I recently purchased a home that has a beautiful clematis plant established already. I am unsure of what type of clematis it is and really do not know the right way to care for it. Hoping someone can give me some info to help me along. My main three questions are : 1. As the plant flowers and then the flowers fall off will new flowers emerge if I remove the old buds? 2. As it grows up my arbor/arch how do I attach it to the trellis without damaging the plant? 3. I live in MN and am wondering when I should prune it...fall or spring? It flowered in May some but really had a hardy flowering in late June/July. Thanks
Hello, Here is a comprehensive site which describes plant care and pruning requirements for clematis. Because your plant is already established there is little that you have to do to care for it. It is not necessary to "deadhead" your plant to encourage blooming, rather annual pruning will maximize flowering. Pruning is especially important when the plant is younger, however, because you are dealing with an established plant you must prune more lightly (see the fact sheet for more details). If the plant is already climbing up a trellis you can continue to train the plant by gently intertwining the vine up the trellis. This may not be necessary at all, unless you have some parts that are straying from the trellis. Be careful, as the woody portions of the stem are easily broken. With regards to pruning, determine if your plant is part of group a, b or c. The fact sheet provides details on pruning plants in each group. Finally, provide water, especially during periods of drought, and maintain a cool root system, either by adding mulch or a groundcover. Raakel
That's an excellent link that Raakal provided. As for pruning, the first thing you will need to determine is into which group it falls - i.e. groups a, b, or c. To establish this, simply make a note of which months in the year your clematis flowers and the size of the flowers it produces. Those that are early flowering (group a - April, May) produce blooms on previous year's new growth. They, in general, can be expected to put on a show once a year. Prune this immediately after flowering. Pruning them late in the season does not harm the plant, but will reduce the number of flowers produced the following season. Pruning back hard late in the season may mean no flowers at all the following year. The late flowering group (June or later) produces flowers on current year's growth. There need to be sufficient time (from pruning to the expected time for flowering) to produce a substantial amount of vegetative growth. As a general guideline - new vines need to put on at least 3 feet in length, depending on variety. I prune these back before new growth starts - usually in early March. You will also find it easier to handle this early on in the season, as most of the varieties are vigorous growers and can get into quite a tangled mess. The opportunity to cut them back to 3-6 foot stumps is a welcome one in our garden. The "in-between" group are the large flowered varieties (group B), which usually produce a large flush of flowers in June, followed by smaller flushes through the rest of the season. The spring flush are flowers borne on previous year's growth, and the blooms that follow the rest of the season are borne on current year's growth. These varieties allow more flexibility in terms of pruning. The ones in our garden are not as vigorous as the early or late flowering varieties and don't seem to need much pruning. I take advantage of the dormant season, usually in February/March, to size up the plant, and do "renovative" pruning - removing old, overcrowded or out of bounds vines, perhaps selecting some of the older vines to prune back to within 1-2' of the ground (to force new growth at the bottom). I don't tend to do any pruning on these varieties after that, unless there is damage or parts of it stray to territories where they are not welcome. I don't deadhead any of our clematis - it's not a practical proposition, but more importantly, for some varieties, e.g., our C tangutica, the seedheads are just as much a feature as the flowers.
