In article , Paul Kelly
writes

"Tony Morgan" wrote in message
...
In message , Rachel Sullivan
writes
Plant it well & add a pipe going down to the roots (fill it with
stones) so you can pour water straight down to where it's needed.

No doubt para 4 in the Planting directions help Barkers sell more
clematis plants :-)

G. I had to look it up - even though I wrote it! Did you mean the
bit about not expecting too much in the first year, or even its second?
Of course the idea is to sell plants, but it's even more important to
give good advice. Clematis are not plants for instant gardeners -
unless you buy enormous plants to start with. We do those too.

Unless you plant with a little of the brown section at the bottom of the
stem above ground, you can get disease or rot.

I think planting deep is one of the important things about clematis and
but is most especially relevant to the large flowered hybrids. It's
certainly not as crucial for the species varieties, but even things like
the atragenes can benefit from a little depth. Horrid mouses have had a
wonderful time this winter gnawing through the stems - right at the
base, of course! But they are coming up again from below the ground.

I'm not sure what you mean about 'the brown section'. Some varieties do
have this when young but generally speaking, young plants are green and
don't develop a woody stem until much older. There are, of course,
exceptions to this - atragenes/montanas for instance.

I met a gardener here years ago who told me he plants his clematis *at
least* 12 inches deep and has never had a loss. OK if you have nice
depth of soil I suppose.

Also cut the bottom out
of a 3" or 4" pot and place upside down to keep the sun away from the
roots.

They don't care about the sun on their roots. They care about having
plenty to drink. Planting a small herbaceous plant, or even a small
shrub would give them the shade they like which helps to retain
moisture. Upside down plant pots don't look aesthetically pleasing &
the plant will still need watering as it gets established or during dry
spells.

Why are you challenging what has long been "best advice" for planting
clematis?

Clearly you do not bury all the mature stem but the site advice:

Plant deeper than the original container - not necessarily 2 or 3 inches
deeper, but as much as it takes to get at least one other set of leaf nodes
below the ground. We have done this since the plant was a cutting, and it
has been potted on at least three times since then. Do it once more!

is sound. The purpose is to ensure that there are growth buds below ground
level, hence if the plant above ground dies off from clematis wilt there are
buds available to regrow.

Not just wilt either. See mouses above. Also careless gardeners with
strimmers, kids with footballs etc. Slender stems are easily damaged.

(btw I've bought from Rachel's firm - and have another order in at the
moment - plant quality, packing and delivery were all top notch!

This is the scary thing about posting to newsgroups. You never know who
you'll run across. Glad you were pleased - but we do try to put
things right when things go wrong (as they invariably can).

--
Rachel