I cut mine back in early spring and again after they have finished bloom. They come up from the ground just fine. At least for me in zone 5 Il.

I have no clue why it isn't awake yet, though. Do you?

It might be awake but slugs or cutworms may have chewed it. I found that on several of mine here when I looked closely.

Cutting back like you did is NOT a problem what so ever. Especially for a Type III hard prune every year like Jackmanii.

I cut into green vines every year when I prune. I never get them all done when they are fully dormant.

UPDATE:

She finally woke up! There's a tiny little nub of green at the bottom of the main stem. Phewwwwwww! What a tempermental little bugger! I'm just glad she's alive and done with her sulking.

I don't know what her problem was, but clearly she didn't like being pruned when I pruned her. Weird.

Hearty..You are in a colder zone and clematis wake up later than ours...I knew he would come back as long as you didn't damage the crown...I am happy for you!!..Jeanne

Thanks Jeanne. Even though all the others have woken up, grown, and are covered with flower buds already (weird, early spring), Jack just sat there playing dead. I don't think I've ever been so happy to see a little greeen numb. =) I'm going to go out and look at it again. lol

LOL..I know that exact feeling..I've had clematis wilt and pruned back to the soil line and phew...6 LONG weeks later new vines FINALLY start to come up.It's such a feeling of relief and joy!!...I am thrilled for you...Jeanne...ps..I've done that "looking again" thing to make sure and feel the joy

Just a little (and I mean little!) update for anyone who is interested, and for those who may end up dealing with this some day.

Green nub is still just sitting there. It hasn't grown since I noticed it 10 days ago. I wanted to wait until it grew a little before giving it fertilizer, but eventually I gave it a little tomato fert a few days ago. Nub's just sitting there surrounded by brown sticks.

I think I pruned this baby at just the wrong time. There's probably a very short window of wrong time, and I nailed it. Unfortunately, the plants that are there to cool it's roots are so big now, that they are shading nub, and it gets very little sun.

I'll continue to watch for progress.

Pruning a clematis never hurts...it's "resting" right now and will shoot up when you least expect it...Jeanne

I have never had a plant in spring stop and sulk because of a pruning. They want to grow in spring. A couple weeks ago I hacked off several group 2 clematis so I could move them. One even had buds on it. I left several of the buds on one of the plants, which continue to swell and should be opening soon. All three are growing vines despite 2 prunings and a move.

I think its little nap has more to do with it being a Jackmanii and less the timing of the prune.

I agree that the timing of the pruning is not the problem.

It is probably working on putting up a bunch more vines from the ground which takes longer.

same here ... pruning is NOT a problem. No.

I've had a clematis or two that just would not take off in spring one year. Maybe something happened to it last year... I dunno - but it eventually came along and started growing. By now I would think it would be growing though. Iwould at least move anything around the base out of the way to let air and sunlight to it... good luck

I think it might be because of the weird weather we had this year. The warmest late March/early April in a long time, and then back to cooler temps. The little green nubs you cut off had probably a jump-start, but then, because the soil was still somewhat cold, it stopped putting out stem nubs to take a rest.

I have some that hadn't shown up when others were off to a good start. First I gently moved some of the soil at the surface to see if I could little nubs that were still underground. If nothing showed then, I inverted a black nursery pot over the place where I thought the stems should be, to warm up the soil, and waited. Didn't check every day for the first week and some started showing up. I did check more often after that, but the air & soil was still sort of cold.

Might also be influenced by where in the garden it is located. My laziest ones are in a Northeast corner near the road.

I usually prune my 3s when I see Forsythias blooming, but this year I could see new growth on some vines about 3 weeks earlier.

And this is the first year I've had Narcissus bloom in March.

Marie a little South of Augusta

I prune all mine almost to the ground (just leaving one set of leaves). I also saw growth on many of mine at the time when I pruned them, so I don't think that's your issue. This year they're all growing like gangbusters, but in past years I've had several (Ramona and VV to name a couple) do exactly what you are describing. They both eventually grew, but seemed to take forever. I remember watching those little green nubs for weeks and finally they came to life. Do you have more shade in the area of your sleepy clematis this year than in past years? I've noticed the ones most shaded in my garden seem to do this more than the others.

Marie, I do think the odd spring effected this guy. It's still got just one tiny green nub sitting there doing nothing. Multi blue is in bloom, and HF Young is about to open. Julia C is covered in buds.

I know pruning helps a clem, but this dude went into serious sulk mode. The plant to the right of it is a shrub, so it's now blocking the warmest sunlight the clem gets. The base only gets about an hour or two of sunlight in the am, and then it's shaded. That's always encouraged good old Jack to climb, baby, climb. Of course it's usually a good 5-6 feet high by the time this shrub leafs out, but not this year.

Now I am sulking. Someone call me a waaaaaaaaaambulence!