Conflict of interest?

Did you get your plants? I got mine yesterday. WOOHOO! Two of them look a little rough, but are otherwise ok.

I'm expecting my order too. I haven't been notified yet, but, ........

I've got a question. Are any of you planning on potting up the bands into gallon size pots over winter or are you going to plant them directly into the ground?

I had not considered potting mine up until I had such great luck when I potted up some small plants I had gotten on clearance at a big box store which are growing madly!

Robert

I haven't been notified that my order is shipping but I expect to pot mine into gallons. Mostly because I'm not sure yet where to plant them. My yard is small and full already.

I wasn't notified that plants were shipping. I checked they day they arrived and it still doesn't show that my order shipped.

I'm planting mine where they'll grow next year.

Sorry, I was out of town on family emergency.

Yes, I received them on Friday. Considering they were in the UPS system for 5 days they looked pretty good. Little Nell was the worst as far as leaves went. The root systems on half were great, the other half left a lot to be desired. In my opinion, the more popular 1's had the least root system. Since this is my 2nd experience with mail order clematis, I would have to say it went pretty good.

I'm not for the hooha of having to pot these up to get the bigger root systems since planting directly in the ground has been a good success for ME...time will tell if I should have done otherwise.

Robert, I have done both. It depends on what kind of root system they have when they arrive or like BorS said, whether I know where I am going to put them. If they have tiny root systems, I pot them up for sure.

Carol

I wonder why they've sent your order that early. I asked them when they will send my order (zone 6/7, MD). They told me that it'll be sent according to their schedule (mid September to mid October).

This is the schedule I received when I placed my order with them:

This email is to confirm the receipt of your recent order from Chalk Hill Clematis.

OUR SHIPPING SCHEDULES
=======================
PLANT items: Your order will be shipped when planting conditions are optimal.

SHIPPING TIMES:
1. AZ, CA, FL, OR, WA: March through June and September through Mid-November.
2. AL, GA, LA, MS, SC, TX, AR, KY, NC, OK, NM, TN, VA: April through June and Mid-Sept. through October.
3. CT, DC, MA, MD, NJ, RI, WV: Mid-April through June and Mid-September through
October.
4. IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MO, NE, NY, NV, OH, PA, UT: Mid- April through June and
Mid-September through October.
5. CO, ID, ME, MN, MT, ND, NH, SD, VT, WI, WY: May through June and Late-Aug. through September.
6. AK: May

*Shipping periods may change depending on weather in your area.

As far as the email on my order being shipped, it came from UPS themselves, NOT Chalk Hill. The email was titled UPS Quantum View. Maybe check your spam box to see if it got filtered.

I got my email yesterday, but I am not too happy. They left the nursery Monday night around 8pm, but they are not scheduled to arrive here until SEPTEMBER 2! The day AFTER Labor Day, when I have to be at work.

Between 2 orders, there will be 15 boxes, or about a hundred pounds. And after 7 days in a truck they might be very crispy critters. And I paid as much for the shipping as for the plants.

I can just see myself next Tuesday night, opening 15 boxes with one hand, with the watering can in the other as it is starting to get dark.

I'll try to talk my boss into a vacation day if not too many others are taking a longer weekend.

Marie

Marie, that is terrible! Especially with their ridiculously high shipping charges...

I asked them to send my plants as early as possible because we will leave for vacation. I have not received any reply...

EEEWWWW, Marie! I'd try to intercept them at a UPS hub. I've tried that before with 1/2 success, all in the timing.

I don't want to scare you, but mine being in the UPS system for 5 days was too much. I got them planted & watered before I had to leave town Friday nite for a family emergency. I came home to see that a few of them are looking worse than when I received them. It wasn't from lack of attention, they looked miserable when they arrived. Only 2 out of the 10 I ordered are like this. A few of the others are just too small to tell where planting them deep covered up the leaves. A major shipping error on their part knowing labor day this weekend.

Good news is that it has been unusually cold around here which should help a lot in transit.

These are the 1's I ordered & I hope this will help people on what to expect if they ordered the same (all planted 3" deeper than the container):

Juuli: Made the trip nicely, good size with still 8" above ground. Still looks good today.

