Certainly not! In my Belgian garden I treated all group 2s as group 3s as the winters froze their top growth anyway and it just mean they flowered later but longer. Couldn't grow a group 1 alpina or macropetala and had to give up on winter flowering cirrhosas as they got frozen too but a Red Ballon and a Red Robin were great.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Richard, I'm keen to get it right because last year I obviously pruned the Nelly Moser at the wrong time because it only produced one flower. If I prune it in Feb will it still flower, and as I am in North Aberdeenshire should I wait a bit?
What are the thoughts on nipping off the fuzzy middle bits of the flowers that are left just now? I'm not a neat freak (you should see the rest of the garden!) but the first clematis is one of the first things you see on approaching the house. My mum once said I should remove spent flowers as otherwise I would be surrounded by clematis seedlings, but I've never found this to be the case.
I tend to nip off most of the spent flowers but if the seeds (presumably that's what they are) are beneficial to wildlife then I will leave them
No longer newish but can't think of a new name so will remain forever newish.
I think it would be a good idea to prune your Nelly Moser hard back in February, it will flower later with smaller flowers, but, your plant should develop more flowering stems and obviously more flowers, you could revert back to the Group 2 pruning regime the year after if you wanted. I collect most of the seeds from the clematis here and sow them, well worth the effort as you never know what you will end up with, Nelly Moser seeds do not produce Nelly Moser clematis.
Posts
Certainly not! In my Belgian garden I treated all group 2s as group 3s as the winters froze their top growth anyway and it just mean they flowered later but longer. Couldn't grow a group 1 alpina or macropetala and had to give up on winter flowering cirrhosas as they got frozen too but a Red Ballon and a Red Robin were great.
Richard, I'm keen to get it right because last year I obviously pruned the Nelly Moser at the wrong time because it only produced one flower. If I prune it in Feb will it still flower, and as I am in North Aberdeenshire should I wait a bit?
What are the thoughts on nipping off the fuzzy middle bits of the flowers that are left just now? I'm not a neat freak (you should see the rest of the garden!) but the first clematis is one of the first things you see on approaching the house. My mum once said I should remove spent flowers as otherwise I would be surrounded by clematis seedlings, but I've never found this to be the case.
I tend to nip off most of the spent flowers but if the seeds (presumably that's what they are) are beneficial to wildlife then I will leave them
I think it would be a good idea to prune your Nelly Moser hard back in February, it will flower later with smaller flowers, but, your plant should develop more flowering stems and obviously more flowers, you could revert back to the Group 2 pruning regime the year after if you wanted. I collect most of the seeds from the clematis here and sow them, well worth the effort as you never know what you will end up with, Nelly Moser seeds do not produce Nelly Moser clematis.