hi Eri, I am not an expert but since no one has responded I will share with you what I know! I hate to see you with no response.

I would leave the leaves so it can store up energy and cut them back in the spring when the plants first come out of dormancy. Type 3s (at least for me) die back to the ground and come back with new vines so I prune them back to about 6 inches in the spring.

I hope you enjoy your new clematis!

Thank you Michaela! I know people are too busy enjoying
their gardens and working on fall planting now, so it makes me feel all
the more grateful you took the time to comment for me in this busy
season.

And thank you for clarifying it for me. Reading
PG3 = hard pruning I thought of something like hard-pruning cane type shrubs
in dormancy hence my question of what if there is noting left with my
tiny clems right after the winter ... well, now I know that there is nothing left at that point
is quite what to expect!

Hopefully some years later I can post photos like people do when those babies (they are
Jackmanii Superba and John Huxtable) grow up and bloom!

eri54

You are very welcome - I am happy to see new people here! I am a new gardener myself since this is my third season growing clematis and I have learned a lot from others here.

I look forward to seeing pictures of your beautiful clematis! Jackmanii Superba should be worthy of showing off in no time!

No need to pinch this fall as the season left is short and if you planted the vine 2-3" deeper than the level in the pot there might not be much foliage left above ground. Planting deep protects the crown of the plant and encourages new stems to grow from the crown. Pinching encourages 2 new stems from the pinched point which gives a bushier plant but that new growth is all supported by the one stem that was pinched.

Both your clematis are prune 3 and need to be pruned hard each spring as suggested above. Since all my clems die back due to hard winters I often prune between Thanksgiving and Christmas when we have had a killing frost and there is little chance that the weather will warm enough to bring new growth until spring. I prune then to get rid of the killed dry stems and I have less work to do in the spring. You probably need to wait until spring in your area as expect you have longer periods of warmth during the winter which would bring the plant out of dormancy. Then cut back low to a new growth point, where you see a growth bud swelling. Low can be variable, I cut back to the ground or 6-12 inches depending how far back the plant has died. I suggest 8-12 inches for you. You can also check with your extension service to see what they suggest for your area.

Thank you, mnwsgal, for your detailed suggestions. It's nearly two weeks
now since my clems were planted, and the air is getting cooler around here too at night and early in the morning. So they are doing fine but
it is not like they are growing vigorously, so as you said I most certainly won't have
anything to pinch till the spring comes. Hopefully they will be
comfortable at my place and established by the time of the first frost.

Do you do anything to overwinter your clems base, like mulching thicker than usual? I read a lot about protecting their roots from heat by mulching or with base plants. Do you do the same for winter protection too?

Yes, I do add extra mulch for winter and remove it in the spring. Of course, winter is much colder here in zone 4.

Thank you. I'll do the same this winter anyway. It's warmer here than in your region but those plants/roots are still tiny, so I guess it wouldn't hurt to add extra. And will see how they will do the next spring!

Thank you NHBabs. By regular mulching you meant about 2-3 inches? That's
what I thought, but after searching online it seems different people
mean different things... (and what regular mulching means may vary by
location, actually).

If it's about a couple of inches, was it
enough to protect your plants from tough winters like the one in 2013?
Even persistent nuisances in my yard, like English Ivy, got severely
beaten up in that winter here in 6b/7a (though EI wasn't mulched of
course), so I wonder if newly planted desirable plants can survive
severe weather conditions like that with a couple of inches of mulch.

My soil is relatively well-drained, though moisture retentive, so if you have soil with a lot of clay, ignore what I say. My mulch gets put down at about 5" deep around, not over plant crowns. After a few months it has usually subsided to about 3" deep. I use shavings from DH's wood shop. The goal is to avoid freeze-thaw cycles over the winter that disrupt plant roots, so in some ways I have an advantage over you (and perhaps mnwsgal as well) in that once it gets cold here it tends to stay cold and have snow that maintains an even temperature for plants. I really only have to worry about freeze-thaw in November and April. I hope this helps . . .

Perhaps it is not necessary to add more mulch for clematis in my area as most winters we have good snow coverage. But some winters, not so much.

When I attended local gardening workshops the pros always emphasized winter mulching, but, they mostly admitted that they themselves do not add winter mulch. So, who knows? Since I collect the neighbors' shredded leaves to compost and mulch other plants around the clematis I add it to them as well. Most clematis die back to near the ground for me. My hope is that covering the prune 2 clematis well will keep more of the stems alive higher so I can get that early spring bloom on old wood. Sometimes it works.

The clematis I grow from seed and from cuttings are kept in pots and put in the ground in holding beds. These I don't want to take a chance of losing so they get completely covered by shredded leaves for the winter.

Thank youNHBabs and mnwsgal. NHBabs, I think I can apply your mulching method with good confidence. My soil is silt loam, and it's probably similar to yours w/r/t moisture retention and drainage. And even though the zone 6b/7a here potentially suffers from freeze-thaw cycles, what we often see recent years is extreme heat in summer and extreme coldness in winter. Thank you again for your helpful comments.

mnwsgal, would you mind me asking what the "holding beds" look like? Are those sort of raised beds outside?

eri

My holding beds are just patches of earth that are filled with perennials and/or shrubs that I am ' holding' until I find a place in established beds or until they have grown larger. Basically a bed that isn't for display. In the winter I use parts of my vegetable garden as a holding bed as well. Those are mostly seedlings that get planted the next spring.

Thank you, mnwsgal. That sounds like a great idea as our garage space for winter protection is getting smaller every year. I'll think about how we can start a system like yours. Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions! All greatly helpful!

eri54