Sorry, I forgot to ask you experts what you thought of my garden person putting Mycor Tree Saver on the clems as a top dressing. He is a horticulturist and seems to know what he's doing. The plants look great by the way!

Usgirl, I have used time released fertilizer on my clematis with no issues. Different people use different things based on what it their favorite and what is available.

6 inches of compost should be good as it will slowly release nutrients to the plant and serve as mulch. I have pushed the stuff all the way up to the stems and not had any issues with doing so and view it as planting them deeper in the ground than they were in their pots. Just realize that compost is consumed as time goes on so it will need to be replenished.

The nutritional value of your compost will depend on what was used to make it and how composted it actually was. Just use your plants as a guide to determine if they need anything else or not.

Never heard of Mycor Tree Saver so can't comment on its use.

We also only use organics around our clematis (dozens of them). 'If' you do it every year then no need for chemicals but if this is the first year then you might want to give your clemmies a one-time chemical boost until the compost starts to do the job.

The compost is also beneficial in adding a bit of depth to the root cover as the plants mature.

Alpiner, once again the idea that organic materials are not chemicals rears its ugly head. All materials, organic or synthetic, are composed of chemicals. I think a new term needs to be thought of instead of the word chemical (this coming from someone who graduated with a chemistry major and biology minor).