Kind of difficult to diagnose a problem with no picture. How was the plant treated during its first year or so in the ground? Was it treated as type III so it could develop a strong root system or was it just allowed to grow with no trimming? What types of fertilizer are you using and how much are you using? Any recent adverse weather conditions that could have affected the plant?

Know you don't want to hear it but my suggestion is sacrifice the blooms and cut the plant back to where each stem has two or three sets of leaves, keep it fertilized and watered this summer and see how it does next year. Clematis are not immediate gratification plants and often have to be pruned well the first few years to get them established, especially the type II clematis.

Thanks nckvilledudes for suggestions. Managed to post pic on photobucket-DH did spray lawn for weeds before she leafed out. She was shielded with cardboard above ground. She was exposed to 2 hard freezes but protected with sheets. I use bayer combination products on her same ones I use on roses.
Is this a no-no? My other clems are fine. I am new to clems. Appreciate all advise.--dazi

Here is a link that might be useful: photobucket

Does look like weed killer affected it severely or the Buyer could have too. Sick is right. Ouch.

Sad thing is that I do not know what I did to hurt her. Other clemmies ok. Will prune Belle back and put her on a zero chemical diet, water regularly. (12 step program?) Thank you nckvilledudes and gardengirl, any others for the marvelous pics--they inspire us newbies. I try not to be impatient- we have deer who prune her on a regular basis. Others tell to me s/p and plant again.I will follow advise of nckvilledudes and see what transpires.Thanks all--pls advise; best, safe fertilizer is tomato food?

I agree with BorS. It almost does look like that some of the weed killer might have gotten on the stems.

Not sure what you meant by "Others tell to me s/p". A lot of people use tomato food on their clematis since it is low nitrogen. I have used it before when I found it on sale. Others use rose fertilizer, alfalfa pellets, slow release synthetic fertilizers, organic fertilizers, compost, etc. I use what I have at the time or something found on sale. Organic fertilizers are best for newbies since they are automatically slow release on their own so you can't really overfertilize with them.