Clematis - Hard Pruning question
Hello.
First time contributor, long time reader.
I'm relatively new to gardening but the bug has well and truly taken hold & I'm becoming slightly obsessed by it.
I've used the search facility on here & found loads of helpful threads re Clematis but none quite fit the bill.
I've just planted 2 group 1 clematis (Armandii Appleblossom & macropetala Lagoon) & I'm a bit confused about
when "hard pruning" is required?
Most websites say this needs doing the first Spring after planing.
If so & given these are Spring flowering I assume I wait until after they've flowered?
I also seen a website which recommends hard pruning immediately after planting?
It's all a bit confusing so any advice anyone can give me on this matter would be gratefully received.
Thanks.
Posts
The immediately after planting prune you can only do once so do that. It will ensure that your plant branches out a bit and doesn't go up as one straggly string. They're not going to flower until next Sprng so you're not chopping off any flowers.
Thereafter prune after flowering. Presumably they flower on the previous year's growth so any growth they put on this year will carry next year's flowers.
now i'm confused
if i prune new growth, won't i be pruning off next years flowers? mine has been planted since last summer and because i thread it through trellis horizontally it is only just up to the roof of the summer house otherwise it would be on it's way up over the roof! does it flower everyyear on same bit of old wood, so i'e all the lower stems i have painstakingly threaded sideways to ptoduce lovely display at bottom of trellis, will they flower everyear on that 'old wood'
* sorry darren hijacking your post
Sanjy it depends on the pruning group. There are three for clematis and I am far from an expert but it made sense to me that if darren pruned his right down in Spring after flowering then the growth made this year is where the flowers would be next year. I don't know what type yours is so it may be different. I know that with montana you just let them run and give them a haircut but the third group I've no idea.
Maybe someone who actually knows will happen by and help us out.
sorry should have said, same as darrens a montana 'mayleen', agree darren should cut it down although i didn't, mine had three stalks so i went with that, i did snap one at the base when weaving it but electrical tape works wonders and it survived really well, in fact it has several places where i have used it on breakages.
Last edited: 02 June 2016 19:09:18
montana is group 1 Sanjy. Darren's are group 2.
i'm sure i read that he has planted 2x group 1's
Sanjay / PP,
Thanks for the input.
Reckon I'll give them a bit of a trim this weekend.
Both group 1 (according to the guidelines) so flowering should be done for the year.
Darren
Darren, are they big multi-stemmed plants that you planted or are they the diddy cuttings that are available at some of the Super ? Stores