I have just read recently that the best way to take cuttings of clematis is to layer them. That is to take a strong healthy stem and bury it into the soil around the plant without cutting it from the plant. cover the stem with soil or compost and weight it down. You can expect to gain a new plant from this method after approximately 1 year. Good luck

Also interested in propagating clematis from cuttings so will follow this for info,as suggested by Ff layering is said to be the easiest method and i have successfully layered clematis tangutica simply by laying a stem on the ground,covering leaf nodes with soil and laying a stone over to keep it in place.The (inter nodal) cuttings method appears straight forward but is probably better explained by someone with a little experience of this or you could google it.

Carol K. covered this very topic last Friday on Gardeners World. If using cuttings (in case you missed it) she suggested a mix of 50% peat and 50% sharp sand for rooting them.

Hi, I saw them take cuttings from Clematis too last week on gardeners world, they way they done it looked relatively easy and straight forward, if you google Gardeners world BBC i player they still have the episode available to watch but only for the next 11 days, it is the episode before the NEC in Birmingham.

Hi, I watched the Gardeners World edition which was mentioned. This was very helpful. I have taken several cuttings and am keeping my fingers crossed.

Thanks to everyone who pointed me in this direction.