About Your Plants: In order to provide the healthiest plants to you, we need to maintain the best conditions for plants growing in containers. This means cold winters for proper dormancy and regular trimming in warmer months. They may arrive recently trimmed. The stake is used to help stabilize the plants in transit as much as for growing. Some plants may naturally be much shorter than their stakes or recently trimmed. Also, some varieties are naturally leggier than others and may only have a few sets of leaves at the size shipped. We guarantee your plants will arrive healthy and are true to name.

Planting in Your Garden:Open your package carefully and remove the plants. Never pull them out by the stems or the stake. Water your plants as soon as you remove them from the box and leave them in a cool shady place until you are ready to find a home for them.
Once you have selected a location, dig a hole at least twice as big as the pot and twice as deep. In areas with poor drainage, consider a larger hole or mounding up from the ground a bit. Mix some of the soil from the hole with good topsoil and compost if you wish. The exact proportions will vary by your soil conditions. Backfill some of the hole with this mix. Remove the vine from its pot by first pushing up on the bottom of the pot and then sliding it out sideways into your other hand. Never pull on the vine or its training stake to remove it. If it doesn't slide out easily, you may roll it gently one half turn on the ground while pushing down (be gentle) to loosen the sides. Many vine roots naturally run deep (especially Clematis), so you may find that most of the roots are in the lower half of the pot. You may gently tease some of the roots away from the soil mass, but be careful not to damage them.
Place each vine on the backfill in its hole and look at the soil line of the plant and the ground. Clematis should be slightly lower than the ground level. This keeps the roots cooler and provides buds below ground if the vine should suffer a disease or infestation and you need to cut it back. Every Clematis we sell has buds below the soil line, but we'd like you to plant deeply for extra protection. Other vines should be planted at the same depth as the soil line in the pot. Fill the rest of the hole (and over the top of the old soil line for Clematis) with the mix you made earlier. Don't cart the extra away until after you water the planting area thoroughly. The soil may settle. After all filling and watering are done, you should mulch your vines carefully. This can be done with composted pine bark or other mulches, but you can also use stones or small plants at the base of the vine. If you are growing through another plant, the shade of the host plant may be enough. Remember that Clematis like moist roots!

Most vines will establish very quickly and flower within a year of planting. Others take a little longer, but they're worth the wait! The most important thing to remember is after-care. Nurture your plant while it establishes and it will reward you with faster growth and blooms! This means watering them regularly while they establish. Since they are actively growing when you receive them, they will most likely require more water than the plants already in your garden. The actual amount will depend on your climate and soil conditions.

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