Clematis Clarkena

Hi,

I am fairly new to gardening so I need all the expert advise that I can get.

Back in April I planted two Clematis Clarkena (Winter Beauty) plants each side of a gateway allowing them to sprawl over a trellis to add to privacy in my back garden.

I was amazed at how well they established and how vigorously they did their job.

I was also very excited when small flower buds started to appear in early November.

This excitement has now given way to concern as it seems that nearly all these nice big juicy buds are falling off. My back yard is littered with the remains.

There are still a few buds left on the plants at the moment.

Also, I have noticed that some of the older top most leaves have a sort of rust problem and wither, although there is lots of fresh new shoots and leaves developing in other places.

Is all of this normal for this plant?

On a separate note I also have a Chocolate Vine, which since planting has been extremely vigorous until about a month or so ago when the leaves started to drop after turning yellow then brown. Some fell off that were still green and now the plant is almost completely bare.

I know it is a semi-evergreen but again is this normal?

Thank you.