Were they pruned?

Have they been fertilized?

It may be too soon in your zone for them to bloom.

No, they were not pruned but were fertilized by my garden man. He used a grayish powder-not bone meal. I should have asked him what he used. I told him that I believe clems are gross feeders.

They could be exhibiting a distorted growth due to fertilizer burn.

They are gross feeders but that doesn't mean they can't be burned or damaged by improper fertilization. Using a gentle organic fertilizer such as Rose-Tone or compost or manure is preferred.

They could also be exhibiting distorted growth due to pesticide or herbicide drift, such as if Weed N'Feed was applied to the lawn.

It could be normal, a photo would help.

Comtesse de Bouchard is a Group III hard prune that blooms on new growth. Should be pruned back hard every early spring.

Miss Bateman is a Group II which blooms on old wood first and then new wood later but benefits from hard pruning the first couple of years after planting.

buyorsell could be right, what you're seeing could also be quite normal. i say wait and see, those whorls could very well turn into leaves, and then new growth shoots which develop buds that flower.

no pictures to tell for sure, but your description sounds like a very normal thing i witness every spring (for my zone, this happened about a month ago - yours seem to be behind mine - but maybe due to your zone). what looks like buds forming from each node of previous year's wood actually are fuzzy whirls of leaves tightly packed together (presumably to protect them from spring snaps). these unfurl into leaves and then grow out into side shoots that eventually develop buds which flower. they are flowering for me right now. can you tell me if this is the first sign of growth you see on your clematis? if so, that tells me these could be normal whorls and somehow your clematis are way way behind mine.

My Violet Elizabeth has whorls that are fuzzy on it right now. Looks sort of weird but it has not been exposed to any chemicals for sure.

Kitova

The Duchess had a trellis full of regular growth before these bud whorls appeared. I have done some research and read that Duchess of E's sepals can be prone to staying green for its first flush. It looks healthy so I'll wait and see if this one is a keeper.

I have had the same experience with D of E having green coloration on the sepals of first flowers. This is most commonly caused by exposure to cool temps during bud formation in the spring. This is rarely seen later in the season.

{{gwi:590270}}

It's cool weather or maybe lack of sun in my garden. I've had almost completely green flowers on the shaded side of my D of E early in the year. Later, when the sun gets higher and the weather gets warmer they are white like they should be.

Bob, you are correct. Plants will often lose their true flower color in deep shade due to the plant attempting to try and generate more photosynthetic foliage.

Another factor, besides shade and cooler weather,that can cause this in some clematis is overfertilization--not the issue in my garden since I tend to underfertilize to prevent too much vegetative growth.

In his book "The Genus Clematis", Magnus Johnson writes:

"C. viticella Alba Luxurians should not be given too much fertilizer, otherwise the flowers may turn partly or fully green instead of white. The Latin name of the cultivar ... bears this phenomenon: it is normally white but luxuriates if the conditions are too good. Evidently, even in the plant world, a life of luxury can also lead to unwished for consequences."