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I have a clematis, no idea which as it was here when I arrived. It "blooms before June" so the advice is "never prune." However, my front porch needs work and I have to disentangle it and read up on what would be a good trellis for it and found a site that suggested two fence poles strung with coated wire at 10" intervals. So far so good, posts in, wire waiting, BUT I found another trellis, way too small and completely intertwined in the plant to the point that in order to separate them, either the plant or the trellis must be cut, and in many places. I don't mind sacrificing the (metal) trellis, but that leaves me with an old and heavy plant with too many stems and I can't believe I'm not supposed to trim this thing in some way.
It is an amazing bloomer, too, covered, and I mean literally covered, with blooms bigger than my hand every year, so I've been tempted not to fix it as it isn't broken, but it's a big mess and like I say, the porch railing guys are not going to be as nice to it as I am, so it's better I resolve it somehow. I also can't imagine that it's OK never to trim it in any way at all. I'm just so afraid I'll hurt it when I seems perfectly happy to me a monstrous mess.
I have a clematis, no idea which as it was here when I arrived. It "blooms before June" so the advice is "never prune." However, my front porch needs work and I have to disentangle it and read up on what would be a good trellis for it and found a site that suggested two fence poles strung with coated wire at 10" intervals. So far so good, posts in, wire waiting, BUT I found another trellis, way too small and completely intertwined in the plant to the point that in order to separate them, either the plant or the trellis must be cut, and in many places. I don't mind sacrificing the (metal) trellis, but that leaves me with an old and heavy plant with too many stems and I can't believe I'm not supposed to trim this thing in some way.
It is an amazing bloomer, too, covered, and I mean literally covered, with blooms bigger than my hand every year, so I've been tempted not to fix it as it isn't broken, but it's a big mess and like I say, the porch railing guys are not going to be as nice to it as I am, so it's better I resolve it somehow. I also can't imagine that it's OK never to trim it in any way at all. I'm just so afraid I'll hurt it when I seems perfectly happy to me a monstrous mess.
That advice is wrong. You can prune every clematis. I have several and prune whenever I want, as long as they are finished blooming. You can cut it down to 6 inches if you want. It WILL come back.
I trim my clematis plants back every autumn after they've gone dormant for the winter, never had any problems with them growing back vigorously each spring.
That advice is wrong. You can prune every clematis. I have several and prune whenever I want, as long as they are finished blooming. You can cut it down to 6 inches if you want. It WILL come back.
Yes, it will. An established clematis is very tolerant of pruning.
Thank you. (Tried to rep, wouldn't let me.) As long as I'm not going to kill it, I'm all for a seriously good trim. I kind of have no choice, but now I'll have no fear.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ChessieMom
That advice is wrong. You can prune every clematis. I have several and prune whenever I want, as long as they are finished blooming. You can cut it down to 6 inches if you want. It WILL come back.
I did that with one of mine, it has large purple blooms. We were going to have the house painted, so I cut it back to about 6", and the next year it grew up to about 8' again with plenty of blooms.
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That advice is wrong. You can prune every clematis. I have several and prune whenever I want, as long as they are finished blooming. You can cut it down to 6 inches if you want. It WILL come back.
