Gallon pots
Deep as you can get them, tilted to one side.
Add some bone meal, rose or tomato fertilizer, compost & dried cow manure.
May wilt when repotted, but if you can see them drooping & they aren't too wet already, add water.
If the leaves dry out & turn black or brown, cut off the affected stem(s), New shoots should come from the deeply planted roots.

Hope you got some with roots coming out of the bottom of the pot. I looked at every plant of the President they had at Walmart to pick the best one. And the best Barbara Jackman at HD. Lowes hadn't even gotten in the small pots last week when I did my last clem run.

Some 4 inchers from the last few years that have done well for me are Fireworks, Dr Ruppel, HF Young, Snow Queen, and a Ruutel that was mislabled and came up light pink, The Ruutel I got the following year was the true one, and is just starting to come up now.

Several years ago, before the forums, I planted some directly in the ground from the 4 inch pot, but Asoa was the only one to survive, and is now thriving.

Don't expect the plants to grow very tall this year, but most of mine have had at least one flower the first year.

Marie in ME

Thanks, Marie. Do I cut back the part of the stems that will emerge from the top of the soil in the pot or leave the stems as long as they are now? Also, I have a couple of plants I planted last year without growing them out in pots or planting them deeply. Should I re-plant these more deeply now? or in the fall?

Actually, the plant will be too small to reach the rim of the plant, most likely, so you don't have to fill the whole gallon pot with the planting mix but can add more as it grows. I wouldn't cut off anything, except lower leaves that could be buried in the filling in process. I like to see at least one flower to make sure the label is correct. But early flowers, especially on young plants, may not look exactly like the picture, but if the label is correct, eventually they will. ie Ruutel will be some shade of red, not pink.

The nice thing about Lowes & HD is that you can return the plant if it is not what you were led to expect.

Right now I am anxiously awaiting the opening of the buds on a 3 gallon clem I got at Lowes that was labeled Patricia Ann Fretwell.In the same display one of the snow queens had a purple flower. I talked with the clerk, who said they did have some mislabeled ones from that supplier. She mentioned that another "PAF" bloomed with a solid pink single flower.

There were 2 or 3 other "PAF"s there, but none blooming either, so I chose what looked to have the most roots showing and/or the most stems with the understanding that if it is not PAF I can return it. One of the buds has started to get a little twist at the end, so I hope the waiting will be over soon. And I hope it is not something I already have.

For your last years plants, it would depend on if they have buds yet or not. I would wait until after blooming, because a year old Kirigamine wilted when I transpotted it before the buds opened. As they are most likely type 2s, a severe haircut & feeding when you pot them up will probably produce a second bloom in the Fall, especially in a warm climate.

But if you find they have already developed a lot of good roots, you might want to just dig down to about 18 inches, add some good stuff to the hole (I put rocks in the bottom of my holes & pots to help drainage, which is a real problem for me), and plant directly on this, laying the roots as horizontal as you can, to help the roots grow from more contact with the good soil. This should be at about 8 inches from the surface of the garden. I think I planted or potted some of mine too deep, as they are taking forever to poke up.

I personally prefer to keep mine in pots until they fill a 3 gallon pot, and I find I have been digging up some of the pots and moving them around differently. I had type 2s & 3s going to the same trellis, but decided to follow the advise to keep pruning groups together. I also moved one of a combination because I didn't really like the way the color looked with its neighbor. And there is less danger of harming the roots if they are confined to a pot when you dig them up. I learned this with lilies several years ago.

Sounds like you are on your way to becoming another clemitaholic. Welcome to the club.

Marie in ME

I know this was posted years ago, but I have the same question. I bought a few small Clematis in literally 4 in pots. I noticed you mentioned putting them in a 1 gallon pot. However, I may be missing something or I'm a bit confused by this statement "I personally prefer to keep mine in pots until they fill a 3 gallon pot,
and I find I have been digging up some of the pots and moving them
around differently." Are you moving the 4 in plants to 1 gallon, then literally placing those in the ground. I'm reluctant to plant directly into ground as they are spindly with a small root ball.