If it makes you feel any better, I lost my King George V too. I couldn't even find the roots. That is first one I lost planting in the ground. I should have potted it up and kept in the garage or in the window well. I don't know if that would have made a difference though. I also bought Bourbon. There were no signs of life, so I dug it up and saw 2 little white nubs at the crown. Hopefully, they grow into vines.

I saw a clematis that looked very similar to King George. Not quite as elegant, but still very pretty. I'm blanking on the name right now. That happens when I look at photos of clematis for hours.

One thing that is fun to do is to Clematis on the Web and do a search. Keep in mind though, that many of the clematis are not available. Any easy way to find availability of a clematis is to go to Help Me Find.

Thanks, janetpetiole. I have actually searched Clematis on the Web -- like you, I can roam around there for hours. Searches for "soft pink" produced zero results, and even "pink" plus a group name, not as much as I would have expected. If the name of the one you saw comes back to you, please let me know. I didn't know about "Help Me Find" -- thanks for the tip.

I haven't yet had the courage to dig up any of my clems to see how they're doing. Since I'm quite sure my King George is history, I might as well start with it -- but do you or anyone else have advice on how to do it gently so as not to kill off something that might be alive? How far down do the roots tend to go when the clem is still young?

Hi Cohouser,
I dug up all Clematis I received from Chalk Hill last fall that did not wake up. If you want to investigate what is going on with your KGV, you can gently scratch the soil off above the crown first. Just do it slowly and carefully. I did not dig a hole more than 10-12" in diameter to completely remove the plant from the ground. If the crown of the Clematis had some sprouts, I just covered it back with dirt. It is much easier if you have some last year dry vines - you know where to dig. Some of Chalk Hill plants did not have any top growth, so I was especially careful with those.
I have too many new Clematis to be planted, so I can not wait any longer for the CH Clematis to wake up.
I reported about the result in this thread. Sadly, King George V is also among two Clematis that look dead. I potted it up. Sometimes, Clematis stay dormant for a long time. I am going to wait for a month or two. Still hope for the best.

Thanks, alina. I'm about to go out to the back yard, trowel in hand.

Just do a picture search on pink. You'll get a lot of photos.

Thanks! 337 photos, and some possibilities, but I haven't seen any of them for sale anywhere, that I can remember anyway. Will gallop off for another search of the nurseries. There's nothing out there close to Chalk Hill in terms of variety, is there? Maybe Silver Star is the closest? I'm still a newbie here.

Try Joy Creek. They sell quite a large assortment as well as Silver Star and Brushwood Nursery.