wilt or just the result of too much rain?

A little background first: I am still a relative newbie and the clematis in question was one of the first things I planted when I started out 4 years ago. I bought it at HD end of season clearance (first mistake, probably) and stuck it in the ground against a piece of fencing with slats that were much too wide (altho I didn't know that at the time). It was labeled Jackmanii but I don't know if that was correct as it has never bloomed. However, I have managed not to kill it and this year with a new black aluminum trellis and much organic fertilizer it has grown and grown. No signs of bloom yet though, and the other day I noticed that some of the leaves are looking rusty. From what I read about clematis wilt, it is something that drought-weakened plants are susceptible to, and any of you also living in the midwest know that we have not had that problem lately! Plus nothing on this plant is turning shriveled and dying. So is it some other kind of fungus? Something I should prune off? Any advice is greatly welcomed and appreciated!

I'm not too far from you so I know our spring was awful -- cold and damp mostly, right?

Just nip off the infected leaves. Cean your nippers well after the cuts.

i use my fingers to take off brown, yellow type leaves vs nippers. pinch it with my thumbnail against a finger. it is faster, when you have a lot of leaves to remove. i use tiny nippers to nip clem stems when there is a wilted stem. i nip the stem with a scizzor type nipper vs a bypass pruner type nipper about every 4 or 5 inches and pull out those small pieces, which is usually pretty easy.

after heavy rains there are usually yellowing leaves at the bottom of the clems. fertilizers and mildew sprays can spot the leaves also.

jc, i just looked at the photo. that is most likely from a product or possible excess water. very minor to the looks of it, i would n't even pinch them off unless it really bothers you.

Looks almost like a chemical burn of sort..could you have possibly gotten your fertilizer or something else on the leaf?..I agree with Deb..The leaf is ok..I would leave it unless it just really bothers you...Jeanne

Crud, I wish I would have checked this again earlier . . . oh well. I did snip a few of the leaves off. I only use manure to fertilize, but my DH did spray weeds in the lawn one day last week . . . I told him I thought it was too windy but he did it anyway; could that have been it? At any rate, I didn't cut off that many leaves, not enough to make a visible difference anyway. Wish the darn thing would bloom!

yes could have been the mist of weed killer. or just the weather bottom leaves frequently show "ageing" of some sort, they have been around longer! if it was weed killer there might have been vine total wilt.
i have a lot of clems and every day as i walk around and look or check or do other tasks i am pinching off leaves,,,,,it is a constant talks on some clems in some times of year.

good luck and enjoy your clems!

My clematis Ernest Markham gets this every year. It starts at the bottom, and by August it's completely brown. It is not from chemicals. The nursery owner knows quite a lot about plant diseases, and I took him some leaves recently. He told me it is not fungal. He thinks it's a phosphorus deficiency. I've tried high-phosphorus bat guano, Tiger Bloom, a liquid starter fertilizer... all with no results.

Could it be some other deficiency? We have alkaline soil (pH 7.8-8.3) amended with compost. It continues to produce blooms even after it turns completely brown.

some clems are genetically weak, or sick in a way that can not be cured, they do not have the ability to uptake minerals and nutrients form the soil, or fertlizers correctly.
the percentage is relatively small, i would say right now out of over 400 clem plants(representing almost 300 cutivars) i have maybe 4 that have some similar type of weakness that shows in the color or vigor. they are alive, but barely. some are a foot high, one 3 or 4 ft high. mine include duchesss of e, belle of w and a protues and ernest markham. and an ernest m that may not be thriving but is doing well i have other duchess and proteus that thrive, so it is just a genetic roll of the dice.
i am going to destroy mine vs continuing to care for them.

Very interesting.