Tie Dye: 5" tall. Looked OK out of the box & has now lost the majority of it's leaves & the stems have wilted back.

Harlow Carr: Very small. Planted it with only 2 leaves above the ground. OK, so far.

Hanajima: Looks good, but small. 3" above ground & looking good.

Lord Herschell: Completely buried, can't tell.

Viola: 3" tall, the top leaves dried up & fell off. 1 set still above ground. Stem looks good.

Scottii: Completely buried, can't tell.

Vanessa: Looks really good with new growth already coming on.

Little Nell: Horrible! Coming out of the box you knew it was in trouble. Lost all leaves & stems look wilty but still green.

Aotearoa: 8" out of the ground. Looks great with new growth coming on.

I was in such a hurry to make sure I got everything planted & watered before I left to go out of town I didn't document the root systems on each 1. Like I said before, it seemed the more popular 1's had the smaller root systems.

I left Friday nite & came back Sunday after dark. Monday morning's analysis is what I mentioned above & as well as the way they still look like today. I watered again on Monday & once more today & they still look the same. Tie Dye is the 1 that has surprised me the most.

According to their website, once you order they put your name on that particular plant. I ordered way late so I'm sure I didn't get the best of the best.

I ordered on June 15 and 17. Did not hear or received anything as of now. For those of you who have received your orders when did you ordered yours?

I ordered a few days after the announcement was posted here. I wish they would have waited to ship mine. They ended up shipping during the hottest week of the year. Two of the three have PM. I'm pretty disappointed.

I hope the rest of you have better luck.

7/14 is when I got the confirmation email from them on my order. You are in IL, & according to the previous post, it won't start shipping for you til mid Sept.

Update based off my previous post:

All are looking good except:
Tie Dye - no signs of life at all.
Lord Herschell - still nothing

Surprising:
Little Nell - Looked the worst coming out of the box & she is now making a fine recovery with new growth & all

Scottii: Poking leaves up out of the ground now.

Marie, how did yours end up panning out?

I ordered shortly after the sale started also, and received 4 of mine the day after Labor Day, and the last two came the next day. They were all really dry, as you would expect, and several had long whitish new growth, but only one looked really bad. I put them in a shaded spot for a couple of days, and they're now in a semi-shaded spot, and I expect all to recover fine. I'd say I'm pretty pleased with their condition, especially having been on the road for over a week.

I must add that I finally got around to planting mine yesterday. The roots looked great and all three had new shoots.

I won't receive mine for another 1-4 weeks, I guess. So if I choose to pot them up in 1 gallons, winter will be around the corner. I don't have the area prepared where I plan to plant them. Sooo....would you recommend:

Keeping them in 1 gallon pots in the garage or

Planting the container in the ground until Spring?

I got an email today that mine were shipped yesterday and I should get them tomorrow. I am supposed to leave on a business trip tomorrow so I sure wish I would have had more notice, I would have asked them to wait to ship them.

Well, I did get the day off, and around 1 PM the UPS van arrived with the 15 boxes, The driver agreed that they should not have been shipped at the time they were. Before he drove away, I did manage to get one box open & could tell him "they ARE alive". And in the last box I opened Aeoteara had a flower.

I was surprised how well they looked, because the shipment I got from Joy Creek in Oregon in June came totally dried out. I don't know how long they were in transit. But of those, 5 of the 6 perked up shortly, the type 3s before the 2s. Two of the 2s & one of the 3s have flowered already, but one Denny's Double, has wilted after producing one flower. But I am pretty sure it will come back, They were in gallon sized pots and I haven't had a chance to unpot them yet. I did some digging in the pot that still shows no growth, Yamato, a 2, but the roots look ok. So it might put out a little green before frost, or next Spring.

Back to CH. Took most of the rest of the PM to unpack & water, and then pick off the worst of the brown leaves. Murray had written a note that 2 were rather skimpy on top, but he thought they would be ok when in the ground. I put all of the skinny pots in empty gallon pots to stabilize them, adding a few rocks where necessary. Didn't want the cats to knock any one over.

Ophelia, some of yours must have shared a truck with mine for most of the trip. A few had the pale spindly new stems you described. They got put in the shadiest spot I had for the first few days. I gave them all a drink after work for the next few days, except when we had a downpour.

