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Clematis
Peter553
Posts: 100
The clematis on photo attached has blue flowers Flowering on a shaded south facing wall May/June. Looking for advice on when would be the best time to prune this clematis and can I reduce the plant to just above ground level .
Would it be advisable to take cuttings before doing so.
Peter
0
Posts
The rule of thumb is if it flowers after June, then you should prune in the spring. If it flowers before then, just tidy it up after it has flowered. No cuttings required - it should be ok.
If it flowers in May/June its is most probably a group 2 which flowers on old wood produced the season before and means it gets lightly pruned after flowering finishes and then given a good feed. The pruning is done to keep it in bounds and remove spent flowers and thus encourage a second set in late summer.
In my last garden in central Belgium, Group 2 clems usually were frozen topieces every winter so I treated them as group 3s and cut them back to the lowest pair of buds on each stem in mid to late March.
You could do this to yours next spring. You can then pull away all the top growth and it will regrow as long as you feed it generously with proper clematis food or slow release tomato or rose feed and give it a good drink. Train the new stems out across the trellis rather than up as this will promote flowering shoots. Flowering will be delayed a bit but you can then treat it as a normal group 2 as described above or prune it hard each March as you prefer.
Many thanks for detailed advice much appreciated.
Peter
Let us know how it works out.
Discovered today the name of three clematis that are featured on photo
1.clematis montana grandiflora group 1
2.clematis fukuzono group 3
3.clematis Montana wilsonii group 1
Understand group 1 spring flowering but have yet to see them flowering .Group 3 has shown very few flowers this summer. I don't know when they where last pruned -garden is only a year old to new owners. Any tips for reestablishing next year.