Clematis help!!!

maz123 · May 2020

Hi there,

First time poster, avid follower in need of clematis Montana help. Last weekend I went a bit heavy on the pruning, cutting back some of the underlying wood of the plant (likely a bit early as was still flowering). I’ve attached pics of what it looks like now. The foliage is basically all ‘peeling’ away from the plant. Will this recover? Should I just remove all the wilted plant and hope for new growth next year?

Any help (or positive words) would be much appreciated. Totally gutted about this as it was such a pretty plant!

Maz

Fairygirl · May 2020

Anything you've pruned, will mean the top growth dying back. Just pull it off the main plant.
It'll be fine - just remove any other bits you see over the next week or two as they brown and die off. They're as tough as all hell, and you've probably done it a favour. They benefit from a good prune once they get a bit unruly.

It could do with some wires or trellis so that you can guide it around the windows and gas box etc.
A wee feed and water and it'll be fine

maz123 · May 2020

@Fairygirl thank you for the fast response and also the good news that I haven’t done my plant in

I think I’m going to end up with a very bare clematis for the next while as pretty much all the foliage is dying now from my handy work!!

One more quick question - is there any particular feed you’d recommend?

Thanks again

Fairygirl · May 2020

I don't use anything much - a bit of B,F&B in spring. Sometimes I give them a bit of tomato food, but that's really just the late flowering ones, especially if they're in among lots of other planting.

For a montana, they do quite well as long as they have half decent soil and water. You can add a mulch of compost if you have it, after tidying round the base. That will help it along and preserve moisture.

Clematis help!!!

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