If they were my plants, I would sink the pots in the ground and leave them alone until you are ready to plant them in the ground in their permanent positions next year. Clematis take time to get established any time they are planted and removing them from their pots, planting them temporarily in the ground, and them digging them up once again to put them in their permanent position is going to put them back twice.

Another advantage to leaving them in their current pots and burying them in the soil is that most plants put on the most root growth in the fall as the air and soil temperatures begin cooling down. Allowing your clematis to sit in their pots over the fall and winter and into next spring will allow the plants' root balls to get larger and thereby increase their take off once planted next spring. The soil will act as an insulator and any mulch that you add with further insulate the roots allowing them to continue growing much longer into the fall and winter. Realize that root growth will continue some time after the top portion of the plants has been nipped back by frost.

Another point to consider is that it is generally advised to plant clematis in the fall in the ground so that they have a minimum of 6 weeks to get settled in before the colder weather arrives. I see you are in zone 5 and don't know exactly when colder weather arrives so to be on the safe side, I would be hesitant to remove the plants and plant them in the ground in your garden now.

As to your browned out leaves--that could be due to the plant not being watered adequately and it allowing the top portions of leaves to die off so that the plant has less leaves to lose water from via transpiration, it could be the plants response to being in a black pot sitting in the full sun at the nursery, or depending on the variety, it could possibly be clematis wilt. I would be tempted to leave the plant as it is, water it well, put the whole pot into the ground, mulch it well, and keep it watered if Mother Nature is not being cooperative. Next year, when you are ready to plant the clematis in the garden, I would cut the top growth back so that you have two or three nodes left above ground once planted, fertilize it with some slow release low nitrogen fertilizer, and see what happens.

Thank you nckvilledudes for all the information! I will take your advice and get the pots in the ground. The 2 I have are The President and Comtesse de Bouchard.

I just saw your post "First Fall Orders Arriving" and it showed me what a healthy plant should look like. These 2 should to be rushed to ICU and put on life support. They definately need some TLC. Hopefully they will make it through the winter.