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Is it ok to hard prune clematis affected by powdery mildew
Newb
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What description says really. new to forum and still learning to post
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If your type 3 clematis haven't flowered yet, then I'm afraid you've lost the flowers for this year.
They have flowered. Everywhere i read about pruning hard in spring so i am worried if its ok to prune now or not.
It's not ideal. Have a look here for more information:
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=109#section-2
Thank you
If you have problems with mildew Newb, it's usually down to lack of moisture and poor air flow, so make sure your clematis are really well watered, especially if the soil's light, and allow them plenty of room to grow. A good mulch will help prevent moisture loss in dry spells too. Add some in late winter/early spring as well, when the new shots emerge, and that will also benefit them
Cutting them back will do no harm - it will encourage more new stems from below ground. The only sacrifice is some flowers from Group 2s which you may have got in the near future. All will be well next year.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thank you. It was my mistake to grow two clematis together and they didnt get enough space and air flow. Also I trained them in spiral shape instead of vertical branches going up. I would blame to all clever photos you see online where they show two clematis growing together all winded up closely with different colour flowers.
It had started like that and looked great for few days but ended up in a tangled mess and powdery mildew. I am trimming/pruning them, separating them and will tie each stem to its own cane vertically.
You can train horizontally as well as vertically to give more flowering lower down Newb. That's normal. You can also wind them round a support, as you already describe, but you just have to be aware of the conditions they're growing in. They need a lot of moisture at the roots - damp soil but not sitting in a permanent puddle.
If you grow them more vertically, it pays to have some other planting at their feet to hide the bare stems lower down
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
You can treat them both as Group 3's, much better than Group 2's, chop them both back again hard in February and let them flower together, they look far more natural growing in tandem.
Oh, and give them plenty of water regularly. Lots and lots.
I don't know what group my Clematis belongs to. I love summer flowering climbers, I have perennial sweet pea, honeysuckle, clematis, jasmin, passion flower and a couple others, names lost.
For the first time ever, and yes I have been lucky, most of my climbers have powdery mildew. I am at my 3rd summer in this house and garden (started from scratch) and sadly things are not good just now. I've got hoppers, mildew, leaf curl, aphids, ants - I'll stop there.
Next door neighbour has these issues and doesn't treat.
My area has had gallons of rain, very little sun, lots of wind, lots of cloud. I have been picking mildew leaves off and destroying. I am now going to cut them all hard back asap as the mildew problem is not improving. One area where the climbers are crowded and not in full sun all day is the clearest/cleanest/less affected. The worst area is where the climbers have space, sun, lots of rain water.These affected climbers are near my young fruit trees. I have had problems with these also. I am on the verge of digging the climbers up and out. Oh, sad. Any ideas would be much appreciated.
Spray with a mixture of 1 part milk to about 19 parts water at 5 day intervals - you should see an improvement in a couple of weeks. Also, you say that your climbers get "lots of rainwater". Are you actually watering them? If they are on a wall, they will get far less rain than you think because of the rain shadow effect.
Also, remember that there are many different mildews; the mildew on one plant will not necessarily affect another. So the mildew on your climbers, for example, is not the same as on your fruit trees. You do not have one attack of mildew, but many different ones, possibly caused by a common factor.
Last edited: 05 August 2016 23:27:57