I have tried 3 times, same spot. West side of deck, planted behind a daylily, trained to climb up and across deck. First plant was 'Apple Blossom', followed by 'Snowdrift.' Apple Blossom made it through one season, then turned brown with wilty leaves. I thought Snowdrift might be hardier. It did OK for a year or two, then same thing with the brown wilty leaves. I cut back everything that looked ugly and was surprised to find the remaining single strand recovered and revegged itself. But now, in the last few weeks it's getting brown wilty leaves. I'm thinking maybe something is in the soil (fungus?) so will plan to rip out and replace with something else I guess. Any ideas what might be causing this?

First of all, I am no expert on Clematis. From what I've read about them some do get that wilty condition which may be from overwatering.
OR, your soil in that spot may have Verticillium Wilt which is a soil borne fungus that inhibits water intake. Not all plants are affected by it (as is evidenced by the fact that your daylilies look fine.)
If 3 clematis have failed in that spot I would suspect VW and try to grow something else.

Hi,
This is the nature of your evergreen Armandi. Some shade in your position or cold drying winds in winter time will give you ugly brown leaves hanging on the plant for a long time. Try to find a better position for it or replace with a better clematis. What do you like the most in your Armandi evergreen leaves or fragrant flowers? If it is flowers there are many other fragrant clematises like Montanas, Rehderiana, Crispa, Baleatica.

I planted it with the idea of having an evergreen vine at the bottom of my deck that would also frame the garden below the deck. The flowers are nice, although kind of plain jane white for me. I never noticed a fragrance, which is not to say it doesn't have one. I liked Apple Blossom better but it seemed to thrive even less than Snowdrift. I will try moving it somewhere or the other, it looked just as ugly last year but then recovered so maybe it is a siting issue rather than disease. I saw an evergreen honeysuckle at the nursery, that may be a good alternative, although I'm not sure if it will cover as well as a clematis. I do love the fragrance of honeysuckle.

Update: I dug out the ill-looking clem and replaced it with Virginia creeper. While this won't give me the evergreen look I was after, it will turn pretty in the fall.