Dee, you can always pinch out the growing tips to encourage branching. Other than that you should be good to go for now.

It should do okay in a container as long as it is pretty large. I would go for a minimum of 24 by 24 or so. The larger the better. In your hot zone, anything smaller is going to require constant watering. You also might want to use that potting soil that has water absorbing moisture granules to help out. Afternoon shade will also help.

When you pinch you just take out the very tips to the next set of leaves. Might only be an inch.

Great advice! Thank you both! I'll get to the store and buy a very large container to put it in. Oh, and I always use Miracle Grow Moisture Control for all my plantings.

Should I mulch the it?

Thanks,
Dee

Dee, I have found that mulching the tops of my large containers does help to keep in the moisture. I'm sure that you already know that even with all of these measures the pot's will require water more often. Sometimes I have to water the pots twice a day when it is really, really hot.

Carol

I'd know that pot any where..LOL..looks like the ones I get from GardenCrossings.com
I dig a hole in my garden and drop the pot in and pull the soil back up around it..this helps to keep it moist in my hotter zone ..just remember to water...then come fall...I pull up the pots and plant where I want them..

Dee, I tend to mulch the tops of all my pots for moisture conservation purposes.

Carol, if you use large enough pots, watering once a day is all I have ever done even with pots sitting in full sun. That with top mulch and using the moisture control potting mix has done the job for me. Maybe your further south location necessitates watering twice daily!?!

Thanks everyone for the wonderful advice.

And Jeanne, you are too funny! Garden Crossings is exactly where I ordered them from! I can't believe you recognized it from the pot! Thanks for the advice about planting them in the pots until Fall. But don't the roots grow out the bottom of the pot or get root bound? Or do they just stay dormant?

Thank you all again!
Dee

Dee, Jeanne was telling you how to store the clematis until fall if you were going to plant it in the ground then. Depending on the vigorousness of the plant and how long it is in the ground, it is very possible that the roots could grow out the holes in the pot.

Miguel is right Dee...that is what I do with them when I go bonkers and order online when they have their specials and it's too hot to plant or when I buy those itty bitty liner ones from Lowe's and repot up into a one gallon and allow them to live like that all growing season until fall..that really let's them get a good rootsystem..yes the roots grow out the bottom..but it doesn't hurt them ..I've got 7 from Gardencrossings sunk in my garden right now awaiting cooler weather and my new design to be finished for them to have their home!!...Jeanne

Miquel, I have pots of all sizes. From one gallons with babies growing roots to huge pots with established roses in them. They only require watering twice a day in the hottest part of the summer, like now. We watered in the evening Monday night, by lunchtime yesterday some of the plants soil was dry and the buds were drooping over. Of course, it was 102 degrees yesterday with a heat index of 107. Most of these pots are in partial shade too :-).

Dee, I always have a bunch of plants in pots waiting to be planted. I do the same as Jean and plant them out when 1) they have established their roots and are large enough to fend for themselves with the established plants in the garden or 2) weather is more conducive to being outside and for survival of the plant. I had a potted clematis that I had plopped under a rose last year so that it would have some shade. The roots grew out of the pot and into the ground but it was unharmed and didn't miss a beat when I moved it to the place I had planned for it.

Carol

Carol, 97 so far here today and the pots are still moist after being watered yesterday eveing. I think that pots with roses in them are going to be different than similarly sized pots with clematis in them. Tomorrow promises to be even hotter here with forecasts (guesses in my estimation) of 100+. I am ready for this sh*t to be over with and for some rain! The water bill arrived today and it was 3X the amount of the last one! :O

I think that you are right Miquel. The roses have much denser root systems and are notorious water hogs. According to the weather channel, you guys have had nearly the same temps as S.C so I don't think it can be attributed to temperature alone. Happily, once in the ground the clematis don't mind receiving the same amount of water the roses receive.

This heat literally makes me feel ill. I am ready for fall, cooler temps and hopefully some rain. It has rained all around us all summer(mostly pop up showers) and has totally missed us time after time. We have one of those remote weather stations at our house and the temperature is always higher here than the "official" temp for our area. I wonder where they come up with those numbers and they never get the weather forecast right either.

We water constantly just trying to keep everything alive. Our water bill is obscene.

Carol

Okay, I'm going to put my new Florida Sieboldii, pot and all, in my garden were it's somewhat shady. I'll replant it when the temps cool off some.

I can't believe how darn hot it is all over the country! The only thing is, you guys will begin cooling off in September or so. We won't get any cool weather until hopefully Halloween time! We have, thank goodness, gotten rain lately. It poured hard today. But the downfall to getting several days of good rain is that all the plants start expecting daily water! Even the established plants.

I'd love to trade places with anyone up north in the mountains though! Or maybe the upper west coast! Oh well, just dreaming. One of these days I'll get my dream and move into the mountains!

Dee

Carol, it topped out at 100 degrees here today. Obscenely hot and depressing. I have always hated summer for that very reason. If we got rain, it would be more tolerable, but without it, I would just as soon not have summer!

It has been overcast here every morning for two weeks. We have had some high temps and sun but less than normal.

Consider yourself lucky BorS. Any type of cloud cover would be welcome here. Supposed to top out at 100+ here again today and cool down into the 90s for the weekend--what a cool spell! Watering has become a nightmare even with drip irrigation. No real rain in the foreseeable forecast either!!

My Florida Sieboldii is really doing well since I put it in the ground! It's putting out a couple of nice long stems! I'm still not sure where to plant it and my other one once the temps cool a bit. It would be perfect if I could grow them in containers.

So I think I'll take Miguel's advice and get a couple of huge containers. That way I can put them at the top of my deck and let them grow both ways on my privacy fence with the lattice on top.

I think I'm hooked! I want to order several more! Jeez, I already have several different plants that need to be planted, including my Rose of Sharon, Red Plumeria, Angel Trumpet, plus several I need to re-pot, like my Desert Rose, a new beautiful peach rose, a Hydrangea. And that's just all I can think of off the top of my mind. But it's just too darn hot to do anything right now. Recently, we got a thunderstorm with a downpour, and I took that opportunity to run out and plant my Florida Seiboldii into my garden! It was so much cooler and more comfortable.

Thanks all!

Dee

Dee, glad to be of help. Let us see your plant in its full glory. The plant is probably enjoying being in the ground since the ground can serve as an insulator and the roots will be cooler than sitting above ground and experiencing the air temps.

I concur with the heat. Florida may be hot but you do tend to get those afternoon pop up thunderstorms that do provide some relief. If you are anywhere near the coast, you also get some relief from the breezes that seem to occur naturally along the coast.

I do not consider my self lucky. I already have to put up with nine months of gray skies and to have my summmer be gray also is truly depressing. :(

I could easily put up with gray skies if I didn't have to worry about constantly watering! I could even put up with heat if there was consistent rainfall. To me, late summer is the most demoralizing and depressing time of year due to the aforementioned conditions.

buyorsell - yes, the gray we've had lately has been irritating, but for some reason it's made my clematis completely take off. They're growing so quickly you can practically WATCH new leaves unfurl. It's crazy!