Over 250 different clematis in the garden here obelisk, hybrids, cultivars and species, several bred here.
When I talk of chopping clematis hard back it is not for selling purposes as your brothers suggest. it is to produce a larger rootball and more flowering stems which will then produce more flowers obviously.
kasjk said he//she wanted to get more stems from the ground, tomato food is not the answer, chopping hard back is the only way.
Too many people quote parrotlike all the pruning and feeding requirements of clematis, mostly written by people who have never grown them.
BiszzyLizzie, I think your MultiBlue is superb, but cultural conditions in Dordogne ( France ?) are probably different than those in the North of England, back later.....
Wow Busy-Lizzie, that is gorgeous, and exactly how I would like mine to look! Richard, I absolutely get what you are saying about chopping it down so more stems would form from the ground. It really isn't the fact that mine didn't flower this year, I have had a second flush that is in bloom as we speak.
The top picture was taken in early summer and the bottom image is from just now. The problem with it at the moment is that although it flowered further down the stems in spring it now only flowers on the end of the top stems, so it doesn't look nearly as good as busy-lizzie's for example.
So, you are saying that you have a second flush of flowers at present ? That is good especially for a young plant, you are obviously doing something right, I don't see a problem, the lower stems on several Group 2 clematis can look quite pathetic, either chop them back regularly as I suggest which gives you newer, fresher, greener, growth or hide them behind a lower growing hardy perennial, annual, or herbaceous clematis, up to you.
Posts
Over 250 different clematis in the garden here obelisk, hybrids, cultivars and species, several bred here.
When I talk of chopping clematis hard back it is not for selling purposes as your brothers suggest. it is to produce a larger rootball and more flowering stems which will then produce more flowers obviously.
kasjk said he//she wanted to get more stems from the ground, tomato food is not the answer, chopping hard back is the only way.
Too many people quote parrotlike all the pruning and feeding requirements of clematis, mostly written by people who have never grown them.
BiszzyLizzie, I think your MultiBlue is superb, but cultural conditions in Dordogne ( France ?) are probably different than those in the North of England, back later.....
Wow Busy-Lizzie, that is gorgeous, and exactly how I would like mine to look! Richard, I absolutely get what you are saying about chopping it down so more stems would form from the ground. It really isn't the fact that mine didn't flower this year, I have had a second flush that is in bloom as we speak.
The top picture was taken in early summer and the bottom image is from just now. The problem with it at the moment is that although it flowered further down the stems in spring it now only flowers on the end of the top stems, so it doesn't look nearly as good as busy-lizzie's for example.
It's still young.
My photo has come out paler and yellower than real life.
So, you are saying that you have a second flush of flowers at present ? That is good especially for a young plant, you are obviously doing something right, I don't see a problem, the lower stems on several Group 2 clematis can look quite pathetic, either chop them back regularly as I suggest which gives you newer, fresher, greener, growth or hide them behind a lower growing hardy perennial, annual, or herbaceous clematis, up to you.