Clematis woes

[mommybear1]

Hello

I potted up a Clematis in the hope it would rapidly grow along a trellis to hide a wall. All started well it had some beautiful white flowers on it but the actual growth rate of the Clematis has not increased. I attach a picture of the sad looking fellow - any ideas what I am doing wrong? How can I help it to grow? Many thanks

It is a spring flowering clematis, it needs a prune down to the trellis line. Drastic I know! But it will then bulk up for next year. Water and feed it throughout the summer.

It doesn’t look sad at all to me but I don’t think the choice of a pot is a wise one, small wall pots like that are not suitable for large plants like clematis, the roots will fill it in no time.
The soil already looks dry in the photo.

The OP doesn’t state when you bought it so I don’t know if it is spring flowering or not but my understanding is that spring flowering clematis are all group 1 or 2 and need very little, if any pruning.
Also, the most popular spring flowering clematis tend to be Montana’s which grow HUGE, like seriously enormous, like cover your whole house enormous.
So the pot will absolutely not be suitable, it will need a much bigger pot.

I find that climbers like clematis and honeysuckle can take a while to get going, it is probably adjusting and you’ll see more rampant growth next year.

Thank you @Beebumble2 and @TheDiddlyGang. My DF brought it for me so I am unsure if it's a spring clematis. I actually have two, one is planted in soil to grow up another part of the wall and that also looked a bit sad. I have been watering and feeding them both I have my fingers crossed I'll see some growth next year then I'll keep plugging away. Diddlygang thank you for the advice on the pot I have no way to ground that clematis so I will look for a much larger pot for it. DF tells me confidently it's not a Montana but I shall wait and see .

Definitely a bigger pot, and plant it deeply.

Clematis like roots in shade and face in sun.