Has anyone had any success propagating clematis from cuttings? If so, what time of year did you do it, what part of the plant did you use, and what type of system did you use for the cuttings?

I had success with Montana Rubens and Dr.Ruppel. Good time is now. Just cut a 2 - 3 feet piece. Cut off the top part with young leaves. You need a semi-ripe section. Then make cuttings from this section. Each piece needs one pair of leaves. I just keep cutting in plain water and wait for roots to appear. Some of the cutting would just die, but most will produce the roots. Then plant them in little pots. They would start to grow by mid July. The most tricky part for me was to overwinter. I left them outside and lost 2/3 of them (zone 8). BTW here are a lot of videos on youtube how to make cuttings. Good luck.

Thanks for the tips. There may be a lot of YouTube videos, but that also means there is a lot of horrible misinformation to sift through. I prefer the posters on this forum since most seem to be much more experienced.

That's kind of bad news that the cuttings don't make the winter. Did you keep your cuttings in the little pots, or did you plant them in the ground before it froze? I probably won't be able to take cuttings for a month or so because my vines die back to the ground every winter and they're only about 10" high right now. I think I'll give it a try because buying plants isn't cheap!

I meant to watch on youtube the process of taking cuttings. They pretty good with that. There are good videos explaining in detail with part of the stem is suitable for rooting.

Yes, I was stupid enough to keep babies in the little pots outside. And here we don't have hard freeze. I wouldn't dare to do this in colder zones. I had 18 cuttings and wanted to experiment. In your case it is better to try layering. Just cover a piece of a bit of damaged stem with soil (cut a bit the skin of the stem) and wait till next year. Then just dig out a new plant. No worries over winter, no additional space. Cuttings are good for the plants you don't have. Layering is better for your own plants. I had success with Omoshiro and The First Lady like that.

@pirl

Sorry, I have never done cuttings, only layering.