This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Polish Spirit pruning
diggingdoris
Posts: 513
in Talkback
My clematis usually gets pruned in March, but this year as it's been mild here in Essex it is starting to show new growth about 1ft from the ground. Should I cut it back now or is it too early? One year I left it by mistake and decided not to prune at all, but the flower show was poor. Not sure what to do , any help please?
0
Posts
Now is the perfect time.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
I forgot to chop mine down last year resulting in lots of flowers at the top and a twiggy bottom. After seeing a thread on here re "valentines day massacre" style pruning clematis I took mine down to 1ft high and gave it a 4" top dressing of fresh compost. Keeping my fingers crossed as it seemed so harsh to lose all the new growth showing high up on the plant.
ps. I think it's a Comtesse de Bouchard group 3, given with no label a few years ago.
Get out the secateurs and show it who's boss!! Seriously, assuming it's not freezing, then prune away - top dress and feed - stand back and admire in due course.