring dusted them with hormone powder stuck them in the ground and they took root. There is a site on this forum on propagation, lots of good ideas.

Thank you boday for the extended explanation. I live in a much warmer climate (zone 7) but I will definitely give this method a shot on at least one stem per plant and see what comes up! This sound promising.

Very long story short, I had to take cuttings from a sentimentally valuable and very old clematis of my grandfather's last summer at the worst possible time of year - when it was in bloom. (He'd just passed away, family spat over special plantings, house intended to go up for sale asap, etc.) It was a plain old Jackmanii, but it was important for me to have a piece of the original plant I remembered from childhood. I came here for advice on taking cuttings and was directed to a web page which I followed to the letter (except timing of the cuttings).
http://www.clematisinternational.com/questoc03.html
The coarse medium they suggest sounds awful, but it worked. I now have five plants ready to go out as soon as the weather cooperates - three from the original old Jackmanii and two from Grandpa's other Jackmanii Rubra. One of the Rubras has already bloomed in the house - yikes!

(Btw, I've never grown a clematis in my life before, so those instructions and the help I got here was all I had to go off of. Thanks to all here who helped me out back then!)

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:587062}}

The procedure that boday describes sounds more like layering to me than starting clematis from cuttings. When you do clematis from cuttings, you take stems of still alive plants and put them into some sort of starting medium and they root in the medium. In layering, you put a vine or portions of vine underground and roots develop at the nodes. Once the plants get a sufficient root system, you cut the portions apart and pot them up. Starting clematis from cuttings is much more difficult than doing so by layering.

Congrats on the cuttings you got from your sentimental plant Macky.

Congrats, Macky! And what a lovely flower it is.

P.S.- Cuttings are still alive. Yay!

Karen

I am curious to see what will happen with my cuttings and would appreciate folks sharing their opinions & expertise, too. A friend from church is in hospice care and, like macky77, I had some sentimental reasons for hoping cuttings would "take". I am amazed to see that some of the cuttings are now trying to bloom! Should I remove the buds? Is this an indication that the cutting is doing fine and is growing roots? The variety is tangutica (yellow); I don't know if that has any bearing at all. I read that it takes around 7 weeks for cuttings to root, which is why I'm surprised this new growth shows within only a couple of weeks. Thoughts?

I live in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, where it's winter now. Despite the -10° centigrade frosts my 3-year-old Xerxes clematis (group 2) is already producing fat healthy buds. I normally prune it lightly at the end of winter as soon as the buds appear, but I now wish to propagate it and wonder if I should take hardwood cuttings now or wait until the buds produce leaves and softwood cuttings. Will hardwood leafless (only buds) cuttings root readily? On the other hand, if I wait, will the plant flower less from the fact that it is spending extra energy on the portion I would normally have pruned?

I should prune my 3-year-old Xerxes clematis which is producing a lot of buds. I wish to propagate it and wonder if hardwood leafless (only buds) cuttings root readily? Or should I wait until softwood stems develop and then cut them off to propagate?