I bought a lovely purple cleome at a plant fair this year. I want to see if I can get it to self seed as it's so pretty. Also It's in quite a small pot at the moment and I saw a beautiful display of them in a huge pot in a local town yesterday - made me think it might need more room!
When is a good time to plant it in the garden and will it survive? I'm in the mountains in SE France with colder winters (-10 is normal, and plenty of snow) and (usually) hotter summers than the U.K. I've heard they like it dry but was thinking of planting it on the slightly wetter side of the garden - it still gets a good 8 hours of sun a day, and we can go weeks with no rain and temps around 30 in a normal summer. It would get more afternoon sun in the garden than in its pot on the terrace.
Considering a bigger pot now then garden later, or plonking it in the garden in its pot... bad idea?
Subsidiary question - it's been raining for weeks here 
and its leaves are going yellow. I'm presuming this is due to lack of sun or just too much water in the air? It's not dry!
Soil in the garden is on the chalky side.
Thanks very much!