Clematis: jackmanii "growth year" advice needed!, 1 by koshki

koshki wrote:
Here are the other two clems I repotted last Friday.

Bijou is in the same 7" deep pot I put the jackmanii in. I tried to bury it a bit, but it had so many tiny leaves on the new shoots that I was afraid I'd cut off the shoots instead. I reused a small trellis that came with my Ruutel...see Honey, I really DON'T need to throw all that stuff away!

The Omoshiro is in a 2 gallon pot (it came in a 1 gallon pot with lots of nice, healthy roots.) If you look to the right in the background, that is where I will eventually plant this (assuming it likes this spot), but for now I'm just going to set it on the ground behind the hardy geraniums which are just forward of this shot.

I did bury quite a bit of the plant, but still have all this top growth. It was pinched back at least once, but the growth on the bamboo pole is kind of spindly...do you think I should pinch that back? I was thinking of pinching it about in the middle of the pole...that would give it two sets of leaves after the last pinch, and there are a couple of nubs next to the leaves that look like they might grow. Or is it too late to pinch it back?