Pruning clematis

[kaz]

How brutal can you be when pruning a flowering clematis?

[Tricia]

Hi Kaz - this should help.

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Advice/profiles02 ... runing.asp

I have a white flowered Montana which covers my shed roof. Last week I had the roof re-felted and all the guys did was lift the foliage from the roof and replace it after re-felting. You can't even see that it was ever moved.

I also have a Nelly Moser which I cut back to ground level last winter and which is reecovering, but very slowly. I guess it will grow more vigorously next year.

[kaz]

Trish... how lovely to hear from you. Many thanks for the link.

Unfortunately the garden didn't get the 'Spring treatment' this year because I was away... and when I got back late April, I can remember standing out in the garden and thinking 'what a mess' (that's the point I should have got stuck in - but left things too late)!

Anyway, yesterday afternoon I took the plunge and started to hack back the plant... before I knew it... there was nothing left . Trouble is, the unsightly dead looking stems supported the live growth. The corner where it grew, now looks sadly bare . Now I need to make the decision whether to leave things be and wait for it to return next year, or plant something in it's place.



Thanks again Trish. Hope you and Gordon are well.

Kaz

[alison]

Kaz Your garden looks stunning as usual. I can't believe how mature everything looks when most of the upper garden was only created a little while ago.
I also have a problem with clematis. I have two of the same type either side and over an archway but never know wether I should cut them right back after they have finished flowering. It always looks so ugly in winter with 'dead' branches everywhere. I also have a larger flowering one in a pot and I have the same problem. Is there any rule about this? I thought I have heard that some you keep and only some you prune right back. I have no idea what any of them are called. Any help anyone??

[kaz]

This is a laugh... like I know anything about plants... but:

... the clematis I have now pruned / destroyed, well I have 2 of them (both growing up pagoda posts). Anyway... I cut back one of them to about 4 inched above the ground. Although I did this quite late (beginning of June), the clematis has flourished. I didn't cut back it's sister because I somehow got distracted and I forgot .

The corner where the overgrown one 'was', now looks awful. So yesterday I bought another one to replace it... I can't even begin to tell you how back breaking it was to dig the roots of the old one up... it was like spaghetti juction underground.

A bit later today I'll up-date my blog and put some photos on to show the progress of the clematis that I correctly pruned (Scott and Donna have moved out and I don't know how I used the photo hosting site, so have to depend on the blog instead because I can get photos directly from My Pics).

[kaz]

Stuck some before and after pics on blog.

http://karen123.wordpress.com/

[alison]

It all looks stunning and yes such a shock not to see that wonderful purple clematis but a bare patch. I'm sure it will be wonderful again by next year.I think I will take the plunge and cut mine back and see what happens.
I ended up looking back over your blog like I did when you were on your round the world trip. It is always so interesting. Got carried away with the big cracks in the house walls. We have subsidance in our house and when they put new roofs and windows in we got so many new cracks that even cracked straight through the wallpaper. I think it's only the wallpaper in the girls room that's keeping the walls together...

[kaz]

This time last year I decided to record a 'plan' to tackle the house... the first thing I did was to get a full structural survey done. The windows were the main concern as the wood had become rotten on the original sash windows. Everything looked so scarey... especially once they had removed the paint and started to scrape out old wood.

The surveyor suggested that I fill the cracks and monitor... I almost passed out when it was discovered that the walls didn't meet . He told me not to worry... but that's easier said than done (when I moved in 8 years ago I had central heating installed... for centuries the house had relied on open fires... so, the new heating would account for some cracks). Funny about your wallpaper holding the house together Alison!

I am really giving things a try and last weekend I painted the kitchen and am about to redecorate the bedroom where the crack has been repaired. I'm a little shakey up a ladder painting the ceilings... but so far, so good

Your clematis... have you identified what group it belongs to? I think my purple one is group 3... but whatever it is, it responds best to early Spring pruning to just above the ground.