Not dumb question. I've had trouble with it too. Mine don't seem to want to cooperate. Pictures only show the blooms close up.

Polish Spirit is so big and vigorous it likely would swamp a shrub. Needs a tree.

I grow most of my clematis through trees and shrubs. If your shrubs are against the house, I would plant your clematis about 2 feet in front of your shrubs. With an E exposure they should get plenty of morning sun. I would plant type 3 clematis with light colored flowers. They show up best against a dark green background. There are type 3 clematis that bloom at different times from May to September. You can select different varieties so you always have at least one in bloom. You can hard prune them the first couple of years. If you want your vines to grow higher, you can cut them back at 3-4 feet after a few years. You will need to give them extra water during the summer as your shrubs will take up a lot of moisture. They will have no problem climbing your shrubs. Just guide the vines into the lower branches and away they will go. Polish spirit is much too vigourous for most shrubs and small trees. Plant it on a large fence, shed, wall etc. I can get 15-20 feet and produce 50 or more vines. It is beautiful and blooms all summer for me. I love it but it needs room. Here are a couple of photos of some clematis growing up junipers and cedar shrubs to give you an idea.
Huldine and Betty Corning growing up a cedar shrub.
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This is Viola. I love this flower, but the dark color doesn't show up well with the dark green foliage. A lighter background would have been better.

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This was Polish spirit last year. It got so large it smothered this 14' eldeberry and caused the branches to break. I moved the clematis this spring to a 30' cement light pole, and my eldeberry is starting to recover.

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Good luck with your clematis. Karen

Wow Karen,

Thanks so much for the ideas and esp the photos. Good to know about Polish Spirit. Maybe I'll just let it go on my chain link fence. I have a huge long length of it on the side facing my house that I'd love to cover (the outside is all 6-ft tall spirea). However, will PS do okay in northern exposure with several hours sun?

And one more ? on planting with shrubs. If I plant in FRONT of them, how do I protect the plant/roots? B/c right now there's nothing at all in front of the shrubs. Just house-shrubs-grass. Won't people constantly trip over the clematis? Does this mean I have to make a bed around it?

Thanks!

My Polish spirit was growing on the north side of that hedge and it did just fine. You could grow it horizontally along your chain link fence and it would cover a large area.

Yes, you could make a small bed in front of your hedge. Just remove 2 feet of grass and put an edge around it to keep the grass out and the lawnmover away from it. I did this with mine and it worked fine. The shrubs eventually grew over the bed and the clematis now grow up through the lower branches hiding all the bottom stems.

Flowerfan, I would sure love to tour your garden in person someday....

I put Inspiration behind a 'Miss Kim' lilac thinking it would grow up and through towards the sun but it hasn't. Scrambles along the ground and doesn't bloom because it is heavily shaded. Perhaps I should not have hard pruned it and should have woven the stems through the lilac myself.

Karen, after viewing your pictures, I decided to go with a light colored clematis to climb my lilac shrub - I agree that it is a much better contrast than the darker colored clems. Thanks for the wonderful pictures.

This is my first year with clems, I have 20 now. All of them are climbing green vinyl coated wire stapled to my fence.

I trimmed my lilac shrub removing all lower foliage and have only foliage on the top half - sort of like a multi stemmed tree.

Since there is no foliage at the base or smaller stems, what do you recommend I use so the clem can climb?