I'm in south central Ontario, on the north shore of Lake Ontario, zone 5b I believe. This was a particularly bad winter in that we didn't have much snow; snow will protect the plants more when it gets really cold. Empress was dead last summer; I moved the whole plant across the yard with its drying up vine hoping it was just dying back early. I'm an eternal optimist. I keep watching the place where I planted it and nothing's happening. But I'll keep watching, because I've seen new growth from a clematis as late as June 1st.
Just like C Allanah - I took its obelisk away but haven't disturbed the area much yet. Even though I have another red flowered clemmie ready to plant in its place - C Rouge Cardinal.
Its too cold here yet to put new plants into the ground - there's a frost warning for tonight. We're okay after about the 12th of May, so I'll plant all my new clemmies next weekend - yesterday I went hunting for clematises that others have found will grow, and the only ones I could find were Rouge Cardinal and Mrs. Cholmondely. So I bought them and two others - one for a patio planter, C. Cherokee, and a 'nodding' white clemmie for the front yard, C. Gazelle, to compliment one I bought last week, C. Purpurea Plena Elegans - I'm going to plant them at the base of my flowering crab. Gosh, I hope that won't open a new kettle of worms!
Not sure where to put Mrs. Ch. yet; will have to go out and commune with nature for awhile; it'll come to me sooner or later.
