In your zone, I would be a little leary of keeping a potted Piilu outside over the winter. Since the plant supposedly blooms double on old wood(haven't had that experience yet after 4 years in the ground), I would move it into a protected area over the winter. Piilu tends to stay rather small in my garden so I would think it could stay in a pot indefinitely depending on the original size of the pot you have (quite large and deep isn't very specific for a scientist like me!).

I am not sure what you mean by a cyclone fence. I have a Jouiniana Praecox that gets large enough that I can layer it into a tree shaped ligustrum and it does fine.

Send the rain down this way. We could use all you can spare since we have gone almost 21 days with no rain and temps in the 90s to low 100s!

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Hi Izzy, it's raining here in the PNW also. I am happy to see it also. Piilu is great for containers. It stays very compact and you can keep it in a large pot for years. Mine grows about 4' tall in it's pot and blooms well. I am in zone 8 so I can leave it out all year. I would definately bring your clematis in the garage every winter if you are planning on keeping it in a pot. Your winters can be so severe. I have never grown the praecox but a cyclone fence should be good support in itself with out the need for a trellis. Here's a photo of my Piilu.

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Karen

my container is approx 22in deep and 22in wide. its good to know that about piilu because i will need to get a holder w/wheels so i can wheel it into the garage but do i put it into the garage at first frost (sept or oct) or wait until winter really sets in usually nov or dec...? by cyclone fence i mean a chain link fence...as for the rain i sure wish i could send some your way...and it has been a nice, slow, steady, soaking rain for two days now (maybe 2in or so but we are down nearly 5in). just mowed the grass thursday after a month of not mowing it and it needs mowing again but the southern part of the state is flooding something fierce so that has taken some wind out of my sails so to speak... i'll do the rain dance for you !!

wow karen its soooooo beautiful!! im getting the piilu because it means "little duckling" and this spring i had a set of ducks (fred and ethel) who nested in my phlox and layed half a dozen eggs and i was sooooooooo excited to have a duckling family in my fenced in yard but one day i came home from work and there was female duck carcess all over my flowerbed... it was horrible and i cried... i think a hawk or an eagle got her so immediately i was worried about the eggs in the nest so i called my brother to see if maybe his mama duck in his yard (16 ducklings) would sit on the eggs but by the next morning something got the eggs also and they were all broken much to my dismay... but for sure the dang crows got them cuz they were circling and the funny thing is i saw them and i wanted to move the eggs into the garage but i didnt... so once again i cried but that is the food chain i guess so i vowed to make some kind of tribute to poor ethel and her eggs and when i saw that piilu meant little duckling i just had to order her... so i really want to keep it for a long period of time and i want to make sure i do all the right things so just that happens. after seeing nckvilledudes pics of all his clematis i decided that clematis is for me!! hahaha, i will give it a whirl... i even got a bunch of books from the library so i can read up!! thanks a bunch for the info...

So sorry to hear about Fred and Ethel. That must have been very upsetting for you. Those poor little ducks. I am sure Piilu will be a nice tribute to your lost ducks. Your pot is a nice size and wheels would make it very easy to move back and forth. Good luck with your clematis and I hope you don't have any more bird massacres in your yard.
Karen

Izzy, the pot you have sounds great for your Piilu. Glad Karen chimed in with her experience with it. As for when to bring Piilu inside, I would wait until the plant has been hit with several frosts so that it is dormant and then bring it in. What you don't want to happen is have your plant get lightly zapped, bring the plant in, the temps stay warm enough in your garage or where ever you are planning on overwintering it and then it coming back out of dormancy. Then the plant will try to start growing again and zap energy from its reserves for next spring.

As to when exactly time wise to do this, only you can say since you know when it tends to get cold in your zone and stay that way rather than having the temps zig zag back and forth.

One trick I have used for transporting pots is the old tip and roll technique. Tip the pot over on its side and roll the pot to where ever you are taking it. Did it just this morning with some pots that I was moving around outside.

Sounds like a cyclone fence will be great for your praecox. You will have to assist it climbing through the cyclone fence but it can get to be quite a monster if you let it. It can also root along the stems where they touch the ground.