Forum home› Plants
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Clematis cut back or leave till February

katrinkempkatrinkemp Posts: 81
in Plants
Unfortunately I don’t know if its 1,2 or 3.
Can anyone identify looking at my picture? The leaves look still very nice and green. It flowered in spring….
«13

Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited November 2022
    If it flowered in spring don’t prune it until afterwards, if at all. You’ll lose the flowering wood if you prune it before then. 

    C. Alpinas flower in the spring and don’t need pruning at all. 

    C. Montanas flower a bit after them and you only need to prune them if they’ve outgrown their space or have become unruly. 

    Show us a photo or three when it’s in flower and we’ll see if we can ID it for you 🤞 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Arthur1Arthur1 Posts: 542
    Your photo looks like a C Montana. Especially due to the obvious vigour and the dark green foliage, still present. Very floriferous  in late spring.
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited November 2022
    An easy rule:  Prune after flowering.   If late flowering, leave until spring.  Simples.

    How hard you prune.  That's another story.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    It's as @Dovefromabove says. The early varieties only need pruning to keep them tidy. Montanas get very big compared to some of the other Group 1s - alpinas, koreanas etc, but you can prune them right back hard every few years if they outgrow their space. That just means losing the flowers for a while.
    Yours will be a Group 2 if it flowered in spring - they have large flowers. The foliage doesn't look like one of the smaller types, but it could be a montana. They have smaller, mostly single flowers, and are mainly pinks or whites, although there are a couple of creamy yellow ones. 

    If you have any photos of it in flower that would help too, otherwise, take some next year when it flowers  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • katrinkempkatrinkemp Posts: 81
    found one - creamy yellow :-)
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I can't get that resized to see the flowers well enough - sorry. I'll try again. Might just be my laptop playing up.
    The only clematis that get regularly pruned in late winter/early spring are Group 3s, although 2s can be treated the same if you want. It just means they'll flower later which is a bit pointless really.  :)

    Managed to zoom in a bit, but the photo just isn't clear enough to show the flowers well enough. Sorry.
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,718
    What a lovely wall!
    Rutland, England
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited November 2022
    I doubt that your two clematises (clemates?) are the same variety.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    edited November 2022
    Are you sure that yellow flowering plant is your clematis?  
    The buddlia is in full flower,  they usually flower much later.
    In fact now I’ve looked a bit closer it isn’t from the clematis,   There’s more of it the other side of the kiln. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Many of the early ones have a second flush, so perhaps that's when the photo was taken, rather than during it's spring flowering. 
    It does look more like one of the smaller flowered types, rather than the Group 2  I thought it could be. Impossible to ID though, from the photo. The flowers shape looks less like one of the neater Group 1s though, so more likely to be a montana, but we'd need a close up of the flowers to be sure. 
    Alternatively, @katrinkemp - you could take a look at one of the main clem suppliers to see if anything is similar.  Taylors, Thorncroft etc. There are a few creamy/lemon montana varieties  :)
    In any case, the care would be the same as any other montana, or Group 1. The only problem is that, if you keep cutting montanas back every year, you don't get the best of them. Better to have more wires to train new growth sideways, and you'll get more flower coverage on that lovely wall, and a better display   :)

    I can't find anywhere that the OP has said there's more than one clematis though....
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Sign In or Register to comment.