I had done a preliminary triage of which had roots showing through the bottom of the pots, but didn't get to unpot anything until this weekend. I just squeezed the plants into the gallon pots & poured the potting mix they came in over the roots for now. A few with the heaviest roots did get planted Monday, when I took another day off.

A few are still in the shipping pots, placed in the planters or empty holes where other clems had spent the Winter but had to be moved to the "hospital" area for more sunshine to bring them back to life or, in too many cases, had to be discarded because the roots had rotten beyond hope.

I've seem quite a bit of new green growth on most of them, but Matka Theresa has lost all her leaves, so I am leaving here alone & praying she will recover.

Overall, I am pleased, but wish I had more time off to do all the planting & potting that is left to do.

Marie

Mine have still not shown up. The UPS tracking still shows that they received the billing information so I hope this means they haven't actually been shipped. Otherwise they've been in transit for a week at this point.

Since I live in OR and they ship from CA this would be very odd.

Mine came today. The email said they were shipped Wednesday. Two of them look great, one looks ok, one looks iffy. Soil was nicely moist.

I received them yesterday. I'm not impressed. They are tiny.
I have not mail ordered Clematis before but they look like what you see in two/three inch pots not quarts or gallons.

Since they are closing up shop, I'm wondering if they are offering replacements on the ones that look dead? I am really concerned about Tie Dye...still not any life to him. I'm trying not to give up hope knowing these may just perk up next year but that will be too late to find out. Anyone know how long the guarantee goes for?

Their website says they will not be able to offer replacements but will give refunds if the complaint is made within 5 days of receipt and verified with a digital photo.

How did the roots look when you bare rooted it? If the roots were not dried up then your Tie Dye should still be ok. If you buried it deeply, the new growth could be under the soil surface.

I was surprise by how fast mine put on new growth even though they all looked dead or near-dead when I planted them.

All 10 of my purchases the roots were still moist so there is a lot of hope. 5 of the 10 I am really concerned about. It is way too late for me to get a refund if it only lasts 5 days. I will just keep watering, watering, watering & hope for the best next season. If I lose them, that is quite a bit of money to throw down the drain.

Be careful to not let the soil get soggy. That will kill them for sure.

Dry roots are unacceptable, but I've had some pretty sad looking and very tiny bareroot clematis from the box stores survive. Clematis are hardy plants.

I agree with Janet. Clematis are not Roses, they do not need constant watering. Planting them deep and mulching are usually enough. You will get a crown rot in soggy soil.

Of course I know better...it was just a figure of speech to keep watering what appears to be dead.

I do need to get on the mulching factor here pretty quick. I was waiting to get all my fall plants in the ground which should be by the end of next week. It is one of my favorite gardening chores...I just love the smell!!!!!

I have emailed them 2x. I have a huge order . They answered my first email and said they ship to this part of the country beginning 9/18 . That was back a couple weeks ago. Then I e-mailed 2 days ago and asked if they would please make sure they were not in transit for so long that I had to fear for the plants. I have not heard anything back. I have my fingers crossed. I hope they don't get "mad" at me for my obsessive concern. After reading here about how tenuous some of the plants seemed I got worried.

I always use root stimulator on the plants and have had great success so far. I of course only have 2 years experience with clems. I am XXX my fingers. Caroline

I received email that for me it starts shipping Sep 15 but so far I heard nothing and am getting worried. My season is about done and if the clems are tiny as you described it is really not worth my effort to try to keep them alive.
I have never ordered from them before but read happy comments so I placed significant order even that S&H was almost not worth the deal.
We have colder weather coming next week...

I'm sure you must be getting frustrated, but most, if not all of your clematis will make it. The previous 2 years I planted clematis at the last minute. One year it was snowing when I was planted, and last year we had 6 inches of snow the day after planting. All 25+ clematis made it through the winter. I live 5 hours north of you.

Just follow good planting practices, such as making sure the soil is firmly pressed in around the roots, check soil moisture periodically if your not getting rain, and make sure the soil around the base of the vines is not lower than the surrounding soil, mulch and everything should be fine.