I have a C. scottii that I planted in 2012. It is planted on a southwestern slope since I wanted it to drain well. It doesn't get any supplemental water. The bed it's in is a fine sandy loam in texture lightly amended with composted horse manure since my soil is fairly acid and I wanted to temper that somewhat. It has survived, but isn't much larger than when planted, probably due to the thuggish Nepeta that has tried to overwhelm it every year. I either need to remove the Nepeta or move the clematis. Most of the bed it's in has a mulch of fine woodchips, but the C. scottii and its near neighbors are mulched with sand to decrease winter wet around the plants' bases. The drainage seems adequate since most of the plants in this area are hardy SW natives such as Penstemon pinifolius and several other western penstemons, a couple of the hardiest western Agastaches such as A. rupestris and cana, and a dry loving poppy whose name I can't remember offhand.

Is ABQ for Albuquerque? (you might want to add NM for those of us who aren't familiar with that abbreviation to save us having to look it up.) If so I bought mine from High Country Gardens which is in your general area, so it should grow well.

Thanks for your input! I'm going to try a few of the sugarbowls. I planted two last year, in the almost pure sand that passes for soil here, and with a gravel mulch. One survived. I want to try more! I have no problem keeping plants dry, but I don't want them to rot if they are sensitive to organics in the soil. If they grow for you, I should be able to grow in either my dry bed (gravel mulch) or the moist bed (soil amendments and wood chip mulch with irrigation).